Well, the swords were horrible to fight with, pretty much as expected. Fortunately, nobody seemed to realize a strong blow would bend them in half like a limp bus ticket, so they managed to do all I asked of them. I never asked them to block, and they never broke on me It’s not a position I like being in, so I might be upgrading my swords soon…
I’ve now started working on some light oriental armour. Very plain, as befits my impoverished ronin status.
I’m reasonably pleased with how this turned out. I was umming and arring about what to use as the basis for the skull part of the helmet. While buying some plastic buckets and spades for the kids at Ikes Emporium in Browns Bay, I saw a really cheep costume bowler hat. It was the perfect shape and fit perfectly and cost $1.95
The leather for the skull is scraps of 2mm just glued on, with the neck guard from 3mm leather in a very similar colour. It only took a couple of hours to throw together and it’s amazingly comfortable. I must say that Oriental costume armour is substantially easier that European costume armour to make. I can’t imagine turning out anything this fast in any other style. Maybe an EVA barrel helm.
It’s now sitting in the corner calling out to me to be decorated. However, I shall resist, as I need to make it easy for all the wealthy samurai to look prettier than me
Oh, okay, maybe a little bit of decoration then.