Ed's c.1250-1300 kit(s)

[Sir Wolf]

how did the chausis work out? any pulled rings? any pain and suffering of the wearer?

[Sir Edward]

I had a ring unlink from one the four around it, that I'm aware of. Nothing else that I noticed. I found that I might have to adjust it and move it around after sitting down, since they would slide down from my thigh a bit, and the only thing pulling it back up is that one connection to the belt. Someday when I'm smarter about this sort of thing I may sew it onto a leather piece around the thigh to keep it all straight, since I think that's what they did in period.

[Das Bill]

The shield looks really good with the rest of the kit.

Now we just need to get you a really nice 13th c. sword! (You know how I am about swords...)

I think this one, when its finished, will likely look awesome with what you're going for:

http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/albion/nextgen/sword-medieval-chevalier-xa.htm

Based on this miniature:

[Sir Wolf]

i go tone like this that still needs a scabbard

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, that Albion design looks pretty sweet. I do also have my Albion Baron on order, and it's a XIIa, some of which like this date into the latter half of the 13th C. The suspension won't be period, but then I can also swap it out. I bought a double-wrap sword belt at NCRF that is a lot closer. I also want to get a single-hander from this period, but decided to start with the longsword.

I'm still waiting to hear from Christian Fletcher. He was originally estimating a May delivery, but since the actual work I'm commissioning isn't that complex, it could mean that he'll also be starting it in May. Being that it's April already, I'm getting anxious.

EDIT: While at NCRF I carried an old CAS/I sword on a baldric. The sword was less out of period than the baldric, but it's certainly a cheaper "costume sword" as far as I'm concerned.

[Sir Brian]

I snapped some pictures this morning of how I mount the crest onto my
helm.
You can check them out here if you want a better idea of what I e-mailed to you a
few months back...hopefully those instructions will make a little better sense now! 

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd251/Tah908/Crest/

[Sir Edward]

Awesome, thanks for posting those. It certainly gives me some ideas. I think I really need to start assembling mine... I've been putting it off, since I want to make the mantle using the remnants of the linen I bought, after making a new surcoat (I'd rather not make the mantle and then discover that I don't have enough contiguous material for the surcoat). Since a surcoat takes several hours to put together, I just haven't made the time for it. Then again, I can just cut the pieces out, and make it later.

[Sir Brian]

I know exactly what you mean...My current mantle is a second attempt. Assembling
the crest mounting was actually fairly easy and quick...figuring out how to arrange
the mantle and what to do with the torse ends took longer and eventually required
Rosemary's keen perspective of what is fashionable to get it right. 

[Sir Edward]

Well, I took a first stab at the mantle tonight. I'll probably do a nicer job on one again later, but I can use this for VARF on Saturday. It's held in place with some subtle magnets:



(all are clicky)

[Sir Brian]

The mantle is looking good ED! I really like the zagged stitching...though it sure gobbles up the
thread! I almost ran out of my metalic gold thread when I did mine. 

Did you make any progress on the torse? ... or were you going to wait and backwards engineer
it from mine? 

I'll bring some of the rope batting I used on mine just in case! 

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, te zig-zag uses a bit more, but not as badly as what I did on the blue/white surcoat, where I used a pattern that created diamond-shapes with a double zig-zag... that used thread like crazy.

I've been trying to get the dragon figured out before tackling the torse. I have some decorative rope material to try making a torse from. And I have the dragon painted blue... I'll probably do a clear coat tonight. I still have to figure out how to attach it, so I may not have that done before Saturday, and of course I wanted to do that before the torse.

Feels good to be making some progress again!

[Sir Edward]

I made progress on the crest tonight. I don't think it'll be ready for Saturday, and the reason is that my plan for how to attach it isn't working as well as I'd hoped. Probably salvageable, though it may be more of an occasional-wear sort of thing rather than all-day-at-the-faire sort of thing.

I've been trying to build it to use magnets to hold it on. I bought some strong little "rare earth" magnets. With 6, it's holding on pretty well, unless I rock the helmet back and forth a little too much. It makes me concerned for faire. I've already broken off part of the wing-tip (glued it back on) in testing this. I also cracked one of the feet trying to put a screw hole into it. Apparently the dragon is partially hollow, and not solid resin, so it's not as strong as I had hoped.

I also might have to make a second mantle that attaches around the base, and use the one I made already by itself.

Pic of the dragon:



(clicky)

[Sir Wolf]

super glue or nail glue work ?

[Sir Edward]

For which part?

I tried some gorilla glue on the broken wing tip. Part of it worked. I may try some superglue.

I attached the dragon to the wood base with hot-glue, as well as the magnets to the underside of it. This aspect worked surprisingly well.

[Sir Brian]

For the dragon repair use some epoxy putty...the kind you can get @ a games workshop store.
You can fill in the cracks along the break and blend it into the crevices really well. It helps to
wet your fingers and sculpting tool (toothpicks work well) with tap water as you work with it.
Just last night I repaired the tail on my griffin crest with this stuff.