Oriental Brigandine

[Mac Tiernan]

I've decided to make some Oriental Brigandine sleeves. I'm debating wwhat shape to use for the leather. I was wondering if anyone might have some experience in this area, and could provide some insight. Or if you know where I could look to find out for myself, I would appreciate it. Basically, I'm looking for advantages/disadvantages to using squares vice pentagons or hexagons, etc... I figured asking would save the hassle of trying each and wasting leather.

[Sir_Mel]

Squares are much easier to tessellate (copy over and over into a large pattern) than other shapes. They also provide the most flex compared to other shapes due to the grid-like nature of brigandine made of squares.

[Orazio Valori]

I've tried searching around for images as shape references but haven't been able to find any, oddly enough. The European brigs with sleeves I've seen for sale all seem to use squares though, if that helps.

Maybe sew a couple of tubes and pin on cardboard cutouts of the shapes you're considering if you want to be absolutely certain? That way you could see how much spacing, if any, you'd need between each shape, and how much you want to leave near the armpit.

[Nish]

Look for pictures of the clay soldiers at the great wall.

Also, the Chinese have some badass lamellar that are made out of three-pointed star scales. It looks so **** cool, and I know there's a tutorial for making it somewhere on the armourarchive.

*edit*check this out*edit*

[Caleidah]

That **** does look cash, Nish.

[Cib]

Sweet looking stuff!

[Mac Tiernan]

So far I've got a leather Breastplate, a leather flanged skirt, and a chainmail coif. The plan is to finish the mantle on the coif, attach the oriental brig sleeves to the mantle, and eventually replace the breastplate and skirt with oriental brig. I'm thinking a diamond pattern for the sleeves, hex for the chest, and pentagon for the skirt. Granted with the way life is playing out it'll be a while for me to start on any of the brig.