Thank you William and Ruel.

I won't spam up the thread with too many of my own photos (at least, not until I get some new kit :cool: ) but you can find more photos / random thoughts / links to other photos on my blog: http://eranudturan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/che...eport.html

Sorry to disappoint again *tongue-in-cheek*, the horses are group horses, as are the saddles. Owning a horse is on the wish-list for a few years down the line though :D Most of the group ride on reproduction four horned saddles but I use either a modern Portuguese saddle or a modern tasselly Syrian saddle. Both fit the iconography great. The Syrian saddle is more comfortable but has a lower back arch so would probably be less stable in a charge.

Good luck with the Hindu festival. If you do figure out the bazubands do let us all know! And your Qing gear looks incredible!

@ James Anderson - 6 hours in those conditions! That is pretty awesome. I bet you must have been exhausted afterwards!

Well, I want to put together an Arsacid suit of armour, based on this guy, from the 1st Century AD:

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It's quite possible that the lancers at the time of Carrhae might have looked something like this. A cuirass of scales with scale chaps (leggings), gorget, and banded arm armour. The helmet might have appeared similar to the simple spherical Kushan one with cheek pieces, or the Sarmatian helmets - see here: http://badaew.narod.ru/sarmat/sarmat.htm (but run it through Google Translate). The horned helmet has really caught my eye and would not look out of place at all in Iran or further east in Kushana either.

Alternatively, this Parthian could have worn a banded helmet, which appears further east among the Kushans as well.

Related is the armour of the Saka and Kushans, although I'm not sure if these are coats of lamellar or coats of plates rivetted onto a leather backing.

Secondly (or thirdly, I guess ...), I want to do a lancer based on the murals from Panjakent, 6th - 8th Century. In particular, the cavalrymen with long maille coats, banded vambraces and greaves, spheroconical helmets with nasals, ear pieces, worn on top of face-covering coifs. And finished off with a coat on top as well, with some decoration.

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Some Sogdians are shown wearing long coats of lamellar, with three-way or two-way split skirts, and upper-arm defenses too. I would like to have a go at making one of these coats sometime. The lamellae are B-shaped and a few have been found in Eastern Europe which match the Sogdian depictions. Again, they would likely be alternating brass and steel (or gilded and silvered). The shield cover from Mount Mogh shows early bazubands, although it's not clear whether the elbows were cupped. This type of armour probably is probably used by the Samanid cavalry as well, except there, you might expect them to carry primitive sabres (from the 8th or 9th Century), and possibly strung bowcases towards the very end rather than C-shaped unstrung bowcases. And the crupper straps for the horse would be different as well.

They'll probably take a few years to put together though :mad:

The Mayan is going to look cool! :D will be quite interesting to see as well.

Looks like you're putting together an entire evolutionary timeline of Persian cavalry (at least for the 1st millenium AD)! You've certainly chosen some challenging ones, but if they're anything like your Sassanid they're bound for greatness.

The closest thing I'm working on to your stuff, in terms of time and place, is a Kushan/Gandharan infantry guard arakshadhikrta. I've always been attracted to their look from their frequent appearances in early Buddhist sculpture. Some of the costumes of Indians from Oliver Stone's Alexander -- a mess of a movie, but decently costumed -- were sold off on Ebay and I picked one up. They're clearly based on Gandharan sources, much later than the pre-Mauryan stuff that would've been used in reality, but since there isn't much anthropomorphic art from India prior to the Kushans anyway I can't really fault the designers.

I'm not quite sure how to proceed with this kit yet, so it's on the backburner...
http://www.forensicfashion.com/150GandharanGuard.html

Yes, I have Ninkonorov and a great many books covering Kushan art (probably hundreds, if you count all my volumes on Indian, Asian, and Buddhist art). I'm amazed that scabbard slides would fill an entire book though! Must have a look at that one. My favorite book on 1st mil. Central Asian militaria is Gorelik's little Warriors of Eurasia (1995). Not heavy on documentation, but the illustrations are evocative and I hope to do several kits from it.

But yeah, I unfortunately don't see myself making any real progress on the Gandharan in the near future; I have some three or four dozen incomplete armor/costume sets that really need to be finished out first. Since this is in large measure a social activity, I've been focused on costumes I can use with groups or at themed events. And because those things tend to coalesce around medieval/Renaissance Europe (RenFaires, WMA, etc.), late historical Asia (Asian martial arts, cultural associations, etc.), the Middle East/India (bellydance, Indo-dance), or American history (Revolution, Wild West, Native American), my efforts tend to bunch up there. Not much to do around here with ancient kit from Europe or Asia, nor anything from any time period from Africa, Oceania, S. America, or the Arctic... :(

But who knows? If Leeds 2014 comes through, I may just try to push forward the Gandharan arakshadhikrta or Sassanid savar so we can compare our efforts. And we should definitely message about trying to get something published in Skirmish!

PS: Here's a little something for you that I finally decided to upload:
http://www.forensicfashion.com/532SassanidKnightSword.html

So, I throw in also my kit, definitively unpretentious, but I like it very very much!!!! :D

I know it is not so historical, mainly because of the pauldrons and gauntlets I think, but I want to use it also for some combat, so I needed extra *not-too-much-expensive* protections! (It weigths ~ 77 lbs overall)

I lack some details like boots or an accurate clothing, but they'll come, they'll come!

Any comment is really welcome, so thank you in advance!!
(I've edited the post uploading a smaller picture!!!)

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Ben = kit envy every time he posts to this thread! :cool:

I'm new to the group so I thought this would be good place to say "hello" and show off my pattern welded sword and very sharp seax. The small knife hanging from the scabbard and the buckles are replicas of the finds from the Wollaston burial. The Tillerman beads just add a bit more Mercian bling.

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The pattern:

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John, very nice sword, I love the look of pattern welding!

Anyway, here's my foray into the 14th century, and latest variations to my kit. The goal here is 1360's Germany. Enjoy!

Needed to complete the kit are hourglass gauntlets, and a bascinet (also possibly voiders, to give the apprearance of a whole haubergeon underneath my Coat of Plates.)

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My new used Via Armorari harness with my trusty old Mercenary's Tailor legs (not really showing). I bought the harness second hand so the pauldrons need some minor adjustment. Other than that it fits like a glove. The workmanship and quality of Via Armorari armor is amazing. Everything is handmade, every inch of surface is hand filed and it looks like it's just been stolen from a museum ...
Next project is an arming jacket with voiders so the armour fits even better.

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Via Armorari has provided me my best armour purchase experiences, and I've tried a LOT of armourers, also in the higher price segment. I can't praise Albert's work enough, excellent shaping and wonderful finish.
Great kit Tjarand! I'm jealous. :)

Wow! Your armour is awesome! Such beautiful reconstructions are not something I can see very often :)

But I would like to know, why did you use that shape of your shield? I have never seen shiled like this. If you tell me where what was your inspiration, I will be very grateful.

The shield is based on early hand pavises. It's not a direct copy of anything but a scaled down version of the larger pavises without a central beam. I use it for training so the historical accuracy was sacrificed for function. I am working on a proper pavise though. I need one that match my armour ;-)

The latest incarnation of my alWyte harness.

Looking good Zac.

It has been quite a while since I've been in harness. This was taken at my first tournament in 3 years. My old cuirass with my new arms from my gestech harness.

That looks fantastic, Rod! Excellent.