a beginner's attempt at a late fifteenth century footman's rig
Before I met my good friend and mentor Paul, the closest thing to metalwork I'd ever done was opening a can with a canopener. Paul is an amateur armourer, and when he asked me if I'd like to make a harness the first thing I said was "Wow! How about a gothic rig?!"
That, of course, was spectacularly stupid, but obssession and pig-headedness is suprisingly powerful. I've only ever made one harness, and that's the one on this page. It's a testimony to Paul's patience really!
I didn't, however, make the leg harness. This is the work of a Melbournian armourer, Gwynnfarw's Armoury. It's a 'get them in armour' harness for the SCA and I bought it for $80aus, I'm planning on making a modified Milanese leg harness to go with the armour soon.
Now I know better, many things are just plain wrong with this armour, but I'm loathe to pull it apart and rebuild it as it's my first work. My next rig will be substantially different, although it will incorporate many features of this one. I'm seriously considering articulated tassets!
Please note, the grille hanging from under the helm ('sallet') is not a historical feature, this is a safety feature used in the SCA's stick- fighting sport.
The gauntlets in this shot are a pair of leather safety gloves, once again for the stick-fighting. I have a set of Milanese gauntlets on the armouring bench awaiting me to get up from the computer.
The beginner's leg harness is 'leather' articulated, this is why it hangs oddly on the legs. Historically, the articulation would have been by iron rivets, so those legs have to go!
My long suffering wife, who has a very similiar build to mine, being the model for fit during cuirass construction. Man, did I pay for this.
it's very important when patterning the cuirass to allow the cuirass to widen as it goes up, don't make the sides vertical. This is why there's a slight gap just under my arm that has to be reworked.
The arming 'doublet' was made back when I didn't know any better, I'm making a leather reinforced pourpoint, a doublet that supports many of pieces.
The image of the backplate below is prior to it being rivetted together, the plates are just sitting on each other.
