Fantasy Armour

This instructable will show how I built the chest / abdomen pieces for my fantasy armor costume. This will be similar to my  Gauntlet instructable(Check it out to see how to build the gloves. The armour in the pics looks like it dusty of what-ever, it's just like finger prints from handling it, you can't see it in normal light, just when there's a flash. It just looks like stainless steel.

****Edit****

I've added some pictures of the final product, which do it a lot more justice than what I have had here before.

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***************DISCLAIMER*************************
THIS IS NOT REAL ARMOUR. THIS WONT STOP BULLETS/SWORDS/KNIFES/'ARROWS. If you're lucky it'll take the edge off a punch, and it's probably good against finger nail scratches, and will probably do pretty good against airsoft bbs. But this is no good for SCA heavy combat, or having a jousting tournament on motor cycles with your friends. That being said, it'll make a sweet Halloween costume!
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The scope of this instructible will include the following:
I've been slowly growing this instructable as I complete different parts of the suit, and I may have missed some spots. So if you see something like "3 steps to go" when really there's 6 or 7 that's why.

Making a vest to support your plates
Making the templates for your plates
Cutting your plates
Hammering your plates
Attaching your plates to the Vest
Making sure you can actually put on the vest

I am building a suit of armor for this Halloween. As it is a fairly intense process, I have started way in advance. If you are planning on mimicking this for Halloween this year, I would suggest that you start now. This instructable will focus on the plate mail that "protects" the torso. As this will be made using 30ga galvanized steel, it wont be any good as actual armor, but it should have the desired look.

This armor is a relatively long undertaking and requires a decent selection of tools. This might be do-able by 2 or 3 people in a week-end if they spend the entire week-end working on it in a team, a lot of it is repetition and can be somewhat assembly lined.
ex: one person cuts templates, one person safes the edges, and a third sticks it on.

Through out this project I will try to parallel the actual instructions with quick and dirty DIY, (QDD) style instructions, for those who want a fast project that's easier, faster but wont look as nice, and wont last as long.

Step 1 Materials

The materials are divided into 2 sections, Consumables, and non- consumables.

Non- Consumables, all of these are available at almost any hardware store.

*Tin snips ( Usually sold in packs of 3 for right straight and left turns/ cuts)
*Hand riveter
*Drill
*Hammer (ball-peen hammer preferred but not 100% necessary)
*Work gloves
*Marker or pen ( Something to mark steel & poster board)
*Scissors
*A long ruler ( But you can use one of the sheets of steel instead)
*A work bench or surface that can get seriously damaged (I used an old stool that was being thrown out )
*An Anvil ( If you've got one it'd help, I used the head of a sledge hammer because it was cheap, but if you own an anvil chances are you don't need this Instructable)
*Sewing Machine ( or just a needle if you've got time and no sewing machine)

Consumables
*30ga galvanized steel By then end I'd used about 10 ducting joists. Pop cans wont fly on this one because you're going to need large continuous pieces.
*Rivets - I used pop rivets in my project, because they're easy to find, easy to use and work very well. If you want, you can use peening rivets in the exact same way.
*Heavy canvas / denim + thread for sewing
*Poster board

Comments

[vtheawesome]

couldent you just us normal tin snips in stead of all those right snips and left snips ?

[Deathcapt]

The snips are designed to leave a clean edge on the work piece when used in the correct direction. You don't need to use the correct ones, but they usually come in sets of 3 when you buy them. If you just find a pair lying around, just make sure you file the edges down after cutting them.

[Fred da Bunny]

Lol u look like The First from Dragon Age Origins Awakening

[DoctorEvil30564]

awesome costume :)

[MWPftw]

Great instructables so far, but I would've like some more pictures on this step, especially about the tough part about hammering. Really enjoying it, though.

[karossii]

QDD...?

[Deathcapt]

It was supposed to be a version of Quick and Dirty Design, for people who just wanted something that looked like armor.  I kinda gave up on it for some pieces because there wasn't really an easy way to do them.  I re-wrote this instructable about 10 times, so there's some stuff that's a little out of continuity.

[silvermander]

Knight Riders kicks butt! Great movie and all SCAdian fighters should see it.

[armourkris]

dude, that turned out pretty sweet.

[armourkris]

Oh yea, and Knight Riders is awesome. hehe jousting on motorcycles.

[bounty1012]

lmfao a jousting tournament on a motorcycle?

[Ward_Nox]

I'm gunna have to study this carefully I wanna try and build the The Overlords Armor

[Deathcapt]

I tried my best to include all the information, but I had to skip a few minor details. If I described every little step this ible would have been twice as long, and probably never gotten posted. If there's anything you don't understand or are having problems with, feel free to PM me, and I'll try to help you out. I'll try to get a picture of what it looks like when I'm wearing it too.