This is just awesome, can't wait to see the finished product!
We're trying to keep this as metal as possible. We're trying to rule out polymers, woods, plastics, etc. to stay in the spirit of the Onslaught armor. It's a good suggestion, though!Originally Posted by Satrina
"Feel the fury of the mountain!" ~ King Magni Bronzebeard, Lord of Ironforge
This is just awesome, can't wait to see the finished product!
It is highly unlikely that any "peasant farmer" wore, much less owned, a full suit of plate armour.
Back in the day, a suit of armour was typically a family heirloom, passed down from father to son.
There was good reason for that--they were expensive. It would have been a rare sight indeed to see anyone other than a knight wearing a suit of plate armour. Note that there are many variations of armor, some more affordable than others. It didn't get more expensive that full plate armour, however.
A fine suit of plate armour in the Medieval Ages would have cost today's equivalent of ~ $100,000; according to historians and modern-day armourers.
There are still professional armourers around today, who replicate suites like one might see in a British museum. The cost of their work can easily range in the tens of thousands.
So to see Onslaught be replicated for that price, wow, good job man! Can't wait to see the finished version
It's hard to say though. I took an archery class back in the day and we were using 15 - 30 lbs bows. One guy bought a professional 50 lbs bow and no one in the class could comfortably use that bow for an entire class period.Hmm, they also didn't ate as much as we do, and they had whole lot of injuries and illnesses through their lives
That's when the instructor told us that surviving English long bows have draw weights up to 180 lbs! Skeletons of English archers are also horribly deformed...
Two things.
First, damn that armor is going to be *awesome*.
Second, Satrina - so nice to run into another SCA-er
Ditto! I live in Calgary too, I have to see it before it leaves the city!Ok, seeing as this is being done in Calgary (where I live) I *MUST* have an opportunity to see it in RL before it leaves the cityI'll buy drinks/dinner!
There should be a renassaince faire type thing for fantasy fans. People could show off their Buster Swords, their Onslaught Armors, fight dragons, etc. Come dressed an orc or a tauren! Somewhere other than BlizzCon - something for all fantasy fans (though, I shudder at the thought of 100 Drizzts walking around). The closing ceremony could be a giant feast in a mead hall (a la, Beowulf) with the "king" and they'd serve fantasy food like wolf steaks and legs of dragon. It'd be awesome.
Though, make it a little more interesting than Midevil Times. I don't want dragon blood soup and end up eating Campbell's tomato.
"Feel the fury of the mountain!" ~ King Magni Bronzebeard, Lord of Ironforge
any updates ?
Proud owner of Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
ooh.. looked at the wrong place... nevermind me..
Awesome project !! *favv'ed*
Proud owner of Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
<edit: moved sca combat talk to http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f160/...ca-combat.html to keep this on-topic>
Kolben - like someone else mentioned about archers being deformed from drawing heavy bows, any specific labor repeated thousands of times will build power in that movement alone. Guys who do nothing but bench press do not automatically get a strong lower body as well. While not discounting the strength and hard work of the laboring class of that period, I would still consider myself or anyone who weightlifts or exercises strenuously on a daily basis to be their equal in strength and power.
Last edited by Satrina; 03-17-2009 at 01:43 PM.
My grandpa could crush your hand with a handshake lol. He farmed and built houses well into his 60s. It's true that we are larger than we used to be a few hundred years ago, this is probably a product of natural selection as much as anything else. Strapping lads would have survived hard times, and gotten more work done on the farm compared to puny ones. It's also no secret that we are largely a product of what women through the ages found attractive.
If you don't realize that people who have done physical labor all their lives are quite a bit stronger than people who haven't I don't know what else I can say. You're wrong lol.
A peasant wouldn't have had a full suit of armor, i'd agree. Imagine a guy wielding a pike that's plowed a field all his life and has been pressed into service. How hard do you think he could swing that thing? As far as I've looked into it, knights were predominately mounted combatants and their armor would have reflected that in actual combat aside from jousting games.
