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Originally Posted by Ahriman
Indeed, faaaar better... One of my friends made one out of 1mm spring steel, and was quite suprised when most arrows bounced off without denting the metal... the rest left small dents, but none have pierced. The bow was, if I'm right, 60#.
I don't really like chinese harnesses, as I'm rather a m&p-maniac idiot  , but the last looks good... even to me.
Ham: I think your students are VERY lucky... most hungarian teachers, even quite many of the university teachers, are still thinking that a full-plate harness is too heavy to move in it, that the knights were put on the horses by cranes, etc... 
Aqtai: nice examples, I'm convinced... But I was still able to use something like these greaves for fighting... and it was good... Hm, maybe I invented something new???
BTW, I've added full fingers and a knuckle plate to the "vambrace", or "elbow-demigauntlet" on the first page. Looks less eastern than ever... more like a "muslimised" german elbow gauntlet. I'll post pictures of it in a few days. Reason of upgrade: idiotic owner became overconfident as it provided good defense, especially compared to a thin leather gauntlet used for semi-full contact. He didn't really bother to defend a back-edge cut to the wrist, as he had mail there... but that cut missed with about 5cm, and opened one of his non-gloved fingers down to the bone, AND splitted his fingernail.  I won't post photos of THIS. |
I'm looking forward to seeing your work.
I hope your client recovers from his wounds. What the hell was he doing anyway?!
About the lamellar armour, because it was made of rigid plates, it did indeed provide an excellent defence against arrows compared to mail, however it had quite a few weaknesses: it wasn't particularly good against swords and sabres because the lacing could be cut, furthermore because it was quite rigid, vulnerable areas like the armpits and groin were left exposed. Mail and plate armour provided a compromise: rigid plates over the abdomen and back, mail over the groin and limbs.
Another problem with lamellar of course was that the lacing would get soaked in wet weather increasing the weight, and the lacing sometimes got infested with lice etc.
This picture is a Tibetan lamellar armour from the Rubens server, the actual armour is in the Royal Armouries (Although it wasn't there when I last visited the the RA).
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid1cdroms...l/P1015070.JPG
Here's another 15th century mail and plate armour from the Royal Armouries:
According to the label it's Turkish, According to Robinson's "Oriental Armour" though it's Mamluk. It does ressemble the mamluk mail and plate shirts in the Topqapi.