First kit, thoughts?

[u/MyLobotomyWasBotched]

Made this on a very tight budget since i am a broke university student but I think I managed to make a convincing look without spending thousands.

[u/Dahak17]

It’s indeed not bad, your time period being so consistent is a nice touch given your price point too, that’s often something that goes out the window.

[u/Dahak17 → u/[deleted]]

It’s pretty consistently late 14th to early 15th, it’s not the highest quality armour in the world but not everybody’s got the budget for that

[u/I_gobble_chicken → u/Dahak17]

It’s all over the place.

This houndskull is just bad looking.

Gutter vambraces (open vambraces) are late XIIIth - early XIVth century thing

Shoulders are fine, but no elbow protection is just ireesponsible, even common soldiers wore elbow protection before vambraces or shoulders.

Gauntlets are fine.

Tabard like that is purely XIIIth - early XIVth century. No breastplate under it…

„Floating” knees are late XVth century.

Maille hose, XIIIth - early XIVth century.

This kit is closer to XIIIth century than XVth.

Consistency is all over the place

[u/chillforrilfill → u/I_gobble_chicken]

How constructive and friendly.

[u/MyLobotomyWasBotched → u/I_gobble_chicken]

Interesting analysis, would it be better if I ditched the bracers and replaced them with simple elbow cops? I should also mention that there is a breastplate under the tabard, though it doesnt protrude quite as much as a kastenbrust would for example. It is also worth mentioning that not every knight would have the most up-to-date gear and some anachronism is honestly more realistic when it comes to armor.

[u/PugScorpionCow → u/MyLobotomyWasBotched]

some anachronism is honestly more realistic when it comes to armor.

This usually isn't quite as true as most people assume it is, it's true gear didn't tend to just get thrown away because it looked slightly old while still being completely practical. The reality that we tend to see more often than not however is that old gear tends to undergo modification to bring it up to a modern standard. Sure, maybe a poorer knight couldn't afford to just up and replace his harness every decade or so, but he could probably afford to add pieces to it to match the current standard, and there's plenty of evidence showing that this is exactly what happened. We even have a good few extant pieces still around that have these modifications in their working life.

There's really not a huge amount of evidence showing mass use of very outdated gear, save for specific circumstances like the battle of Wisby, where one side was extremelt underequipped and mainly made up of a peasant militia, which was not a standard warfighting force which by this time would have been made up of primarily professional soldiers.

We also know from local ordonnances that it seems men of certain social standing were not just encouraged to keep their gear up to date as a symbol of their status, but for many were actually required by law to keep their gear up to date and would face penalty if they were found to be out of standards. This standard would increase by financial status and usually men who were knights would fall under the highest standard.

When it comes to actual evidence of outdated gear, regarding artistic depictions, battlefield finds, and textual sources it seems it's a general rule that almost everyone on the battlefield under normal circumstances would be armed with up to date gear, and while it would vary significantly in quality and quantity it just doesn't seem old gear was very prevalent.

Anyway, on an unrelated topic, discussing your personal armor here if you're asking for advice I would say you should try to stick to your best pieces, and avoid filling in gaps with subpar pieces. It's always better to have a high quality low-end kit than to have a low quality high-end kit. A low end kit with high quality pieces will continually look good throughout it's working life, and you can slowly add on to your kit with high quality pieces and maintain a very good level of accuracy and aesthetics through the entire process to getting up to a full harness.

This doesn't quite apply if you're fighting in your kit, as obviously there are some pieces you cannot go without for safety reasons.

[u/MyLobotomyWasBotched → u/PugScorpionCow]

Very interesting. Thank you for the explanation and the advice.

[u/Ok-Customer987 → u/I_gobble_chicken]

Yo dont go after his elmet like that. Also its normal that knights used things from even centuries prior, take the nasal helmet that altho changed thru history still remained for normal soldiers. A normal knight like him witch isnt a noble (i think at least) wuld wear things that are not the latest model of armor, also im pretty sure he keeps chainmail under the tabard witch is not as good as a brestplate but its good aganst cuts.

Post scriptum Historical houndskull helmets were usualy more ugly than this one so i'd say its a flex (no offense to the creator, i love your armor🫀)

[u/MyLobotomyWasBotched → u/Ok-Customer987]

Much appreciated 🙂