2005, 2007, 2009, Skarabäus-campaign. Contrary to the light armour this one is intended to look intimidating. It is either worn with helmet or jackal mask. The jackal, however, doesn´t talk much...

This page belongs to the subject area “egyptians”. The beginning would be here: Egyptians

The construction principle:
The armour is single- layered, meaning that - opposite to the chaos-armour- it is in direct contact with the wearer without underlying volume-generating buildup. The broad shoulders are just fur which also joins the upper-arm- plates to the harness: The fur is glued under the armour, the plates in turn under the fur.

The oversized behind-the-head- structure makes the creature look larger and more massive and the “rollover-bar” actually offers protection against hits from foam- weapons from behind or the sides.

Although I love spikes there are none in impact- areas (that would be unfair because players would spare these regions in order not to damage the outfit). A monster´s impact areas are arms, legs and the back (monster-hunters aren´t stupid as I´ve repeatedly learned the hard way...).

A creature looking like this always is a mighty character- whose kind in the Phönix- gameworld all work for the organizers. If you have something in the game that can kill an unarmed beginner´s character with one hit you´ll want it to be under control.

And how do you portray a superman if in reality you aren´t one?
He can be boosted by the rules of the game; for example he might be able to perform magic while wearing armour without fumbling or his weapons might cause exaggerated damage while in turn only special sorts of weapons (for instance blessed ones) might be able to harm him.

But that is only one side. When the critter stands on the field of battle and is meant to be a super-warrior, it chiefly has to be an above- average fighter.
That doesn´t mainly mean fighting- prowess-  of course he has to know what he´s doing, but we want to tune up the armour: he must be faster and more agile than his opponents.

“Full flexible” for a warrior means:
- Head and hip must be able to move unhindered. The helmet must not impair sight or touch the harness which in turn (at least here) covers only the upper body.  The hip-area is protected by the belt.
- Upper arms must be able to raise 45 degrees to the front and sides. Ellbows must be able to bend 90 degrees.
- Legs must not be impaired in their movement to the front. Knees must be able to bend 90  degrees. Leg- armour is light; protection of the thighs to the side is more important than to the front (there´s no stabbing in larp). Rule of thumb: if half- high sidekicks can be performed with correct technique it will work ok.
With larp foam- armour we don´t have to consider weight and can ignore details like the otherwise deadly impractical behind- the head- structure (I am aware that nobody in his right mind would wear something like this in a real battle).

Because foam- armour is lighter and more comfortable to wear than steel the above listed features make the monster (assuming same or higher dexterity) a superior opponent.
A cqc- training also helps, by the way...

At this point a word to those who know how to fight in reality:
1: Be especially considerate.
2: Refrain from transferring real fighting techniques that exceed basic concepts into the game- worlds. The techniques employed there must not cause injuries.
3: No weapon- demonstrations. If you play with weapons, somebody will get hurt. There is no exception from this rule.

Above: The carcass. Its shape decides the later fit of the whole thing, so invest time in finding out the correct patterns. There is no “one-size-fits-all”. Find out your areas of movement and cut off pieces until it works (look who´s talking...)
I started with “collar” that covers the sholuders and reaches down to the solar plexus. Note that the shoulders aren´t straight but decline slightly to follow the natural shape. On the back are two “wings” that fold under the arms and cross at the front. The nether one is glued to the collar, the upper one is fastened with 3-finger-broad velcro (hooks on the armour, cloth on the wing). That´s how I get in: Loosen wing, put in head and right arm, fold free wing under left arm and close velcro; ready in under 10 seconds.

The oversized neck-guard´s shape is first definded by parts made out of cheap camping-mats (green) that are later cut out again or vanish inside the construction. The frame (black) is already “good” foam.

Above: First version of the harness; front and back. Notice the too- big horizontal hieroglyph- plate: It was then that I suspected the material could do much better detailwise...

