Pauldrons

Step 5: Pauldrons

Pauldrons are the bits that protect the shoulder. I haven't ever seen a suit of armor with its arms up, but it seems logical that you'd want to keep that range of motion, if possible. So I decided to make pauldrons rather flatter than in my reference picture, and I would simply tape them in place at the shoulder edge and let them hinge up when I raised my arms.

This was the most complex shape I'd yet attempted. I made a paper model first to test out the fit, and found that a pair of mostly symmetric pointy oval shapes worked well if I put a small dart in the one in back. Really just look at the pictures for how these work. Again I used the technique of V-shaped cuts to attach one piece to the other. And I did the dart the same way as the breastplate darts, peeling away half the cardboard layers.

To attach the fronts and the backs, a fair amount of force was needed to keep them shaped properly for gluing. I glued the flaps one at a time and let the glue cool completely before going to the next. This took some time but I was rewarded with a really solid construct -- they took a lot of hits and came out of the battle looking as fresh as when they were made!