#realistic armor

The Royal Court ofChesterwick at the game on Friday, one of our first nights without The Price!  Of course we all acted out. It’s insane how much we’ve grown over the last year and a half and how much joy these people bring me. We now have almost 20 registered members, and had 16 at Quest! Honestly, never would have dreamed of being this excellent. 

Chesterwick is a warband from the LARP game Swordcraft, based in Melbourne, Australia. We take inspiration from the 14th century. 

Photo by Portrait Photography Melbourne. 

She’ll grow into it. 

A breakdown of my Chesterwick archer kit for my alternate character “William ‘Willy’ Hunter, inspired by 14th century longbowmen. These photos were all taken in October so it’s actually quite different now, but this gives you the general gist of it. 

1 & 2 - Underwear and boots. 14th century braies, hose and undertunic from Historic Enterprises combined with ArmStreet’s best selling “forest boots”. 

3. My sad, old ArmStreet gambeson. This is basically a thinly padded linen jacket that provides just a little bit of a buffer from my mail, which I put on next.

4. Struggling into my mail. The struggle is real. Note I have a bag over my head to prevent the riveted rings from grabbing my hair and ruining my day. 

5. So this is not the MOST fitted mail you can get (I need to take in the arms a bit), but it’s a miles above a lot of the other stuff you see people using for LARPs. Unfortunately I don’t really have a source for this - I bought it off a friend who ordered a bunch of it, and I managed to get a great price because it wouldn’t really fit anything beyond children. I added my sword belt/ scabbard here as well.

6. Hood and coif. The hood actually belongs to a friend (but I made it for him). A coif is a little linen hat, usually worn under another hat to keep it safe from sweat etc.

7. A straw hat! When I was getting dressed it was still really sunny out. I later swapped this hat out for a wool hat once the sun went down (as seen in the last picture)

8. LARP arrows in a quiver covered in a fox and my 25 pound longbow. It shoots nice and straight and isn’t super heavy so no one gets hurt!

9. Picture of me at the game later that night. 

Hopefully someone finds this interesting. It’s much less complicated than a lot of my other costumes but people still seem to love it. 

First project of the year: lamellar. I have a massive soft spot for eastern armour and Rus style, but never really get a chance to wear it because we’re stuck pretty firmly in the XIVth century. When we had a night off I took the opportunity to throw together a kit and get on the field. The only thing I was really missing was gauntlets. I took most inspiration from the 11th century. 

We’ve had this lamellar stuff lying around the craft room for years, and I’m always stubbing my toes on it. They’re 18ga (1mm) mild steel plates, laced together with leather thonging. The straps are made from leather and sewn on/ reinforced with artificial sinew. I made my breastplate in like 8 hours because I’m the size of a child, whereas it took Kieran 3 years to make his because he’s super lazy. I’m going to do another post later with WIP/ up close pictures of how it’s constructed and what it’s looks like on the inside, because it’s pretty interesting. 

Belt, greaves, pants under tunic, gambeson: ArmStreet. 
Helmet: It’s called an Italo-Norman cabaset helm and I have no idea where we got it from, we’ve had it in our personal armoury for years.
Axe:Calimacil Dane Axe

Pictures were taken at Swordcraft LARP in Melbourne, Australia. They are taken by Portrait Photography Melbourne andMichael Rutter Photography. 

Get a girl who can do both! The Prime Minister of Granada and Duchess Cecilia of Chesterwick, in our finery and then in our armour! This was taken at the most recent Swordcraft Quest, an Australian LARP battlegame with over 500 attendees. 

First photo is by Penwoody Photography.
Second photo by Portrait Photography Melbourne. 

It’s been faaaar too long since I did a “kitting up” photoset, so I thought I’d do another one of my heavy Chesterwick kit, which I wear for Swordcraft on Fridays when I’m not being an archer and wearing a dress. This kit puts me on maximum hitpoints (15) at Swordcraft and is all 100% functional stainless steel stuff I also use for other medieval activities - which means it’s not exactly light. It’s inspired by what a 14th century knight would wear, although I’ve taken a fair amount of creative liberty.

