RESOURCES
This page is dedicated to providing you with the resources I have when it comes to researching Western European Arms and Armour. I highly recommend scouring the sources and learning how REAL armour looks before coming up with fantasy stuff. It's like when pro artists say learn anatomy before bending the rules. The same applies to armour. Learn how armour is supposed to look before bending the rules to make fantasy stuff.
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These are all external links, and will take you to another website.
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HISTORICAL SOURCES
The following websites are absolutely invaluable for getting armour correct. Nothing beats the real deal.
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ManuscriptMiniatures.com is an image collection of miniatures depicting armoured figures from the medieval period. Miniatures are sourced from manuscripts created before 1450 in countries across Europe.
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The link will take you to my favourite manuscript of all time, but you can change the dates, tags, etc and narrow it down to whatever you want.
I recommend taking a look at Germany from 1410-1430, there's some good art there.
One thing to be aware of is that sometimes the art itself depicts some very strange looking armour. This is just the artist attempting to depict foreign armour or armour of the past. It did not necessarily exist in real life. The dating on some miniatures can be a little off too.
EffigiesAndBrasses.com is a collection of images of medieval monumental tombs. Most of the monuments listed here are either effigies or brasses. The remainder are incised slabs, half-reliefs, and other miscellaneous representations. The current collection is focused on European monuments, from the 12th to 15th centuries. The majority lie in the 14th century.
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In the middle ages it was common for Knights and other wealthy Nobles to commission a funerary monument for themselves before they died. These monuments often depicted the knight in the armour they wore in life. This website is dedicated to compiling photos, drawings or rubbings of various effigies and brasses.
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One thing to be aware of is many effigies and brasses are damaged or weren't drawn exactly how they appear in real life. So there may be cases of odd-looking armour and stuff. The dating is also off on some of these, so if it looks like it's out of place for the period it probably is.
ARMOUR IN ART
ArmourInArt.com is a searchable database of medieval art featuring armour. Items in the database range in date from 1100 to 1450 and are located throughout Europe. Content is varied - frescos, altars, stained glass, reliefs, etc - anything that is not an effigy/brass or manuscript is included.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. They have a nice online gallery of mostly renaissance armour, linked above. Be wary of the Bashford Dean armour though.
A museum in London, England which houses a fine collection of Arms and Armour. Mostly renaissance again.
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GOOD MODERN REPRODUCTIONS
Please for the love of all things holy do NOT use google images or pinterest (unless you know exactly what you're looking at) as reference for drawing armour. Do NOT use modern off-the-shelf amazon dot com reproductions as reference for drawing armour. There so many awful, horrible reproductions of armour that do more bad than good for the modern perception of what armour is supposed to look like.
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AVOID
Armstreet!!!
Forge of Svan
Steel Mastery
Nauticalmart
I implore you to never use these sites as reference for drawing. And if you want armour in real life, don't buy from them. ESPECIALLY Armstreet. These are like the armour equivalent of an overpriced gas station knife. Especially Armstreet. That place is so expensive for the junk it produces. The armour produced by these sites is like if you try to write with your non-dominant hand. Sure, you could probably write something legible, but to a trained eye it looks awful.
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Hopefully all of the resources on this page will train your eye to see what GOOD armour is supposed to look like.
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This is a list of some insanely talented modern armourers who make spot-on reproductions of medieval armour. You may find that most of these armourers make stuff from the late 14th century, and that's just because that's the period I am most interested in. I am sharing the links for these in the hopes that you will simply just appreciate the images. I wouldn't recommend trying to contact any of these people for custom made armour unless you have a lot of money and are absolutely certain on what you want. If you can't tell a vrysoun from a vervelle, don't even think about it.
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an insanely talented Polish armourer who makes some of, if not the best reproductions of hounskull bascinets in the world. Very pricy and long wait times but I like to window shop.
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an insanely talented tailor from Poland who makes the BEST arming garments. These are the foundations of what is worn under armour, NOT gambeson. But there are some gambesons in his portfolio.
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DMITRY NELSON
another insanely talented armourer from Moldova who made my bascinet, kettle helmet and gauntlets.
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Ignore the weird hounskull and sallet featured in the website's design and take a look at the stuff he's made instead. Very good armour reproductions, especially klappvisier bascinets. Take a look at the metal finishes section too! Some amazing material there for making armour look unique from just the metal texture. From Poland.
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One from Canada who I think doesn't make armour anymore. Or at least they haven't gotten back to any of my emails. Exceedingly good, high-quality reproductions though!
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A French armoury with a Polish armourer. Some great stuff in here.
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Yet another highly talented armourer from Poland. (there's a trend I think)
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Another Polish website for some quality armour reproductions!
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REENACTMENT GROUPS
Reenactment photos are a hard one because one guy might have an amazing spot-on set of armour but a guy slightly out of focus to his right might be wearing dogshit. Without a trained eye, any reasonable person would think they are both have the same level of accuracy to their kits. So please, take what you have hopefully learned by looking at all the examples above and apply your new knowledge to the images shared by the reenactment groups below. Take these with a grain of salt.
I highly recommend just using reenactment photos for pose reference rather than armour reference.
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A very high-quality reenactment company with the goal of re-creating a provost guard, a form of military military police in the French armies at the beginning of the 15th century.
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WHAT TO AVOID
Here are some things to avoid for various reasons. If you spend enough time looking at actual, proper armour you should be able to see the flaws in what is below. There is nothing inherently WRONG with the things below, they simply just do not represent what actual historical armour is supposed to look like and shouldn't be used as reference for drawing armour, whether you're drawing fantasy armour or not.
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- Armstreet
- Buhurt
- Any LARP company. Lord of Battles, Epic Armoury, etc
- Kult of Athena
- Nauticalmart
- Google Images (unless you know exactly what you're looking at)
- Pinterest (unless you know exactly what you're looking at)
- Anything that looks made of stamped steel
- Anything with huge rivet heads (unless you know exactly what you're looking at)
- Anything that looks like its made of galvanized, stainless or chromed metal
- Butted chainmail
- Massive fake / stamped rolled edges
- Gorgets that don't even protect the throat
- Gambeson closed by leather straps
- Modern washers or rivet heads
- Thick padded gambeson under armour
- Leather armour (unless you know exactly what you're looking for)
- Video Games
- TV Shows
- Movies
- 3D Models
- Fantasy Art
- Osprey Books (unless the illustrations are by Graham Turner)