Aethelmearc Appearance Requirements
As of April 1st (no fooling ) Aethelmearc will be enforcing a “no visible modern material” requirement for armour. What this means is that exposed plastic, camo pants, anything blatantly modern will not be permitted upon the field. The only exceptions to this will be hand wear (hockey gloves for fighting great weapons) and foot gear. They are however looking to have these items not be glaring. Tennis shoes should not be white. Hockey gloves should be painted/dyed so the logos disappear.
So what does this mean to us?? For those living in the East or elsewhere, nothing. For the rest, Time to clean up our kits in a big way for some. When you get down to it, it’s all fairly easy.
Surcoats and tabards will hide a lot of sins. Couple yards of cotton fabric and a few hours running with scissors and a sewing machine is all it pretty much takes. Footwear, black is not only slimming but it also tends not to stand out like a pair of white converse sneakers.
Now let’s talk about some of the harder things to make vanish. I am speaking of plastic shoulders in the form of hand bent plastic shoulders and football shoulders that stick out beyond a tabard. You have two options here. Either an oversized shirt to wear over them or a set of metal shoulder cops. Either one can be inexpensive. With some hunting around online or Contacting our own Gilchrist, metal shoulders can be had for under $50 with amazing ease. A fighting shirt can be made at home with some time and a few yards of fabric and a modicum of sewing skills just slightly higher than putting together a T tunic
Leg armour…we have a fair amount of plastic legs out there. Contact cement and fabric are your friends. Glue some fabric on the legs and viola’ covered plastic.
Shields.. Again cheap fabric and contact cement go a long way in this regard. The fabric can be painted and the results are longer lasting than simply trying to paint a plastic shield.
There was talk of a variance being issued for Confed in regards to using blue barrels, leaving them uncovered and simply painting our device upon them. Good sentiment but a bad precedent in my opinion. Also, be prepared to ditch the zip ties for holding your edging on and be prepared to use rope. Other options are available as well, riveted leather tabs, Wet rawhide stretched and dried to the shield. The options are out there and I am glad to offer them up as well as help make them happen. A few others are more than willing to help out as well.
HNH,
Angus (posted 1.11.2010)
So what does this mean to us?? For those living in the East or elsewhere, nothing. For the rest, Time to clean up our kits in a big way for some. When you get down to it, it’s all fairly easy.
Surcoats and tabards will hide a lot of sins. Couple yards of cotton fabric and a few hours running with scissors and a sewing machine is all it pretty much takes. Footwear, black is not only slimming but it also tends not to stand out like a pair of white converse sneakers.
Now let’s talk about some of the harder things to make vanish. I am speaking of plastic shoulders in the form of hand bent plastic shoulders and football shoulders that stick out beyond a tabard. You have two options here. Either an oversized shirt to wear over them or a set of metal shoulder cops. Either one can be inexpensive. With some hunting around online or Contacting our own Gilchrist, metal shoulders can be had for under $50 with amazing ease. A fighting shirt can be made at home with some time and a few yards of fabric and a modicum of sewing skills just slightly higher than putting together a T tunic
Leg armour…we have a fair amount of plastic legs out there. Contact cement and fabric are your friends. Glue some fabric on the legs and viola’ covered plastic.
Shields.. Again cheap fabric and contact cement go a long way in this regard. The fabric can be painted and the results are longer lasting than simply trying to paint a plastic shield.
There was talk of a variance being issued for Confed in regards to using blue barrels, leaving them uncovered and simply painting our device upon them. Good sentiment but a bad precedent in my opinion. Also, be prepared to ditch the zip ties for holding your edging on and be prepared to use rope. Other options are available as well, riveted leather tabs, Wet rawhide stretched and dried to the shield. The options are out there and I am glad to offer them up as well as help make them happen. A few others are more than willing to help out as well.
HNH,
Angus (posted 1.11.2010)