Here’s a breakdown of each layer, generously photographed by my friend @andrethesmall (and please ignore my funny faces, it’s been a long week):

1. Underwear! Medieval linen braies with an undertunic tucked into them. I’m also wearing workout pants underneath because it’s currently winter and I’m a lizard. In the summer I skip that layer. All of my medieval underwear is from Historic Enterprises. Unfortunately, they don’t really cater too much to women for this stuff (given that it is men’s clothing!), but I find I can fit most of it, although it’s not the most ideal fit, especially with the hose.

2. Hose! I love hose, I think they’re amazing and silly. I usually go for parti-coloured - I have three different colours to choose from (yellow, blue, green), so I just mix and match each week depending on what I feel like. I wear thick socks underneath to pad them out a little bit - since they’re made for men’s feet they’re a bit big on me.

3. Shoes, pourpoint, leg harness. The shoes are a new model from ArmStreet that I’m currently testing out for durability. They look medieval but have modern comfort, and feel great under armour! The pourpoint (tight vest) is what keeps up my leg harness (leg armour). Most of the weight of my leg harness is distributed across my hips, with very little actually pulling on my shoulders. If you look closely, you can see lots of vertical stitch marks in the pourpoint - that’s where I’ve taken it in time and time again as it’s really old and the linen keeps stetching! It’s really important for a pourpoint to be super tight to ensure an ideal distribution of weight. My leg harness is the same I’ve had for a few years now, from ArmStreet.

4. Gambeson! Mine is a bit beaten up and needs some new buckles. A gambeson is a padded layer that just adds a little bit of cushioning from armor.

5. Armour. I’m wearing bracers, elbow cops and 14th century inspired shoulders, all of which is fringed with green suede dagging. I opted not to wear my upper cannons tonight (which would completely cover my upper arms).

6. Cotte d’armes, a wool garment in the colours of my warband that hides my beaten up gambeson. It has yellow wool dagging on it to make it a bit fancier and set me apart from other members of the warband who wear a similar, unadorned item.

7. Breastplate. Enough said. 

8. Hood, because it’s cold out and my helmet doesn’t currently have an aventail to cover my neck.

9. A helmet to top it all off. It has a faceplate but I opt not to wear it at Swordcraft since I usually need to be able to communicate with people and I find I have to yell waaaay too loud with it on.

10. A photo taken by Tony Delov at the game, with my current halberd.

Please let me know if you have any questions, happy to answer!

Apparently, I’m now banned from using the selfie camera. I wonder why? 

Photos taken at Swordcraft LARP at half-time - thus the sweatiness. 

A closer look at my kit from Friday, I probably should have done a step-by-step breakdown but oh well… maybe next week!

Underneath I’m wearing medieval underclothes, including braies, hose, and an under tunic.

For armor I’m wearing padded chausses (leg gambesons), a gambeson, my flat ring riveted chain (weights ~10kg+ish?), a butted mail gorget (it’s a temporary stand in, I’m in the process of making a flat ring riveted one using leftover mail I trimmed from mine), and a stainless steel 16ga 14th century bascinet (under my arm). Over top of it all I’m wearing a cotte d’arms which doesn’t actually belong to me, but I made it so sometimes I decide to wear it >_>

I’m also wearing ArmStreet’s padded fencing gloves, which are excellent and I highly recommend. 

For weapons I’m using my all time favourite sword, a longsword length Ateliers Nemesis Knight Sword which IMO is the best single handed sword you could possible buy for LARP. With it I’m using my usual heater shield (it’s on my back, you can kind of see it), which I’ve had for a while now and could probably use a touch up.

This is my kit for Swordcraft, a Melbourne, Australia based LARP game. I’m with the warband Chesterwick, which is inspired by the 14th century. Photo by Portrait Photography Melbourne.