These plans sent in by: SHADOW MONKEY
I was browsing you site, and found it to be very informative. One thing was lacking though...there was no mention of making your own fiberglass armor. It's cost effective, and can be custom made to suit you. It does take some time to make, but not nearly as long, or as tedious as chain mail. First, you should wrap whatever body part you want the armor for in plastic wrap( the cheaper, the better ). Then put on a pair of latex gloves, and vaseline the plastic wrap. Lay cardboard( should be cut to fit the body part BTW ) over the body part. You may want to strap it down with tape so it will hold in place. Mix up a healthy batch of fiberglass resin, and hardener in a disposable container. Dip pre-cut strips of fiberglass matte into the resin, and lay across the cardboard. Overlap the strips until the entire sheet of cardboard is covered.Then put on another layer crossing the other. Let the resin harden somewhat. Mix up another batch of resin( in a disposable container....I can't stress that enough ), and dip pre-cut strips of the fiberglass cloth in the resin, and lay them in the same fashion that you did the matte. The resin should have soaked through the cardboard too...this will give it more stability. For some parts of your body, you made need the help of a friend. I wouldn't recommend using this method to make a helmet though. These body plates should be able to withstand a great deal of punishment. Now what you need to do is sand them down smooth, and file off any sharp edges. Fiberglass can get to be very sharp, so be careful, and you might want to wear protective gloves when finishing it up. Now you can paint your body armor in any manner that you wish, and if you're really creative, you can use a drimmel to carve designs into it( before you paint it of course ). Now....to make it ready to wear. There are a few ways to go about fitting the plates to your body. To fit leg plates, I suggest taking some elastic cloth, and sewing it to fit tightly tto your leg, and then just resin it to the plate. Do the same for arm plates. For chest, and back plates, you can either resin some straps to it, or you can resin, or sew them into a vest. For hands, I would sew them under a cloth patch to a pair of gloves. If you feel the need to armor any other parts of your body, you can figur it out for yourself...cups aren't that expensive, and I wouldn't recommend putting fiberglass resin near there....you may be stuck with it for a VERY long time, and it get very hot as it cures.
NOTE: Before you start laying down your fiberglass, be sure that the plate is fit as to not hinder your movements. Once you strap the cardboard on, you may want to see how easily you can move with it first.
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