Pauldrons - Tumblr Posts
A set of pauldrons or spaulders I made as a prototype. I'm thinking of working on more intensive or detailed designs for this sort of thing, but I figured I'd start out with something simple.
This leather isn't even stained or finished. The shoulder pieces are from a thicker hide of a different quality, which is a good deal stiffer than the leather I used for the straps. It just also happens to be darker.
The hardware is all nickel-plated: rivets, 2-inch rings, and buckles. The connection between the shoulder pieces and the straps is with a removable Chicago screw, so that distance can also be adjusted for proper fit.
Also, dang it was cold.
I finally made some leather armor!
For some time I’ve been meaning to get going on some larger leather designs, I just needed a kick to get moving. That kick came in the form of Nauticon, a convention I was vending at a couple weeks ago. This year the theme was the Aegean Sea, so I made some gladiator-appropriate armor designs with a motif of large overlapping plates.
And I just finished getting these all up on my Etsy shop! Links below.
The shoulder armor was way harder to get right than I’d expected. The first 2 prototypes I did had the overlapping plates riveted to each other so they would hinge at those points, but that turned out to harshly limit their movement in other directions. So the final design has the plates attached down onto a pair of straps underneath.
The gladiator belt was much more straightforward, but I had a lot of fun with breaking it up into big scales to give it texture and character.
The scaled bracers are actually an older design, but still a favorite of mine. I have a new design that matches the motif of the others, but I was dumb and dyed it in black instead of matching the brown on the others, so I don’t have photos of it yet.
And then there’s the codpiece. I am unreasonably happy to have designed this, so even though I’m also kind of embarrassed about it I’m posting it up. I actually even made a few different cup designs, so maybe there will be more of those floating by soon.
The paladin is a noble warrior. His blessed armor protects him from harm, and his holy vows help him resist the temptations of sin. Those who receive his aid in battle are assured of victory, but those who meet him afterwards consider themselves the truly lucky.
I made this suit of armor for the Magic Meat March challenge (delayed to May this year), which is about putting men into the sorts of costumes that fantasy women get drawn in. Check out other people’s stuff over @magicmeatmarch!
In place of a standard breastplate, this one is built in the form of a corset, providing protection and support while shaping and accentuating your profile. The pauldrons connect to the codpiece with a harness arrangement of straps, tying them together into one cohesive piece, supporting the necessaries and accentuating the assets. The greaves stand on their own.
I made everything by hand--cut, burnished, tooled, shaped, dyed, painted, sealed, and riveted together. The corset-breastplate and codpiece I designed from scratch--you can see a progression of the corset design here. The pauldrons (shoulders) and greaves (shins) I built from patterns by Prince Armory, partly because of time constraints, and partly because I wanted to see how other designers dealt with those pieces. (The greaves I was really impressed by, the pauldrons restrict movement more than I’d like, which was a problem I hadn’t been able to solve previously either.)
This is the most ambitious armor project I’ve tackled so far, both in scope and design, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out! I’m looking forward to making a few more pieces to go with this set in the coming months.