SCALES the fast way

[Iosephus]

That might not be so good a choice given that it's a completely inaccurate (historically) material to use, and moreso because there's no evidence that soldiers' armor was made of anything but copper alloy scales- the only iron scales known are from the mid 3rd century AD, are quite large, and are believed to be from horse trappers. Certainly the only known use of iron scales is on a horse trapper.

Iron scales from the vicus of Azaum/Odiavum/Almásfüzítő (scroll down the page until the second third part of the page) :

http://www.almasfuzito.hu/?q=hirek&sub=hir1

There were approx. 100 iron scales found in a pit, all of them are of varying size, linked to each other with brass wire (some of them was repaired with brass rivets) and they are dated between the reign of Vespasian and Traian.

But of course that doesn't mean that stainless steel would be authentic