[TheMightyMcClaw]

After about fifteen months and well over a hundred hours of work, my armor is finally finished:


I debuted it at the costume contest at the gaming convention I went to over the weekend, a contest which I promptly won first place in.
Ten buckles, seven sets of laces, twenty six spikes, and god knows how many scales and rings. The whole outfit probably weighs somewhere about twenty-thirty pounds.
At some point, I'm going to get a good photographer and get some detailed shots of the whole thing. But for now, I'll just revel in my glory.
I have a sword that I made to match the armor, but still no scabbard for it. That's the next project.

[Artful Dentures]

Must wear for entrance for your next MMA fight

[Commodore Pipes]

Hey, that looks pretty good, dude! Two questions:
1) why no crotch protection?
2)What materials are you going to use to make the scabbard?

Bonus Question: You ever attend the Ring Game in Dodgeville, WI?

[TheMightyMcClaw]

Originally Posted by Commodore Pipes

Hey, that looks pretty good, dude! Two questions:
1) why no crotch protection?
2)What materials are you going to use to make the scabbard?

Bonus Question: You ever attend the Ring Game in Dodgeville, WI?

1) I don't need crotch protection, as I have iron testicles.
Also, I like the look of the more cavalry-style split leg armor.
2) The scabbard is going to be made out of leather. I have a rough design in mind, but I still need to work things out. I also plan on writing the "Asura" (you know, the angry gods in Buddhism) in Manchu along the back of it.

Bonus Answer: No, what is it?

[Commodore Pipes]

The Ring Game is an large-scale LARP game that has been going on for like twenty years, based on the LotR. It pretty much takes over an emtire state park, with cliffs and rivers and shit. I've only gone once, but it blew my mind. Oh, yeah, I've seen some cool armor there - you'd look like a prince there, my friend.

A friend of mine has had great success with making the bodies of scabbard out of rawhide and then covering them with leather and fitting the metal throat and tip. He simply gets a large rawhide bone, soaks it in a bucket for a half hour, unwraps it and nails it to a large board until it dries into a sheet. Then he wets it again and shapes it around the blade, a little bit bigger than normal because it shrinks. He claims it is much easier than wood, so that's something to consider.

[TheMightyMcClaw]

Awesome. I kind of want to get into LARPing, because honestly, I'm just not quite nerdy enough as it is.

[Feryk]

Congratulations McClaw. Huge accomplishment. How many hours do you figure it's taken you?

[bob]

I would like to see a reality youtube vid - McClaw walks around the city in armour for a day.

Just going to the bank, getting a cup of coffee, catching a bus. That kind of thing.

[MEGA JESUS-SAMA]

You should make something more stylized next, like absurd asymmetrical armor with superfluous buckles. I'll shoot you some goth ninja shots you might find inspirational when I don't have to leave for work in ten minutes.

[TheMightyMcClaw]

Originally Posted by bornsceptic

I would like to see a reality youtube vid - McClaw walks around the city in armour for a day.

Just going to the bank, getting a cup of coffee, catching a bus. That kind of thing.

You know, that's a pretty damn good idea. I think this needs to happen. Probably in Ann Arbor.
As for my next project, I'm planning on doing a suit of leather armor modeled after Fighter from the original Final Fantasy. Because I'd be working with an eight bit sprite, it gives me a lot of leeway with design.
Some kind of goth ninja shit is in order, though. I've got some rough plans for a sort of necromancer costume, all black metal and leather and bones and such.