Children\'s kit

[Crispvs]

Each year I go over to Leicester on Good Friday to be part of the compliment of Roman soldiers at the annual 'Christ in the Centre' passion play.
http://www.felthamassociates.btinternet ... /index.htm

At my own church the children perform the annual passion play but of course I never get to see that. However, last year some photos were put up on a board and I was mildly horrified to see that the 'Roman soldier' in the children's play had been wearing grey plastic 'knight' equipment, similar (but duller) to that shown here:
http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Toys-R-Us/Toys ... me(0012191 )

Naturally I decided that a better Roman soldier impression could be produced so I set about making one. In particular, I felt that a clipeiu type shield, a conical helmet and scale armour would be appropriate for soldiers recruited and stationed in the east.

The armour will not be done for this year. However, the shield and helmet should be. I have something of a dilemma though. I have more or less finished the shield but need to edge it. Me being me, I decided to make the shield fairly accurate. It is made of 9mm ply-wood and faced with linen. The grip is copied from the Dura examples. The shield is about two thirds scale but as I could not get a small boss, the boss is full size. It is now painted (although there are one or two pieces of tidying up to do) but I now come to the problem of edging it. I intend to edge in in rawhide and to that end have two rawhide dog chew soaking at the moment. However, these are only about a foot long. Therefore, I need some advice.



Firstly, as the edging will have to be made of several pieces, how much should I overlap them (to avoid gaps after the rawhide has dried and shrunk)?

Secondly, how do I go about firstly securing the rawhide on the shield and secondly stitching it in place?

I look forward to your advice.

Crispvs