@ Boris Petrov Bedrosov

You are using the term delii to name the shield, but the term is describing more a type of warrior than a piece of equipment. The word delii means insanely courageous, a man who's courage is very close to madness :) . Those warriors were often light cavalry that were scouting the path in front of the army and raided the enemy to test it's strength, but also infantry.
As an infantry shield, the wing shield is not very suited to be used together with a sword or a sabre, because is too big, but... judging after the way the holding straps are mounted on the shield (you can see how the rivets are set if you look closely at the pictures), you can see that this shield have 3 holding positions. A long strap to put the shield over the shoulder, a strap for the arm, somewhere around the elbow and a strap for the hand.
This arrangement is suited for cavalry because a rider will need his left hand for holding the bridles (reins) of the horse, while still holding the shield over the shoulder and with the upper part of the arm. But this straps could be useful to an infantryman that is fighting with a polearm and I am thinking here about a bardiche, a weapon that could have been used by a heavy ottoman infantryman. So a heavy infantryman will need both his hands to wield a bardiche but he will still need the covering of a shield (against arrows mostly) while he will charge with insane courage towards the enemy ;) ...

I know what delii originally meant - an Ottoman berserker ...... :D

If one looks at the winged shield more carefully, he will see that actually there's a resemblance between it and the kite/heater shield. Yes, I know this sounds quite weird, but it really looks like reversed kite/heater. The arrangement of the holding straps is also similar.
So, that's why I suspect that it will be quite suitable shield for infantry combat also, if its dimensions are carefully selected of course.

Greetings, gentlemen!
I think that the previously mentioned winged shield is a hungarian one, since such paintjob could be observed in other examples too, like on the one in the attachment. This is a Hungarian hussar's shield from the XVIth century, kept in the Arsenal of Graz. The rivets and plates indicates the place where straps were attached to the back of the shield. This confused me, so I asked the curator about the arrangement of them. He stated that the two rivets in the front holds the grip, the two in the back holds the arm-strap, and the bottom two formed a little holder for a secondary weapon, so if the soldier lost his sword, he could have caused a surprise for his opponent, by quickly pulling out a dagger or similar weapon from the shelter of the shield. Tricky? Dishonorable? Well, a French traveller in the XVIth century wrote that he would rather trust a Turkish than a Hungarian.
But what I said was true! ;) :lol:

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Hussar's shield from the XVIth century. Graz, Arsenal. Sorry for the poor quality [ Download ]

This is very interesting and valuable information, although it may be a little bit tricky.
Thanks, Janos!

Today I cut the shield blank (I will show pictures of the process in my next post) and made some research on arrangement of the straps and usefulness of this type of shield in infantry combat.

As I suspected before, the shield is quite useful as infantry equipment also, offering a good protection for the torso and, especially, the head and the neck.
What was really tricky (that's why I started this post with the phrase "it may be a little bit tricky") was the fact these advantages come to life if only the holding straps were arrange in the way, mentioned by Janos - alongside the short diagonal of the shield.

If the straps were placed alongside the long diagonal - from the "horn" to the opposite corner (a displacement, which I supposed was common and good for cavalry), the shield became cumbersome and heavy, and offered far less protection than in the previous case.

The shield posted by János Sibinger is a different style of wingshield, this one looks like it was designed for infantry, the straps are mounted in a different manner and the "tip" of the "wing" is much lower. The shield is also smaller than the previous posted versions. This type of shield has a tricky problem. You need to place very carefully the straps or the shield will become unbalanced and the "tip" of the "wing" (i.e. the upper right part as you look at the front of the shield ) will tend to act as a lever when you will try and block a blow, making very hard to controll the shield when the blow is comming downwards from the left (i.e. from the users point of vue). In the begining of our reenactment group we have made two shields of this type and we haven' t enough experience with strap setting then, so both of hem are unbalanced and unpleasant to use.