To the OP, this armor deal sounds like it's going to be expensive. Is he letting you do payments of some kind?
I'm guessing as the price has varied from $4k - 9k already in the few days we've been following this project that the OP has the expendable income to afford this project and was ready to pay what it takes to have it done well at the get-go.
Can't wait to see the development pictures of the actual armor(if they're taken and posted), as well as the final product.
It's about time some excellent WoW replicas were made.
Kolben - only if the peasant has had plenty of practice.....imagine the strongest guy you have ever met, now picture him swinging a baseball bat for the first time. Swinging a pike, or sword, is a learned and trained ability. And unless the peasant uses those specific muscles in his day to day routine their is no reason why he should be able to perform that well at it. Again, being strong at one thing does not mean you are strong at everything.
I'm not sure you're following what is being said about nutrition and medicine. A much higher percentage of people were prone to diseases in their youth which would stunt their development. Many of the things we consider trivial today were lifechanging even a century ago.
North Americans and Europeans did not have a bunch of progressively taller children with better stature the last several generations as a result of genetics or natural selection. It's almost entirely a result of better food and better disease management.
This is a very well documented trend in height and some searches on Google can answer most of the questions you might have on it.
Another thing to remember is that physical development is quite a bit more scientific than it has been in the past. If you were to compare the average knight or baron of the middle ages to a modern day US Marine (which King is), you'd find the Marine is far more developed physically because they've been trained through a rigorous and planned method.
Your point applies well to something like weight lifting, but I just disagree from personal experience. I remember seeing my uncle sling an outboard motor over his shoulder like it was no big deal and carry it into the machine shop to work on it. It's his daily work that gives him that strength, not that he carries motors around for a living. Urbanized people just don't develop that kind of overall strength, you have to get that from putting shoulder to the wheel so to speak.
Certainly technique means a lot in delivering the power of a weapon. Since many soldiers throughout history were conscripts or indentured it's kind of a moot point I guess. I think we were talking originally about strength required to wear all this stuff and still use weapons effectively without just flailing around under the weight of it all. I kind of suspect that the heaviest of armor setups was not used on the battlefield, but in jousting tournaments and things of that kind when chivalry was in style. Gut reaction tells me that the most heavily plated armor sets have a hint of cowardice to them as well, wouldn't want young master Atherton to get a bruise on his lilly white arse. :P Kidding of course.
Kolben, again you're missing (what I see as) the point. It is not being disputed that those doing labour day in and day out will have more overall muscle strength than those who don't. However, you have to compare the reality of being a peasant doing hard labour in medieval times versus your uncle living in the 20th and 21st century. With a relative unlimited variety of fruit and vegetables for nutrition, which would be one of the largest differences between times past when transportation of fresh produce would have been impossible, your uncle already has a massive advantage over the medieval peasant. Add medical advances and your uncle is basically born into a superhuman condition when compared to someone living 1000 years ago.
Yes, hard labor day in and day out gives you strength. Giving your body nutrition and medicine to maximize that strength and utilize it to it's full potential is what sets apart people living today from past times.
I don't know why we are assuming that a peasant living and working on a piece of land in the country would be more sickly than a person living inside the walls of a keep or medieval town. Rats, human waste, stagnant water, food storage methods are just some of the things that come to mind that put that in doubt. Medicine was equally terrible for all classes at the time. Plagues generally started in the populated areas didn't they? I suppose when I'm talking about peasants I should clarify that I mean folks who worked and lived on the land, not the poor and lower class in general.
This got completely derailed lol. What I was really interested in was how armor like this is constructed without completely restricting or bogging down the wearer.
i borrowed my friends dads bow for hunting one season. it was a longbow with an 80lb draw, after about 10 minutes of practice shots with protective gloves on i was already getting skin wear and blisters. i would imagine a draw weight of 180 would almost cut to the bone if you had to do it repeatedly for any extended period of time.
on a side note though i use a composite bow with a 55 lb draw comfortably for extended periods of time to practice before the season starts.
Last edited by Muryou; 03-17-2009 at 02:31 PM.
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