Completed Shields

It has taken a while, but two of the shields have been completed! They are functional and fun. Despite being a bit smaller than commonly made they provide good coverage and work well. Although inspired by some more historic examples, they are both pretty much boffer shields. The wooden shield should last a year, maybe a bit more. The plastic shield should last indefinitely.




Obviously these are not full contact shields. They are weapon to shield contact only. No shield to body. Their cores are solid material and would hurt if they strike a person.

Full album here if you're interested.

In practice the Kite shield is amazing. Based on historic dimensions it's a little small. Also based on my size it's a little small. Unfortunately the size of the project panels available at Home Depot determined the shields dimensions. It would be much better to purchase a full sheet of plywood and make the full sized version of the shield. Perhaps that's a project for another time.

The colors are kept simple at the moment. They were chosen to look more like raw material, rather than a coat of arms. It was a tad ironic to put brown duct tape, 'wood' color in most larps, over actual wood. But it's better to get the tape layer on the shield to protect the opponents weapons. You would not want their sword to pick up a splinter.

The black electrical tape looks really great, but is a really terrible choice for the edging. Electrical tape has the benefit of being soft and spongy, which means it can go around corners. However the adhesive is lacking. It keeps falling off. Love the look, but it's basically just for the pictures.

The scutum had a little problem with style as well. After putting on the brown duct tape it still looked like a plastic barrel. Adding the horizontal lines in silver tape covers makes the barrel bands appear to be metal reinforcement on the shield. It tells a better story to the eye this way. The black 'nail heads' were just for fun. They will probably fall off in combat.

The downside of this shield is that it's heavy. Not as heavy as a real shield, but not as light as the plywood shields.

Anyway the project was great fun. And I still have 5 more scutum blanks. In the end plywood seems to be the better material choice. October is going to be awesome, and I can't wait to use them at The Goblin War V. With my armor all set, and shields ready to go, I'm ready to take the field as a warrior.