Help Me Remake This Armor

[PaxAddict]

Hey, folks

So, I'm a costumer. My wife and I pick some of our favorite characters from some of our shows, and we dress up as them for local events. Most notable of these events is CONvergence, which is a sci fi and fantasy convention where people from all around dress up and have essentially a four day party with 10,000 like minded people.

So this year, my wife and I are looking to do Game of Thrones (or, A Song of Ice and Fire, for those of us who are fans of the book series) and I specifically want to do Brynden "Blackfish" Tully. Probably my favorite character from the series. And I have most of the costume figured out and budgeted, with one exception. His awesome "fishscale" leather armor. I've attached a couple shots of the armor, and I've bought a square 3 sided leather punch with rounded corners that is Perfect for this, so I can punch out all the scales by hand, but how do I turn the scales into armor?

My first instinct was to just essentially buy a T-shirt and sew the scales into the shirt. Which is still a viable option for me, but I'm concerned with how it will lay. The scales overlap side to side, so there would be no lateral stretch, but there would be vertical stretch and I don't know how it would look. Additionally, this will be worn over riveted chainmaille, and a t-shirt would probably be torn apart pretty quickly. I'm not confident it would hold up.

So I could rivet the scales to each other, and just make each scale long enough to reach the next row of scales, or rivet each scale to a piece of leather, but I'm concerned with how well it would breathe, and total weight.

Are there any other options you guys can think of, or do.you have any concerns with the options I've brought up?

Thanks!

Wish me luck

[ENC]

A t-shirt will not support the weight. You could use canvas or blue jean weight denim. Don't punch holes I.E. cut the threads of the fabric. Use a round awl to "move " the fabric threads out of the way as you rivet or stitch the scales on. Canvas, being a larger weave, will make stitching without breaking the fabric threads easier than using the tighter woven denim.

Ray