The SE036 'Knight of the Realm - Famiglia Ducale' was delivered this afternoon.
This was the one of their many variations that I chose to represent a late fifteenth century Milanese harness.
It's not perfect, but it is very striking.
I must a have spent an hour or so this morning scanning the net and going through numerous Osprey books covering the period, mainly looking at one particular aspect: tassets!
In about 1500 a style of flexible armour that became known as 'Almain rivet' was created in Germany. Overlapping metal lames were connected by rivets, and were able to slide on the rivets to afford flexibility to the tassets.
It was only when I got the figure in hand that I could discern that the tassets looked less flexible than Almain rivet. There are two rows of slightly off-set rivets, and they're moulded with an outward curve giving the impression of forming a single, more rigid piece of armour. Neither are they body forming as Almain rivet tassets tend to be.
Tassets made from lames were in use during the second half of the fifteenth century, though apparently not that common. There were a couple of examples among the Osprey books: a mid-fifteenth century German crossbowman, and a late fifteenth century Italian crossbowman.
In the Karsten Klingbeil collection, Berlin, was this c.1480 south German and Austrian composite:
So, depending how you view the tassets the armour can represent either the late fifteenth century, or well into the sixteenth.
Before putting on the larger pauldrons, I think he looks quite good with the just the spaulders on the upper arms:
A pair of tassets as culet armour:
Italian armour often had asymmetrical pauldrons, smaller on the dominant arm to assist movement for combat. It's not always the case, as there are examples where both left and right are identical.
At first glance the CooModel pauldrons appeared identical, but it became apparent that the right pauldron is wider from front to back. It's likely an accidental casting variation, because there's a magnet underneath it that's too far away from the breastplate to make contact. So it's held on only by the magnet that meets the spaulder.
If it was unintentional then it's a lucky accident, because it creates an asymmetry providing the sword arm with a little more range of motion.
On the negative side, all the straps and belts are made of stiff plastic. No doubt it was done for longevity, but it's a strange choice reminiscent of a Marx knight from the 1960s.
Because the plastic is so stiff it's harder to tighter the belts as it would be with leather or pleather. He comes wearing a narrow belt, and there are two other wider belts packed in a bag that need to be put on. These have loops to hold the scabbard and warhammer. The scabbard would slide out of the loop if you're not careful. When scabbarded the crossguard of the sword secures the scabbard.
Because the belts are less flexible than pleather there they get bulky when all three are worn together. So I removed the narrower one.
It would be pretty simply to remake the belts in leather. All you'd have to do is remove the buckles; cut a couple of strips of leather; shape the ends and glue the buckles to the leather belts. It's something I'll probably do when I get the inclination. But for now the black plastic is passable.
Another negative is that the camera flash highlights the openness of the mail. It isn't that apparent on display.
