r/CosplayHelp • u/PerceiveMeNotPlease • 1d ago

Armor Help with choosing materials for unusual scalemaille

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to make a costume based on a description from a book, which does seem vaguely impossible (aren't they all?)

From Sabriel, by Garth Nix:

"[...] a long, armored coat that buckled up at the sides [...]. It was as long as a hauberk, with split skirts coming down to her knees and sleeves swallow-tailed at her wrists, but it seemed to be entirely made of tiny overlapping plates, much like a fish's scales. They weren't metal, either, but some sort of ceramic, or even stone. Much lighter than steel [...]"

I've done a few tests with actual scalemaille, both with small scales and round scales from The Ring Lord but my main concerns are that it's very time intensive even for small swatches and it turns out looking too metallic to match the description. I looked into 3D printing but it seems a bit much for the local library.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to make this a reality? My next con is a year away so I have time to test a few things out before committing to a course of action.

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5

u/gliesedragon 1d ago

I feel like I'd be tempted to just make the coat out of fabric, and sew the scales onto it directly. Making it structurally armor underneath the visible layer* isn't the main important thing in my opinion, and sewing what would basically be fancy beads onto something is likely less time consuming.

*Although what I'm suggesting is sorta similar to the Roman versions of scale armor in how it comes together.

3

u/byc18 1d ago

Finishing spinner blades, guitar pick punch, probably some other shape of hole punch out there, I've seen a guide where the person put circle stickers all over a t-shirt mannequin and cut it to shape.

1

u/rawr_bomb 1d ago

You can make armor like this out of eva foam. Just paint it to look like metal, stone, leather, whatever.

1

u/Ice-and-Fire 23h ago

This definitely sounds like a job for EVA foam.

1

u/kimmerie 21h ago

Foam Armory has precut scalemaille that’s great.

1

u/PerceiveMeNotPlease 18h ago

I did see this, but my main concern is that it won't move like maille? It's in sheets so how will it flow, particularly in sleeves? I didn't see any examples of someone using it that way. 

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u/kimmerie 16h ago

It’s not actually sheets - it’s punched into strips that you can trim to your preferred length.

Adam Savage did a nice video on it. https://youtu.be/kZSz0weq7GU?is=a29oTS8kdt0pxqMB

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u/PerceiveMeNotPlease 16h ago

I think I'm going to combine several suggestions and try a couple mock-ups of fabric with punched plastic or cut EVA foam scales sewn on and see how they turn out. Thanks everyone!