Muscled thorax fastenings

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

But not the war,right?! Good luck,better than the previous time, and hoping to see progress photos soon.
Khaire Giannis

[Chris B]

Proof that I have not given up yet. I have about 12 hours into the new armour, and I love it 100X better than the first attempt. It is even starting to look like armour. It meets up. I have cut out the full back plate, shaped it, dished muscles roughly, put 4 of 6 hinges on the back and front plate, cut out most the front plate, shaped the front plate, and am now taking a much needed break. I don't have a blacksmith's biceps you know.

Tomorrow is the make or break day. I will slowly shape the top and make the final cuts to the upper portion of the front. It is the step I am the most afraid of at this point. I will just slowly cut it away until it hopefully meets up perfectly. I am accepting prayers over the next 24 hours! :lol:

True to the original point of this thread, hinges are not very forgiving on a thorax. They have to meet up PERFECTLY, and I have spent a lot of the time tweaking the alignment.

Dimitris,
I used solid brass door/cabinet hinges for attachment and 3/32" solid brass rod for the pins. I counter sunk the hinges into the back plate so there is not as much of a gap in the armour. The problem with this is that the inside diameter of the hinge is cut short by the thickness of the plate. The way I got over this was to bend the barrels 90 degrees backwards so that the open portion of the barrel was facing the inside of the armour. I then opened the barrels just a small bit to give a little more tolerance for fitting. It worked very well and the armour feels VERY solid. By bending the barrels 90 degrees, it pushes them just slightly higher than the connecting plates and pulls them in closer together. See the pics. I will make prettier pins once it is all finished.

Here are four update pics.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Very well. You deserve laudes for your work so far. And for the fact you didn;t give up. And another is ready to come when it'll be finished! GOD LUCK :wink: :!:
Khaire
Giannis

[Dimitris]

Great work so far, your work will be of great help when I restart my project!
laudes well deserved :wink:

[Chris B]

I'll get more pics next weekend. Thanks for the remarks. I finished the back plate completely today. All edges are turned, collar turned, and the last two hinges are afixed to shoulder area. I just need to do the finishing work to smooth it, sand/grind it down, polish, and make the last small fittiing adjustments. I am VERY happy with the back.

The front is completely cut out and meets up perfectly. The pectorals are a little more than half as deep as I want them, and four abs are formed out roughly a little more defined than I planned but good none-the-less.

The trick seems to be constantly (and I mean constantly) checking for alignment to the other plate as you dish the muscles. I am going to have to do some shaping to get the shoulders to meet up perfectly, but they did before I started dishing so I know it is just a matter of tweaking it.

I may skip the obliques because I just can't seem to get them to look right on paper, and I noticed that not all historical examples have them or at least not defined very well at all.

Question: How do you do the navel and nipples? Chisel them out? Engrave them? I am not sure and seem to be drawing a blank!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

You can adjast the nipples with an iron disk and an iron nail to hold it. Some ancient nipples were silver... Photos,please!
Khaire
Giannis

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBa ... 0224032576
Have a look here

[Chris B]

I will try to get some new ones in the next 72 hours or so. I just want to push it a little further along than the last pics.

[Chris B]

Okay, I took a few pics of where it is today. I am going to walk away from it for a few days. My elbows and biceps just aren't use to this. They are aching pretty bad so it is time to let them recover.

I am not completely happy with it, but I am not a professional. The arm holes aren't quite the shape I was aiming for and the muscles aren't quite there either. I am not going to push the pectorals any deeper because I am afraid of weakening the metal too much.

I am however going to clean all of the muscle lines up and deepen the grooves between each muscle. Then I will sand and polish it up and add hinges to the shoulder. I really am not going to post anymore pics until it is done. I would guess about two weeks. Thanks for all the help!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

OK,now this is a real nice work for a non expert! Congratulations. Have a res,I know how it is like when your wrists and finges and your body hurts all over! I think it will turn very nice when finished. And perhaps you should consider adding some musculature in the sides.You made the whole thing on the muscled way so it will look even better in my opinion. No need to make them as clear as the rest,just not leave it plain.
Khaire
Giannis

[Chris B]

Got the front plate hinged to the back plate, edges turned over on front, added obliques to the front plate, and the small of the back to the back plate. I have a about a quarter inch tear in the collar area of the front plate, but will braze it and it will not be any big deal. The only glaring error that I don't think I can fix is that their is a noticeable quarter inch gap on one shoulder between the two separate halves of the collar. The angle the plates meet leaves a gap.

I started to sand the back plate and am finishing it like a car finish. 80 grit, 180 grit, 320 grit, 600 grit, coarse compound, tripoli compound to polish. Hopefully I will at least have the back plate 100% finished by end of weekend and pics up.

I came to a realization when fixing an issue with the new armour....The old attempt CAN be fixed. I was doing something, and a light came on in my head. I walked over to the old attempt, hammered a bit in two specific places, and low and behold, it meets up. I may go back and finish it in a few months since I was already 20 hours into it.

[Chris B]

I'll get some later tonight when I get the back sanded some more.

[Chris B]

Okay. The front plate is drying with CB Weld in the mistake so I am not posting pics of it yet.

The back plate is polished and ready for the leather liner. The back plate is finished in essence. I left very light hammering marks in part of it because I did not want it to look "too" smooth and perfect. I want it to look hammered and used. I hear many of you complain about modern armour looking too perfect so I am fighting the perfectionist in me and leaving it as is.

It really does look splendid in person. I am VERY happy with it. I will post final completed pics by Sunday evening of me in the armour and it by itself together.

Dimitris,
If interested, I used 80 grit automotive sandpaper, then 180 grit, then 320 grit, then 600 wet paper, and then Noxon polish to get the finish. It went to crap to this in 3 hours.

Additional Note: MAN that flash bulb brings out EVERY imperfection and hint of dust. It really looks a lot better in person. I might clean it up just a little more. We shall see!

[Matthew Amt]

Wow, that looks great!! Yes, it is VERY hard to photograph polished bronze or brass, particularly with indoor lighting and a flash. One part will be all dark and another all flash glare... I stand back as far as I can and zoom in, that helps dissapate the flash.

Don't worry about it looking "too finished". Go ahead and plannish out as much of the hammer lumps as you can, and it will still never look machined or stamped out.

The backplate on my own cuirass ended up looking very "hunchbacked" for some reason.

http://www.larp.com/hoplite/cuirass9.jpg
http://www.larp.com/hoplite/gamers1.jpg

It's a deceptively difficult piece to fit, but it looks like you did an excellent job. (Mine is a Bronze Age cuirass, not Classical Greek, by the way!)

Keep at it!! Khaire,

Matthew

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Ahhhh,so many things I want to make...A shield, greaves, a bell cuirass...and no time...no place...no tools...
This looks EXCELLENT! very good job. It looks good with the hammer marks,but as the others told you, you can polish it more,and with use and time it won't look too shiny. Eagerly waiting for the front plate.
Now that you've worked with metal a lot,can you give any idea of how I can make the big curve of the waist of a bell cuirass?
Khaire
Giannis