So one of the guys I know wants me to make a leather chest plate for a cosplay Scale Mail armor he needs. Since its just for show and not really going to be used for anything more than walking around in, I was thinking of doing it out of 5-6 oz leather. I am wondering if I need to put some reinforcement in to hold the scales or if the leather and rivers are enough.
#Cosplay Scale Mail
strong pumice
willow mirage
I'd think about some sort of lining for it, that way the rivets are covered on the inside and won't rip/tear whatever is worn beneath it. But doing that won't increase support for the rivets.
surreal hatch
Scalemaile is actually one layer of lining (usually some sort of gambeson), and then come the scales, rivited or sewn to it.
the scales itself have no structural integrity, to hold a shape or stay where they belong, it takes the back layer. Fabric would make it soft, but leather could be used for a more stiff result.
Fabrics can't be riveted though, so if you rivet, you'd use a stip in the back to hold the lower rivet half. Or you sew the scales to the fabric.
silver solar
I would stitch instead of rivet myself
olive monolith
Rivets quicker, but depending on the rivets not always stronger and stitching it makes it easier repair (don't have to figure out how to extract the rivets)
olive monolith
the scales itself have no structural integrity, to hold a shape or stay where th...
Fabric actually can be riveted through.........but that said Fabric tends to unravel/fray and so riveting directly through it will not hold up as well as Leather..........but essentially you are correct
basically not something I'd choose to do if I had better options
surreal hatch
Fabric actually can be riveted through.........but that said Fabric tends to unr...
That unraveling is why I said it can't be riveted.... should have said to, as the fabric frays and falls apart.
olive monolith
Mostly want to make sure people know you can rivet the right sort of fabric....................but it has it's issues................Goodness knows that's how they made coats of plates back in the day (more often heavy canvas type material or even velvet in some cases)
verbal saddle
you can take some CA glue around the rivet hole before you put the rivet in and that may help as well
granite mauve
There seem to be 2 main options for leather scales construction.
- sew or rivet leather scales to a backing material of cloth or leather. Sewing will be better for cloth for a longevity perspective, rivets will be better for leather from a time and repairability perspective.
- rivet or lace the scales directly to one another.
Your scales will be larger, but you need only worry about the material of the scales themselves, no backing is needed. It is also very straight forward to repair or replace any scales in the future. As a bonus, lacing can be either leather or 550 chord, and thus can be extremely inexpensive.
For your stated purpose of lightweight costume armor, my suggestion would be to sew or rivet your scales to upholstery weight leather for your backing. This should get you a costume that is all leather and thus looks like armor even where you have not fastened scales. As for attachment method, sewing will be cheaper, rivets will be faster. With the use of edging material on the top line of scales, it would be easy to conceal whichever method you use. So would you rather spend more time, or more money? Either would look good, though rivets may look stronger or more armor-like.
Method 1
Method 2
Bonus method 3!!
Make a backing of your material of choice and cut small scales out of thin leather. Then glue the scales directly to your backing material and to the scales on lower layers. This gives the appearance of scales of a more reptilian nature than thick leather scales would, and may be more delicate in the long run, but you mentioned this would be for costume use only, so that shouldn’t be a big issue.
vital adderBOT
GG @granite mauve, you just advanced to level 2!
granite mauve
Method 3
Bonus method 4!
Get a piece of 6-8oz leather, cut to shape for your armor, then carve and tool your scales into the piece. No sewing needed! Nothing to come loose! Can be achieved with stamps!
Method 4
olive monolith
Here is another option for making leather scale that doesn't require a backing material (it sort of is it's own backing depending on how you look at it) you could sew the strips or rivet them https://i.pinimg.com/564x/19/9f/ac/199fac1f9e9639ed5517a3d0b97e3c1a.jpg
jolly abyss
small wolf
@strong pumice if it’s leather robots should be ok
half frigate
There was some guy who had a pattern that could weave scale male out of foam. It was covered on Adam savages tested
wary kraken
Yes, he has scale mail as well. He sells the laser cutter files and the physical thing, his name is Ben eadie