Fantastic pictures! This does like a pretty amazing build and looks like you are doing a superb job of it, look forward to your next update.

Beautiful work and a superb display piece..... .. To keep the dust off I'd be tempted to have a display case made for it or make one myself..... .. Look forward to your next update..

Regards

Alan

Welcome to Pack 11 of 12.

First off, thanks to all who stopped by to take a look and comment!

Now, on to Pack 11.

The Left Leg Guard:

This month saw the start of one of the leg guards. Six curved metal plates were joined together with lace. The top half’s were joined to the bottom half’s with a lacing pattern which was very difficult to do because of the tight clearance between the two plates. As much as I tried, I couldn’t observe the “mountain” and “valley” lacing so I’ve got mountains when I should have valleys and vis a versa. After each set of two was laced, the three pairs were laced to form a leg guard. This part of the lacing was easy.
















The Thigh Guards:

The second thigh guard has had the remaining 2 sets of plates added. Then, the backing was glued on just like the first one.

Next up was to join the two thigh guards together with the waist band. I used a hot iron to make the waistband flat and also to iron the folds into the open edge of the fabric which would make the assembly much easier to put together. Rather than use glue as in the instructions, I found some hemming glue material in my junk drawer. See a picture below to see what I mean. I also used it to close the open ends of the waistband. You cut an appropriate length then place it between the two thicknesses of fabric then use an iron to melt it, which bonds the fabric together. This worked so well its just crazy.

After that a leather patch is glued on at the overlap of the two guards then some cord is added in the flower shape.

One end of the flaps of the thigh guard gets a button and the other end gets a loop so the flaps can wrap around and join together.

A length of lace was added where the waist band meets the thigh guard to add some strength to the joint.

Last thing was to add a length of cord to the decorative flower and wrap thread around each end for a decorative effect and to stop it unraveling.


































Only one more month to go!

That’s it for this month, Cheers, Gord.

Awesome update Gord and some fantastic pictures too. Mustn't forget to say Excellant Job, really enjoying watching you put this together

Welcome to Pack 12 of 12.

First off, thanks to all who stopped by to take a look and comment!

Now, on to Pack 12, the last one!

The Leg Guards:

This final month saw the finishing of one of the leg guards and then starting and finishing the other leg guard. The six curved metal plates joined last month were laced to the foundation fabric using lace on the edges and across the middle. Leg guard bands were laced to this assembly with more lace, the leg guard bands wrap around the finished piece. Lastly, the backing fabric was added to finish the leg guard off. The instructions recommend using the cardboard core from a roll of toilet paper to act as a form for the leg guard to wrap around, first covering it with black tissue paper. The cardboard tubes were easy to get, but I couldn’t find black tissue paper in any store I went into. Wether it was a craft store, dollar store or party supply store, they looked puzzled why I would want tissue paper in black.
Then I remembered I had some black vinyl at home so I wrapped the cardboard tubes in that. See the pics for how that turned out.
The second leg guard was done this month from start to finish.















The Support Pole:

The support pole for a sword had a wooden core added, then a metal ring added to finish off the top of it. Then, it was laced at the bottom to the back piece of the suit.










The Helmet Cord:

Next to last thing to do to the helmet was to add the cord which would be used to secure the helmet to the Samurai’s head. I couldn’t follow the lacing pattern exactly as instructed to do because it seemed to be too short, so I improvised a bit. No one will know the difference.
Last thing to do to the helmet was to add the gold crest.



I then polished up all the metal to get rid of fingerprints and started to place all my hard work onto the stand and sit back and admire it! With no more delay here are the beauty shots:
































Some final random thoughts;

-This is a great kit, someone clearly spent a great deal of time engineering this!
-Each month’s pack provides hours of work, not minutes. So, that makes it great value.
-Huge attention getter, everyone who sees it want to put their greasy fingerprints all over it!
-The parts are very high quality with a flawless glossy paint finish. I didn’t have any defects on any piece I received.
-The instructions show how to pack it away in the display box, good to know.
-The pictures in the instruction books show the storage box as wood, but the one you receive is cardboard, but very thick and sturdy.
-Seeing others diaries help me a lot with construction so thanks for going to the trouble.


Thanks to DeAgostini for offering this here.

Cheer, Gord.

Beautiful work ending in a stunning result. Can see the care and attention you have put into this, very well done indeed....

Regards

Alan

You have made a beautiful job of building this Gord,
A really stunning display and a credit to the hours that you have put into it.
I have just ordered this today after reading your diary and I am really looking forward to receiving it and making a start.
Did you manage to source a display cabinet for this?

Regards

Keith.

Beautiful finish Gord, really enjoyed watching and learning from your work for when I get cracking with mine

Steve

Great build Gord. Loved reading your build log and the trivia was great. So why was flower arrangement part of the samurai training? Your armor looks fantastic. You should be very proud.

Ron

Thanks Gord.

Do you know any where that have a display case available for this?
I see that Deagostini Japan offered one as an optional extra (along with some extra items) but
I'm not sure this is available over here?

Best regards

Keith.