Above: 2005. I also show him on the page “fails”, but the whole sad story shall be told here:
Notice the mask: Why has the “artist” given it another colour pattern than the rest of the armour? Why the “egyptian” eye- linings? They are normally painted on a face. If you paint them on a mask´s much wider eyeholes they look like damn sunglasses!
And why in the name of the four highest gods of chaos didn´t Mr. Perfect try out if helmet and harness fit together? (Well, he has, but there was no more time for rebuilding the thing before deadline): When the head moves, the neck-guard touches the helmet´s sides and dislocates it, thereby displacing the mask´s eyeholes and the supermonster not only looks ridiculous but is also blind (facepalm).
Inacceptable.

Did you by the way know that you can´t wear a belt that is broader than four fingers? If it is broader you can either pull it up to be able to move your legs or push it down to better move the hip- both is not possible and you definitely will suffer from impaired movement.

And finally: the material´s capabilities are far greater than shown here.
So back to the drawing-board.

Above: 2007. And then you take a real sharp carpet- knife and mercilessly cut off all parts that impair the helmet´s movement.
Yup, it hurt. And only three weeks until deadline.

Above: Rebuilding of the armour in 2007. The neck- guard is gone and we see the finely detailed “rollover- bar” (if you look closely it´s the motif of a wide open maw).
Design elements: On the sides the theme of the “nemes”- headdress, hieroglyph- bands containing original texts from the book of the dead, supplemented upper- arm- plates (again with hieroglyphs) and glued- on ledges for each element. A great quality enhancement.

Above: Originally the heavy armour was intended to be worn with the jackal mask, but when the warlord appears in this shape things got out of hand way past negotiation- level. So for representation purposes the armour is worn with the golden helmet that can now move unhindered.

Above: opened harness. The left (upper) wing folds away. Put through head and right arm, close wing with velcro: ready in under ten seconds.

Above: 2009, the broad belt has also been reconstructed. It is closed on the right side with two webbing straps with clip-clasps. The “open” area (there´s no foam there because that´s where the belt´s length can be adjusted) is hidden under a small pouch.
The belt consists of the abovementioned two webbing-straps being sewn onto a 4-finger-broad strap of non- elastic, tearproof cloth. On this the foam- elements are glued. Notice how the new belt follows the hip´s natural movement areas: front lies deeper on the hip than back. Although the foam belt is way broader than 4 fingers, its bottom segment is not attached to the round “clasp” and thus does mot impair movement.

Weapon- and equipment- mountings can be attached to the belt by metal lungs that are held in place by webbing-straps with velcro on the inside of the belt. They- as well as the thigh- plates- are removable. Remember to make the velcro-strips as long as possible and attach the velcro´s hook sides to the removable parts and the soft sides to the belt.

The big foam- “clasp” at the front has no holding- function. Its surface is “scratched” because something obviously was removed from there (supposedly when the pharaoh turned away from the realm´s main deity).

The segmented hanging part at the front are foam-plates (three segments per plate) that are glued onto cloth to make it tearproof. They in turn are attached to two webbing-straps hanging from the “clasp” onto which cloth was sewn to create glueable surfaces. The first two plates under the “clasp” are also augmented with pvc- plates about 1 mm strong...

Let´s talk about a little dirty secret here: Way too many real steel armours do not really protect a certain area under the belt- clasp... You don´t believe me? Google “armour/ pictures” and have a closer look. So why the flaming hell is this vital part so often only protected by mesh or not at all? That is because these are rider´s armours. Steel in this area doesn´t make sense when you´re sitting in a saddle.

But when fighting on foot protect your lower abdomen or suffer very embarrassing arrow- hits that will later be posted on Youtube.

See another broad- belt- solution with armoured front at “chaos armour/ belt”. Link: belt.

When comparing the helmets from the “fail”-picture with the ones shown here one also notices revised sides, hieroglyph- bandana and a jackal´s head on the forhead cut off from the McFarlane- mummy- figure (best jackalmask there is); memo to myself: replace figure...
But it all was in vain: the helmet´s quality could no longer match that of the harness; I´ve built a new one (see “egyptian helmet”). Link: Egyptian Helmet.

last edit Jul 16, oct 2016