My first scutum

[imGladii]

Hey all pretty much finished my scutum. I wasn't sure of the direction to go in and I may remove the bolts and paint them on. what do you guys think.

[Dan Howard]

Not bad at all. Any pics of the back?

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Yeah I'm still working on mine. Good job! :wink:

[Bryan]

Great work, better than mine:


[attachment=10440]shield.png[/attachment]

[imGladii]

Nice! I wanna make a republican one day. Bryan did you free hand the shape or did you get some type of stencil? Oh and did you use 1/4 lauan or 1/8 lauan? I tried to get 1/8 lauan plywood I looked everywhere no one had it. I even went to the lumber yard and they said they could get it but they can only order a pallet of 200+ sheets meh.

Heres some more pics of mine and some of the curvature. what do you guys think of the curve in mine?

[Bryan]

I couldn't find lauan. I wanted to get a lauan door skin as they are evidently the perfect size for making a layered scutum of 36"x40" but Lowes and Home Depot didn't have them. So I ended up with a section of 5.2mm x 4' x 8' of Birch. My shield is 30" wide, 48" tall, two layers only though, as I screwed up the last piece, ruining it. I traced a shape out I thought would work well but I think I took a little bit too much material off the corners, especially for the bottom edge. But that only makes it more maneuverable. The umbo is a dog bowl screwing in and the edging is a floor mat cut up and stapled to the shield top and bottom to pad it from blows and when delivering them. Its actually balanced very well, as I cut the center hole a bit off from center to change the point of balance. It handles very well and maybe weights 7-8 lbs top. The weight is low for a scutum but I just make believe I'm a strong Roman in good shape who is used to hauling around a 15 lb shield like its nothing, so I dont feel bad. Its not made to be accurate, just to give me a basic understanding of how the shield can be used so I can perform some tests. I'm writing some fiction and there will be lots of fighting scenes so I'm trying to understand the fighting in an accurate method so my descriptions make a bit of sense. I also made a round parma style shield, 24" wide, and a 24"x48" flat thureos style. With some rattan sticks the length of a gladius and some wooden dowls simulating spears, I'm pretty good for most tests, though finding test subjects that will allow me to beat on them are in hard supply. The wife won't participate for some reason. :-|
Someday I'll build a proper Republican shield

Your shield looks great. The curviture on yours seems a lot less extreme than mine. I think the 55 gallon drum might have left a too extreme of a curve, though some iconography seems to support drastic curves. By carrying it, I think the excess curving makes it a bit more protective but harder to wield, especially in a braced position. It does make bottom edge striking easier though but changing the weight distribution of the shield. Plus, the more curved it is, the more missiles would bounce off, in theory, right? Next shield I want less curve though, like yours. Good work.

[imGladii]

Ah that is very cool. I didn't notice anything weird about the shape just looks like a republican shield. Yeah if my blank from soul of the warrior comes in or if the guy can still even make it. this one I made would become my bang around shield. either that or my new one will have a deeper curve. Yeah my shield weighs 12 - 13 pounds haha. I don't think the Romans wouldn't** of had shields much heavier then this because mine is 2 layers of 1/4 plywood that's 6 layers of wood lol. The soul of the warrior blank is around 6-7 pounds and its just a tad bigger.

anyway this is my dream shield if anyone knows where I can get this shield with this graphic or at least the stencils please let me know.