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Where to begin? New Kit in the working..

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Sir Edward:
Another consideration is how much you're willing to fudge things or cut corners, for the sake of ease or cost-savings. My mid-14th century kit (in the photo above) was relatively cheap to get started, since I went with MercTailer arms and legs, which are very functional, but save on costs by not replicating all of the subtleties in how 14th century armor was shaped.

I also cheated on the breastplate, which is a GDFB breastplate with the plackart removed, so it looks kinda like a globose breastplate, but also lacks the details.

I'm still working on getting the new surcoat/jupon/whatever made, and figuring out what I want for sabatons and greaves, and again I'll probably cheap-out on those.

Properly made greaves alone can cost $1500 or more.

But since you want some plate with a great helm, you're looking fairly early in the plate-armor part of the 14th century. The good news is that it's simpler and cheaper than a lot of the other options out there.

Ian:
With plate armor, I don't recommend skimping or cutting corners solely because it will not function properly and will ultimately be very uncomfortable.  And no offense Sir Ed, but greaves and sabs are probably the two worst pieces to skimp on because they will make life miserable if they don't function right, and if they're not high quality, they won't function right.  Also, you're not spending $1500 on cased greaves if you opt to get them in mild steel as opposed to hardened spring steel.

If you want to do a mostly maille harness with plate pieces like was common when plate was first starting to be invented, you can get very high quality plate for not too much money because of the pieces you'd need.  Basically, elbow cops, knee cops, and maybe schybalds (front half of greaves, which don't require nearly the same engineering and skill as fully cased greaves).  You can get out the door with a VERY good living history quality kit of the circa 1300 AD variety for considerably less money than a plate harness.

Sir Edward:

Those are some good points. I'm still thinking of going with Halberds' sabs for mine, since they're "close enough" but not junk. But I don't want to detail Jake's thread here.

There's a lot of room in the 14th century to pick exactly what sort of combination you want, since the century started with almost no plate, and ended with very complex plate.

Sir Douglas:

--- Quote from: Sir Jason on 2013-10-24, 14:00:55 ---I was actually thinking of going to the book store today to look and see if they have any good reference material to look at. I will keep that series in mind when I go.

--- End quote ---

The Osprey books are fantastic. I also cast my recommendation for them. ;D Another good one is Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight by David Edge. It has a lot of really nice pictures of period manuscripts and effigies, as well as a few photographs of actual surviving pieces. Lots of good information, too, and the chapters are broken down by century.

Sir Jason Simonds:
I was browsing at the effigies and a common theme, for late 1200's to late 1300's, that i see is what appears to be Chain mail all the way down to the boot. Maybe the chain is affixed to the boot as one piece like booted pants or separate legs?? Later in the 1300's you start to see more plate pieces, like knee cops and greaves. I think i will check into the Osprey series books as well as see what i can find on written accounts of armor worn through the ages.

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