Thursday, July 8, 2010

Shields Up

Nothing happier than a well armed child.

Roman scutum.


Campbell admires his birthday gift.



The shield is made by gluing two 1/8" sheets of plywood together and then strapping them to a 55 gallon barrel until the glue sets. The shield will then hold its form.  The boss in the center is a hub cap I had to buy and rivet onto a scrap of sheet metal.  It's held in by 8 carriage bolts with acorn nuts showing.  The "rivets" around the outside are wood plugs.  The paint is the amazing Krylon 18k gold.  There is more in paint costs than any other material.  1 can black primer, 2 cans red, 1 can gold, 1 can clear acrylic. 

The pattern on the shield is drawn from real scutum elements. The bold riveted trim is greatly exaggerated for effect.  The wings were drawn on the computer from a scan of real scutum wings, printed, cut-out and temporary adhesive applied to make a stencil.  Then sprayed gold and then the black applied with a Krylon paint pen.

I'm only worried that I will have to top this by building a full sized catapult for Christmas.