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Breastplates and backplates

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Sir William:
Yea and if you get JUST the breastplate, I'm sure you could get it for under $200 -and custom fit to your measurements.  That is a deal you cannot beat, unless you made one of your own.

Sir Ulrich:
If you're going for the crusader era no plate was used on the bodies, except for the coat of plates. MAYBE you could get away with knee and elbow cops, maybe even schynbalds, but all that is worn over maille anyway so I'd go for maille, and later reinforce it with some parts of plate.
Heres a nice place to get a COP but it's a little more pricey than a breastplate.
http://www.wintertreecrafts.com/CoP.html
You could also make your own probably, as long as you have decent skills with peening rivets and cutting plates and minimal shaping skills.
For plate I highly suggest mercenaries tailor, I have yet to get any of their stuff but from the pics of the other members their stuff looks quite good and you can get it custom fitted. Off the rack plate armor if it doesnt fit you it can give you bad armor bites and stuff, so if you go for plate I say go for custom fitted.

Sir James A:
Leganoth, have a look at this:

http://talbotsfineaccessories.com/armour/effigy/effigy%20analysis.html

It tells you a lot of info in a few "simple", but very useful, graphs. Remember 14th Century is 1300-1399, not 1400-1499, so as was said, minimal plate, and only for the wealthier. The crusades were over before the 14th cent, if you're going for historical accuracy.

Also, I have a breast/back from Allan at MercenarysTailor.com - custom made to my measurements, and only $211. It's 16 gauge steel, too. If you can't get measurements for top to bottom, waist, and width of the upper portion of the breastplate, don't order it unless you want to cut it up and modify it to fit - the top of the breastplate shouldn't be any wider than nipple to nipple, or you won't be able to cross your arms or move naturally without bruising or pinching. And plate armor is in no way a "one size fits all", and not even remotely close to mail fitment - it's a whole other beast to itself.

(I'm speaking from experience. I have a few pieces that I bought from a generic vendor, and I have pieces that were custom made - I'd use the generic pieces as decor, but I refuse to wear them after seeing how they "fit" - or rather, don't fit. You might get lucky, but unless you're the same measurements as whoever that "we made 50 of these, all the same" breastplate was made for, it's not going to fit right, and you'll kick yourself later.

Sir William:
An excellent suggestion Ulrich...I've been eyeing that CoP of theirs ever since Wolf first posted it up in another thread.

Sir James, I had a similar happenstance with an OTR breast/back plate.  Ugh.  Like it was made for a short fat man, it hung horribly.  Sold that the day after I received it and paid it forward - the lesson, that is.  lol

Leganoth:
Right now my chain and helm are functional quality but for plate i will be using for renfaires and conventions and such

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