Prince

Things are very busy for me so I haven't been active on here or any forums in a while but things are going very well. So anyway, here is some more recent armor that I made specifically as a standard product line. Most of my work is custom but with the 'Devil Claw' series people can simply say "Hey, I want that" and I say "Ok" Standard product items are meant to look cool, but still be efficient to make. So I aim for initial impact instead of all the deep detail work I do in many of my other sets of armor. As always, my work can be found on my Deviant Art gallery at http://Azmal.DeviantArt.com (click gallery) and at my website which I've been trying to work on as I have time but I finally have some stuff listed there too. www.PrinceArmory.com

First up, this -is- real, 100% functional : ) A person can do cartwheels in armor I make, even with those crazy huge shoulders. Joints articulate properly and even the finger joints move. Of course I don't need to point out it is completely fantasy and not historical. But it does have some foundation in historical design. The breastplate is similar to lorica for instance, the arms are somewhat historical, legs too. Just has cool stuff stacked on it. Materials.... How much dead cow did I use? Geez, I dunno, seems like I went through half a dozen double shoulders... this suit just kept on eating and eating the leather. But I have no idea really... I try to keep track of things, but I just get caught up in the project and this one had a really tough deadline to start with. Finish I use is super shene. Think that was all the questions. Thanks everyone

Finished at last. Made entirely from leather and nickel finished hardware. Production time was about 3 weeks with the help of a couple friends. Chris and George. Consists of: Lion Head Helmet Articulated Gorget Breast and Back Plate w/ Overlays Pauldrons with Heraldic Rampant Lions Full Arms: Rerebrace, Vambrace, Elbow & Guard Claw Gauntlets Tassets Front Skirting Full Legs: Cuisses, Knee Cop & Guard, demigreives & full grieves, and sabbatons All with tons of claws and block dyed tooled borders.

I looked at some of your other posts; very nice stuff. I was wondering if you would give me an honest professional critique on my first sheath? If you're too busy I understand completely.

You've never been to a renaissance fair? Or medieval times restaurant? Or a fantasy/scifi convention? Those are some places.

Go out huh? I hope to eventually but I don't mind to keep building my portfolio for now. I'll go where the money is though and I'm not sure what's out there for my small niche market. I'm wary of festivals; I'd hate to get stuck making hundreds of plain and simple belts pouches and bracers and so on for my income. I've got a small flow of clients and have been doing pretty well with that so far. Hopefully it stays consistent. I'm afraid I don't charge enough though. Even at 3500 per set of some of my base high end armor, so much time goes into it and materials too, lots of little unseen overhead too that seems to jump up and bite me every now and then. I dont see myself stopping any time soon though. Business sucks, I just wanna make cool stuff.

Those look awesome. Very very clean and professional. Perfect cuts and edging. I have a question, on the smaller sheathes, when you fold it over and where the seam starts, did you sand it and edge coat it to make it look that nice or what?

Thats really nice. I love those snap tops, may I ask, where'd you get them?

Yes, tooled then dyed. I guess about 20 days so far. Thanks.

Well its coming along and should be finished in a day or two. Still have the lion head helmet, gauntlets, and legs and mostly just assembly is left. I think it'll look a lot better on the intended wearer. Every edge is slicked with edge coat by the way. More at http://Azmal.DeviantArt.com Busy busy. Glad to see the forum back and running full speed btw.

Strange lol does it it really look red? It's dark orange in person and I think it looks about the same on my comp at least lol I use 10oz usually. Its better to start from the ground up I think. I kind of jumped into the middle of and started making armor and I still dont know common leather working terms and I'm kind of missing a foundation that I think would be helpful to me now.

Alright, so now I'm working on some lion armor. Should be on about the same level as the dragon armor. Depending on preference I think some people will like this armor a lot more. Anyway, here are parts of the matched pauldrons for the armor. If you don't know where they go on the armor you can wait and see or look up the sketch in my DA gallery Azmal.DeviantArt.com What would this be called? Its not really pictoral carving is it? If anyone is willing, I would like some tips on how to improve my carving and tooling. I haven't done much other tooling aside from the big eagle crest and a couple simple family crests so I could use some tips. I'm quite happy with them, but I know theres much room for improvement for future works.

wow I need to learn how to do that...

Thanks everyone. Anybody else think I should make a more plain band for it? Luke - Is there any way I can get access to those patterns you have? online examples maybe? I'd like to know how a hat -should- be made lol This one was kind of fun to make and figure out but I'd like to learn some tricks and different patterns

I was just wondering if hats made of tooling hide were common, rare, or what. I'll be lining the internal band with lambskin or pig skin. It's pretty comfy now though

The color is darker but the flash makes it bright bright red. There is one image in the compiled pic that is much more true to life, its the darker one of course. I made this hat in the same fashion as my armor, thus very heavy and overly durable, hardened thick leather. I could beat somebody to death with it probably. I'll make a less gaudy hat band for it later, it's snarly and cool but it doesn't quite fit, I'll make something much more elegant but wanted to try the snarly look. I made it so it can be removed easily so I can swap it and change the character a bit if need be. It looks pretty sweet without anything really. With a different band I think I'd wear it in public, outside of events like fairs or cons. yep... Have any of you ever seen a leather hat anything like this?

Heh, it always depends if the price is right ; )

Thanks but I dunno mate, There was some beautiful stuff in Lord of the Rings, which is one movie WETA did. They may not take me because of my age and no previous movie experience, but we shall see. If they did, I'd get to relocate to New Zealand. That'd be awesome.

Love it. The lacing throws me off though.

Thanks all. Speaking of movies, once I get a couple more high end pieces made I'm going to try applying to WETA, but thats a pretty high bar to reach.

More for the dragon armor. This is definitely something different.

More or less, I have my own way of doing it with an airbrush and putty knife Thanks again

Thanks, and yes, technically it is hand dyed, but yes, there is a trick to it. I dont know what it's called either and I'm sure there's a name for it because I've seen it used before. Think about it for a while and if you cant figure it out I'll tell you. : )

Oh yes, I forgot, here's the back.

Well, here is a Breakaway Sheath. It's definitely not a typical design but I hope you all like it anyway. Here are a couple pics.