Roman armour for kids

My son was asked to dress up for a roman and Celt day at school. They were fairly explicit that nothing should be bought, although on the day there were some very new looking armour, swords and shields. Their loss as I spent time with my son building roman armour more specifically a Lorica Segmentata (segmented armour).

I found a picture of a Romans soldier on Wikipedia and thought how we could make something look like metal. My son loved making and wearing the armour. Here's my first sketch I always use A3 pads to do my thinking.

So what can you use to mirror armour plate, tin foil just doesn’t work, plastic too hard cardboard doesn’t bend. Answer DRINKS CARTONS inside they a really nice silver colour and after washing them are fairly tough. Cut them open along the seams and you get a cross that then can be used as metal plates. For my 7 year old I used :-

Materials

1.    8-10 juice drink cartons

2.    8-10 tall juice drink cartons

3.    1 coat hanger

4.    Duct tape

5.    Packet brass picture hooks and loops

6.    Brass pins

Tools

1.    Big sharp scissors (Kids should be supervised at all times)

2.    Wire cutters

3.    Staple gun

Step 1

Prepare Cartons - Cut your cartons into crosses by removing the top rectangle which has the spout and the carefully down the sides. You usually find tall and thin cartons and fat cartons. Tall and thin are great for the side plates, a decent staple gun will join them, together but make sure you duct tape over them.




Step 2  

I started building the back by layering the
drinks cartons on top of each other so they
overlapped.

Step 3

Continue armour around the waist

Step 4

For the shoulders use the fat ones, you will need an old wire coat hanger which you then bend to create a frame to duct tape the fat pieces on. Connect the wire to the back of the armour and use the duct tape to cover sharp edges.

Step 5

Finish front of armour, complete thin plates around waste hiding the join buy folding and joining the cartons to avoid the seam. Join shoulder wires to the front of the armour I user a brass fastener through a loop I bent in the wire and duct tape over for safety.

Step 6

For the fastener at the front you could use leather shoe laces, I used some picture frame hooks I got in a pack from the local DIY store.

Step 7

For swords and shields I would guess every 7 year old has one and cardboard and a brass biscuit tin lid makes a good shield.