The Armor Blog™️

Send armor pictures and I will rate them out of 10

[henryfitzwalter]

Thoughts on the Nimona armor?

For its purposes as a highly stylized fantasy movie aimed at a young audience, I’d say it works. It doesn’t have to be anything super fancy or realistic, but it mostly looks alright anyway

[henryfitzwalter]

Thoughts? (Of what you can see around the shield anyway)

Not bad, aside from the butted maille. I guess even modern jousting armor literally needs to be at least decently functional/historical, seeing as it’s an extremely dangerous sport and the armor needs to look a certain way for it to be… slightly less dangerous I guess lol

[henryfitzwalter]

THEIR PLUMAGE FKSNFNDNFND

I think that’s a display in the Royal Armories in Leeds, England. It’s two Elizabethan (1580s?) armors (idk if they’re extants or just extremely well made replicas) fighting at the barriers, which is a type of tournament combat popularized in the 16th century. It emphasizes a lack of grappling, as well as aiming for exclusively the upper body, which is why they wear no leg armor.

[henryfitzwalter]

Thoughts?

(Submission from @the-merry-otter from god knows how long ago)

Mostly alright! The especially long tunic and maille is definitely within the aesthetic of 12th century Western Europe, but the helmet shape is a bit odd (Phrygian helmets were a thing, this just looks… Off somehow) and he has a metal rim on his shield, which is not historical. His coif is very well shaped tho, and his sword is of the proper typology for the first half of the 1100s. All in all, about a solid 7/10!

[henryfitzwalter]

Otter Knight?

This is an Anglo-Saxon warrior’s kit and therefore not a knight. That said I love him

[henryfitzwalter]

Stop talking shit about France, it’s weird

[henryfitzwalter]

Cow in armour?

How does she moooove

[henryfitzwalter]

do it, gamer

.....alrighty

[henryfitzwalter]

Hey, I have some stuff I think hope you’ll enjoy

Ironically I actually have a lot of these saved on my phone lol, but most of them are pretty decent 11th-early 12th century knights, except for the third guy. Don’t know what’s goin on with his ventail and I’d lose the gambeson on the 4th dude.

[henryfitzwalter]

Q: How does this armor, from Berserk look?

A: Berserk had really good armor! Griffith is no exception, there’s clearly a lot of research behind this design and at least some sort of understanding of the way armor I supposed to move and function. I appreciate this one a lot.

[henryfitzwalter]

do you have any posts on the era’s of Armor Styles and what differentiates them? if not, if its not too much trouble, would you be able to make one? (please and thank you! also i’m glad i found your blog i want to know more abt armor and i’m learning a lot just reading your posts!)

I think you’d need to ask something a bit more specific lol. I had an answer all written out but then I closed tumblr to look for some more reference images and it fucking GOT RID OF WHAT I WAS WRITING and I’m not about to spend another hour doin that lol

[henryfitzwalter]

Breastplates need to end at the natural waist. If they don’t, you won’t be able to bend your torso properly. Please, for the love of god, if you’re drawing armor, this is like the one thing that EVERYONE gets wrong about breastplates so if you’re drawing or designing armor, keep it in mind.

[henryfitzwalter]

Sorry I haven’t been posting.... at all.

Here’s a couple of knights from the second half of the 14th century. The one on the right is portraying Valdemar Atterdag, King of Denmark, at the Battle of Visby.

Also included in this post: my thoughts about the knightcore tag on this site

I’ve seen a little bit of knightcore stuff and not gonna lie, I have to say: where are all the knights? Why is all the armor I keep seeing really bad or really rusty or something? Knights were rich as fuck, their armor should look way prettier than a poorly articulated, clearly plastic 16th century pauldron slapped over some aluminum mail. Knights were fancy as hell. Let’s see some more fancy knights, huh?

[henryfitzwalter]

Q: Got my wolf character boyo geared up in a Milanese harness, with some slight modifications to the helmet to accommodate for some of his more animalistic characteristics. Would love to get your thoughts on it. A: Looks neat! Love how you redesigned the helmet. Breastplate is a bit too long, but it looks really good!

[henryfitzwalter]

Rate?

Also you should post more 🥺

Like a 5.5/10. You literally can’t fuckin move in those breastplates, but otherwise they’re not bad.

[henryfitzwalter]

How’s this rate?

Solid 10/10. This one is pretty well-known, it’s genuinely perfect. I love it. Thank you for sending it to me so I can look at it again.

[henryfitzwalter]

Here's some armor from Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.

Oh! This actually isn’t that bad! He’s wearing a plackart, which shows an understanding of how mid-late 15th century breastplates/torso defences functioned, and that greathelm, which looks a bit anachronistic, still looks kinda nice. Overall, solid 8/10, since the waist is a bit low on the plackart.