Celefinniel's Comrades in Arms Pages

To see the actual process of figuring out the basic constructing of a pauldron and rerebraces, I suggest reading the tutorial on this site by The JediElfQueen. Those we use are slightly different in shape, but her method is how we derived them.

We cut the final pattern in ABS plastic and using gloves and clamps of various kinds bent the pieces into shape over the burner of the electric stove. Gloves are a MUST. Also the plastic has a very limited range of workability. It gets soft fast and hardens fast also, but can be re-softened more than once. When the curves are correct. Glue them in place with ABS glue. Do not be stingy with it. You want the bond to be strong.

The rerebraces can be cold bent by hand, if you prefer.

At this point the pauldrons go their separate ways for a while. Gamling's have the rough places smoothed with the grinding wheel of a Dremel tool and then painted. Again, the painting is on the smooth side, not the textured one. Bear this in mind as you bend and glue. Theoden's pauldrons will undergo an extra step.

It is probably also wise to mention that you can make an impact on the final appeance of the pauldrons by trying to insure that the overlapping "seams" where you glue fall as much as possible beneath areas that will be covered later by trim.

Theoden's pauldrons have an extra step involving wrapping the plastic with embossing brass. There are also sections on the pauldrons that must be hand embossed or put through a beading machine. We hand embossed since we did not want to buy the machine, and did not know anyone who had one. You must emboss the brass BEFORE gluing it to the plastic master.

After the painting, and brass embossing and wrapping, the two pauldron styles come back together for the assembly: trimming, lining and strapping. The assembly happens first. The lining is vinyl stripped of its fiber backing and glued to the textured side of each piece.

The trim consists of latigo leather cut outs in various horse motifs (which are also hand embossed). The vinyl piping which I made, goes around the edge of each piece.

Everything was glued on with contact cement. This seems to be variable in the strength of its bond, particularly when glued to brass. You may want to experiment with other adhesives. We are starting to re-glue pieces of trim with E-6000 (very toxic) as they fall off, based on recommendations from other armor builders. There will be a separate page later with more details about the leatherworking.

The last step is to attach the embossed straps that hold the pauldron together, closed under the arm, and attach it to the cuirass or mail coat. There are matching antique brass buckles for the arm strap. All of these are riveted to the piece. This photo shows Gamling's completed pauldrons.

 

 

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