(I’ve been doing a little research for a story I’m writing. It’s fantasy, but I like to keep things fairly realistic as well.) Do you know if there has ever been a style of breastplate that has a shield mounted to the front of it, sort of like it’s a double layer breastplate? But the shield can detach as well? I swear I’ve heard of this at some point, but I haven’t been able to find anything like it. Maybe I’m making things up! 😂
So there are a few things you might be talking about, and I'm not totally sure what you're going for. The first thing that comes to mind is the plackard, which is a standard piece on most late period cuirasses.
Most of the time the plackard only covers the lower portion of the breastplate
but after about 1500 you find some gigantic, reinforcing plackards which cover the whole breastplate. The Mantova B4 is a good example. Here are the breastplate (left) and plackard (right) separately;
and then together.
Aside from this there are some weird, specialty jousting things you might be referencing.
A type of armor called the rennzeug (which was developed for a special type of German joust called the scharfrennen in which sharp lances were used and no barriers were erected) was typically accompanied by a large, encompassing shield, seen here.
That black thing that covers the chest and lower face is the shield.
Or, you could be talking about the clockwork breastplates made ca. 1500 for tournament.
These pieces had similar shields fitted to the with frangible metal plates. When a lance struck the shield, the mechanism released, sending the shield flying into the air and the metal plates scattering out. It was meant to increase the spectacle, and make it look like armor was shattering from the blow.
I think you're probably talking about the plackard, but I wanted to cover my bases. I hope this helps!
