Sometimes we don’t think about the second and third-order effects that upgrades or updates to our kit can have on other components! For the longest time I had always worn a breastplate with fauld over a coat of mail. Almost 6 years ago when I ordered my plaque belt it was sized to fit that configuration of armor and has been one of my absolute favorite pieces of gear.
One of the nice things about this style of plaque belt is that the pin and hinge closure method allows you to almost seamlessly integrate extension elements to allow you to fit the belt to different circumferences; typically in armor and out of armor. When I updated my cuirass to be more representative of the early c15th from the late c14th, the skirt of plates changed that circumference significantly. Much to my dismay this change in dimension was far too large for my two-element extension to handle
Because of the nature of this style of plaque belt (there are other variants that use a buckle closure), it is sizable only in plaque-width increments. This makes it a little bit tricky to get just right. In historical visual sources, plaque belts most typically sit quite low on the hips. With those things in mind, you can see how one plaque too many and the belt is in danger of slipping off the armor entirely and falling to your feet. One plaque too few and it risks sitting too high up on the armor, inconsistent with where it is typically worn in historical sources.
With the help of some calipers I was able to reproduce a 1:1 scale drawing of the plaques. I hung my cuirass from a C-stand and tied it the plaque belt closed in the back where I wanted it to sit. With my scale drawing I determined that six elements was the sweet spot that would allow the belt to sit nice and low but not be too big to risk slipping off.
Lorifactor – Historical Replicas, the maker of this belt, was able to produce for me a new six-element extension that perfectly matched the one I’ve had for all this time. I supplied measurements from my existing hinges and a couple months later I had in my hands a perfectly matched and fit extension to make my plaque belt wearable once again. I’m very happy with the work that was done and look forward to pressing my favorite ‘bling’ back into service when I can start wearing my full armor again!
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