I found this 19th century German picture of a group of 17th-18th century Turkish soldiers. The man the left with a mace is holding a rectangular shield, I assume that this is either a misinterpretation of a wingshield, or a wingshield variant which is almost rectangular.

http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/PLATE67BX.HTML

And as I promised, some pictures from today

The blank is taken off the shield-press and the contоurs were drawn

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Bellow the blank is another on-going project - a Roman scutum.

The shield is cut

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and is covered with the first layer of fabric -

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in this case - heavy cotton, which will be followed by second layer of heavy linen.

Fine discussion gents and nice work Boris!

As to the question of wing-shields being used by footmen , i came across an interesting picture:
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Don't know the author or date but it looks like one of those 16th century Ottoman miniatures. You can clearly see the infantry using them. One thing to keep in mind is that there was most probably a great deal of variety among them not just one stereotypical model.

On a side note it seems those rectangular shields go way back further into history and are especially tied to the Balkans. See for example Brezinski's Osprey title on winged hussars , he mentions that Turks refereed to them as "Rumelian" (i.e. Roman or Byzantine) , whereas Italians called them Albanian or Bosnian etc. , one way or the other they point out to the Balkan peninsula. One could make a speculation that it was the late Balkan/Byzantine experimentation with the heater/kite variety that gave rise to this somewhat weird type of shield ( contrary to most European fashions in which shields became smaller as well as discarded in favour of more and more plate).

See for example this Macedonian fresco painting of saint George dated to 1316-18, the sweeping upward curve is clearly visible
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source: http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/George.html

Of importance is also the 14th century Bulgarian Manasses Chronicle in which there are several instanced where an early form wing-shield can be seen http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?titl...+Chronicle (look for the upward curve)

Regards

"I have got a fly in my brains......"

This Bulgarian expression usually is used to describe somekind of a weird idea, which occures suddenly, and in the begining is quickly discounted as poor one.
But it evolves and grows in time and occures again, and again, and again ...... till the moment when one decides to use it.

In my case "the fly" is this open-work and engraved decoration of this 16. C Ottoman armour

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from "Askeri Muze" (Military Museum) in Istanbul, Turkey

Some more closer pictures here (sorry for the blicks):
http://bbedrosov.snimka.bg/hobby/askeri-myuze...5.16331595
http://bbedrosov.snimka.bg/hobby/askeri-myuze...5.16331596
http://bbedrosov.snimka.bg/hobby/askeri-myuze...5.16331600
http://bbedrosov.snimka.bg/hobby/askeri-myuze...5.16331601

If Someone is interested in, the whole my album from this museum is here:
http://bbedrosov.snimka.bg/hobby/askeri-myuze...iya.451965

So, I started to work on the decorations. First are the cuisses.

The pattern:

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and the work till now - the lower one is just drawn, while the upper one is almost completely cut-through

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Ehm, well, those will turn out beautiful, carry on. And please increase you pace

Nice. I like it. :)

Will it not significantly increase the weight of the armour Though?

No, I don't think so.

I use 0.5 mm brass and my intention is to decorate only the knee-cops, the breast-plate and the contours of the arm-guards and greaves. This would be (I hope) no more than one kilogram, distributed almost evenly on the entire body.

Hello Boris,

Nice work so far. These armors have always intrigued me. I look forward to seeing your finished kit!

BTW, the "powered guillotine" you mentioned is called a "Plate Shear" in English. Fun little machines. Wish I had one :).

Schoenes Wochenende,

I lost myself somewhere.............

So, here they are some pictures from the recent work

The rows of the skirt just prior to the assembly (which has already begun)

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A closer view to the straps & buckles in the middle of the previous picture, which I use for this project

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A closer view to the rows (you can see the strap w/ buckle, already riveted to the middle row)

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And detailed view to a section of the skirt (in this case - from the lower row)

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Yes, indeed.

Unfortunately, mixing Ottoman arm defence w/ leg defence is quite often repeated mistake not only in Turkish, but in European museums also.

The skirt was finished several days ago and this

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is the final result.

Here are some closer views to the left

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and to the right

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ends of the skirt with leather straps and buckles well visible.