Detroitika - Tanner Jon A.
Bloodline: 1394
Bloodline Series: [1272 a, b] [1394 a, b]
Reinolt Wüstritter, the second minifigure of my fictional family Bloodline series, was a knight in Sachsen, Germany during the advancement of plate armor and the emergence of the shining armor image.
*Don't read this description if you aren't interested in this history*
The Black Plague of the 1340s, with serious resurgences for decades afterwards, wiped out many working-class Europeans. This made full-body chainmail, the old de facto, prohibitively expensive and spurred on plate solutions. The first European breastplates were made in the 1370s. This minifigure represents some of the first full-body suits of European shining steel armor that ever existed. As is only appropriate, I did my research and decked Reinolt out in the very most German armaments of the time.
He wears long, pointed sabatons, or foot armor below full-metal greaves, or lower leg armor. These comprised of a shin and a calf piece, hinged or tied together around the leg, so naturally feature a securing strap on the inside. Between these and the cuisses, or thigh defenses, hinged poleyns protected the knees and attached, flanged "wings" stopped cuts to the side of the knee.
Above the leg assembly is a mail skirt, the compromise descendant of the old traditional full-body hauberks. His type of gauntlet is known as an hourglass gauntlet, giving lots of angle to maneuver the hand. They are peculiar to this time period. Vambraces protected the forearms and lamellar (made of several plates) rerebraces protected the upper arms, still over mail. Couters covered the elbows, in a very similar design to the knee poleyns, complete with a flanged wing for the inner elbow.
The globose breastplate and simple backplate would have been worn over an arming doublet, a garment featuring the mail visible on the armpits and shoulders. A padded aventail, or neck defense of mail, hung from the rim of the helmet. This helmet, known as a Klappvisor, is a version of the bascinet type of helmet that was extremely popular around Germany.
For a witty little monologue on padded aventails and a klappvisor bascinet, watch this video I've linked to before. Don't worry. Mine has the visor-securing strap, historically accurate, that the museum recreation lacked. Tthhhhbbbt.
The red strings and straps that would hold all the plates together are a vital detail to armor, nearly ubiquitously forgotten by fantasy designs. I made them all red to fit the fictional family's heraldry.
His sword is an Oakeshott type XIIa with an octagonal crossguard and an octagonally faceted Oakeshott Type T pommel. Of the swords I've completed, this is by far the prettiest. Brickwarrior's oversized but lovely arming sword served as a base for this hand-and-a-halfer blade and crossguard, their shaping heavily modified by sanding and filing. The grip and pommel are my own creation. Brickwarrior's bascinet also served as a base for the helmet, but theirs was modeled after the pigfaced version popular outside of Germany.
I looked at multiple sources for every part, but most of this fig is based on these two recreation armors:
"Late 14th C Knightly Harness"
And these well-photographed recreation klappvisors:
"Sharukhan Market Klappvisor Bascinet"
"Jolly Knight Armoury Nurnberg Bascinet Klappvisor c. 1370" which is a recreation of, you guessed it, a Nurnberg klappvisor from about 1370
Please enjoy! More pictures with less research babble are on the way!
Bloodline: 1394
Bloodline Series: [1272 a, b] [1394 a, b]
Reinolt Wüstritter, the second minifigure of my fictional family Bloodline series, was a knight in Sachsen, Germany during the advancement of plate armor and the emergence of the shining armor image.
*Don't read this description if you aren't interested in this history*
The Black Plague of the 1340s, with serious resurgences for decades afterwards, wiped out many working-class Europeans. This made full-body chainmail, the old de facto, prohibitively expensive and spurred on plate solutions. The first European breastplates were made in the 1370s. This minifigure represents some of the first full-body suits of European shining steel armor that ever existed. As is only appropriate, I did my research and decked Reinolt out in the very most German armaments of the time.
He wears long, pointed sabatons, or foot armor below full-metal greaves, or lower leg armor. These comprised of a shin and a calf piece, hinged or tied together around the leg, so naturally feature a securing strap on the inside. Between these and the cuisses, or thigh defenses, hinged poleyns protected the knees and attached, flanged "wings" stopped cuts to the side of the knee.
Above the leg assembly is a mail skirt, the compromise descendant of the old traditional full-body hauberks. His type of gauntlet is known as an hourglass gauntlet, giving lots of angle to maneuver the hand. They are peculiar to this time period. Vambraces protected the forearms and lamellar (made of several plates) rerebraces protected the upper arms, still over mail. Couters covered the elbows, in a very similar design to the knee poleyns, complete with a flanged wing for the inner elbow.
The globose breastplate and simple backplate would have been worn over an arming doublet, a garment featuring the mail visible on the armpits and shoulders. A padded aventail, or neck defense of mail, hung from the rim of the helmet. This helmet, known as a Klappvisor, is a version of the bascinet type of helmet that was extremely popular around Germany.
For a witty little monologue on padded aventails and a klappvisor bascinet, watch this video I've linked to before. Don't worry. Mine has the visor-securing strap, historically accurate, that the museum recreation lacked. Tthhhhbbbt.
The red strings and straps that would hold all the plates together are a vital detail to armor, nearly ubiquitously forgotten by fantasy designs. I made them all red to fit the fictional family's heraldry.
His sword is an Oakeshott type XIIa with an octagonal crossguard and an octagonally faceted Oakeshott Type T pommel. Of the swords I've completed, this is by far the prettiest. Brickwarrior's oversized but lovely arming sword served as a base for this hand-and-a-halfer blade and crossguard, their shaping heavily modified by sanding and filing. The grip and pommel are my own creation. Brickwarrior's bascinet also served as a base for the helmet, but theirs was modeled after the pigfaced version popular outside of Germany.
I looked at multiple sources for every part, but most of this fig is based on these two recreation armors:
"Late 14th C Knightly Harness"
And these well-photographed recreation klappvisors:
"Sharukhan Market Klappvisor Bascinet"
"Jolly Knight Armoury Nurnberg Bascinet Klappvisor c. 1370" which is a recreation of, you guessed it, a Nurnberg klappvisor from about 1370
Please enjoy! More pictures with less research babble are on the way!