Banded groin armor plating

Imperial Knight Conversion: Pt.  8 — Old school groin armor.

Just one more thing I had to mess with. While I do like the look of the banner in between the Imperial Knight’s legs, I wanted something that looked a little more like the old-school Epic-scale Knights, who had linked armor plates instead. I kept looking at that crotch armor and one day I couldn’t help but change it.

In a fit of impulsiveness I grabbed a chisel and cut the bottom plates away. I followed the angle of the rivets, so it had a slight slope downwards in the middle.

I made the initial plates out of the thickest plasticard I had. I simply cut the rough shapes and used a nail file to shape them. I did three levels of links, following the angle of the top piece. The bottom had a slight rounded curve to it. I added knocked corners to mimic the notches where the top armor connects as well. I took these flat pieces and pushed them down around the barrel of a brush as well to give them a slight curve.

In order to both make the thickness match the plastic piece and also to give the set a nice backing to bind it together, I cut another thin piece of plasticard roughly to shape. After glueing the bits in place, you could really see the overall form coming through. I then cut around the edges with a sharp hobby knife to mirror the front armor plates.

I added some rivets to the front with, of all things, Elmer’s glue. I built up the glue in about 3 or 4 dots, letting each dry before adding the next. Can’t really tell how well they turned out till they get some paint on them, but I did knock them back just a touch with the nail file. I then glued the plate to the armor piece, and twisted a little movement into it at this point.