While this may sound like a lot of preemptive excuse-making, if you take the time to look at a few of the unearthed finds, you'll realize how true it really is. In many cases, even the two halves of the same hinge don't match very closely.
However, I'm not being paid one goat for five segmentatas, nor do I have to produce them before the month is out. I'm also not particularly planning to use this for reenactment purposes. Therefore, I'm going to be trying to produce as attractive a final product as I can (without quitting my day job, that is).
I will, however, take advantage of the "historically imperfect" argument in one particular way -- I'm not planning to slavishly reconstruct an exact clone of a particular unearthed cuirass. It will however, be generally of Newstead type.
Plans for the final version will be made available once I have settled on my exact designs.
But here is where I'm starting:
- MC Bishop's schematics of the Newstead breastplates. Although I suspect I will choose a different leathering point as suggested by Dr. L. Arik Greenberg here.
- Upper and Lesser Shoulder Plates - Experimenting with different sizes, shapes, and overlaps. Trying several things here in the prototype phase.
- Girth Strip attachment to breastplate - Hooks, as per Newstead
- Girth Strip closures - Tab in Slot (I think this was first proposed by MC Bishop?) I am curious about whether using tie-loops in the back might not make it a lot easier to don the armour alone... I don't like the mix & match approach, though. Hmmm...
- Unlike Bishop's plans for the Newstead cuirass, however, I plan to have 7-8 girth strips of mostly constant width. I also plan to alter the length of the lower girth strips to gain a more tapered fit (ie to follow waist/hips instead of a straight tube).
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