Scutum Construction - Edging and Painting

[QVINTVS ARTORIVS CORVINVS]

Bahaha... you guys are awesome :lol:

I'll maybe put in a tester piece to see what I am dealing with before going for it.

I was also told to stretch it on not too tightly as the constriction as it dries will take care of that. Does that sound right?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Seem to have missed this thread for some time now, for some reason....
Sulla must have blocked me lol

Nice work on the scute Sulla, nice pait job too. I have to agree with it looking like a bird in some of the depictions.. but also can see peronis view that it is probably the spina boss.....after all, just because things changed, does not mean things were not still oin use on the frontiers...and local craftsmen would reproduce what they saw, as stated with the Adamklissi.....who's to say!

Great work Sulla!

And Matt, I know of some very good artisans who use modern paint, so don't feel too bad, the look counts more so than total authenticity, as long as it is convincing to the eye..candy pearl metallic auto-paint might not be too good an option!

[Magnus]

I was also told to stretch it on not too tightly as the constriction as it dries will take care of that. Does that sound right?

Yeah, just fit it where you want it, when it dries it will harden into the shape you want.

Byron, I totally agree!

[Hibernicus]

You CAN stretch the rawhide too much over the face of the shield because as it dries it constricts and as it constricts it can flatten out the curve of the shield.

To eliminate that put it back in your shield forming device. Or place the shield on a saw horse and weigh the rawhide down with sand bags.

I prefer to affix backing material first, then reinforcing bars, then stretch the rawhide across the face of the shield.

I like stretching the hide to reduce and /or eliminate any wrinkles or bubbles

[sulla felix]

Sulla must have blocked me lol

Nope - but it's not a bad idea :lol:

Nice work on the scute Sulla, nice pait job too. I have to agree with it looking like a bird in some of the depictions.. but also can see peronis view that it is probably the spina boss.....after all, just because things changed, does not mean things were not still oin use on the frontiers...and local craftsmen would reproduce what they saw, as stated with the Adamklissi.....who's to say!

Thanks Magius! I have seen many photographs and drawings of the Mainz reliefs and all show something slightly different. Reminds me of Professor John Collis' comments about looking at the patterns of the postholes at Danebury hill fort - he reckoned he could see the shape of Mickey Mouse's head. Early Iron Age Walt Disney Theme Park?

[nolvi]

This summer I tried to make my very first scutum. Maybe it's not perfect, but it was very fun to do.

I glued tree layers of birch strips with hot leather glue, this gluing phase was pretty difficult for me. Each wood strip must be at right place, when glue is still warm other wise it's not going to be firm bondage. After this wood work was done, I covered the scutum with linen and put raw hide over the face of the shield.
I then painted my scutum with milk paints, and I must say that those paints are quite easy and fun to paint with, if you just remember to stir regularly the paint pot. When you paint with milk paints, you really just 'paint' it. When you paint with modern paints, you actually spread out liquid plastic over them. It's totally different feeling. I say yes for milk paints
Second thing is that milk paint colors are really good/cool shades, they look very natural. Modern paints just don't look same at close range.
My final effort was to put bee wax on my scutum to protect paint job.
Here is picture of my very fist attempt to make a scutum.

[AntonivsMarivsCongianocvs]

Very cool!

Jukka laudes to you for your first shield and to you as well sulla!