Armor Guide-Armor types, history of armor. Ancient, medieval knight armor, Japanese armor. Armor use in military history. Armor parts, shields, helmets, breastplates.PARTS OF ARMOR
Armor parts. Parts of European and Japanese armor.
Parts of European medieval armor:
Japanese armor parts:
ARMOR TYPES
Types of armor by material, consturuction and by historical period.
1. Leather Armor
Leather armor, the oldest armor type was made of animal skin and furs from prehistoric times.
Laquered and Waxed leather armor was used later due the higher effectivity against weapons.
2. Cloth Armor
As agriculture was refined and people drifted toward the same areas, tensions mounted. Peasants, serfs, and slaves were often conscripted to fight their leader’s wars. Most of the time they went to war with the clothes on their backs. Most of the time all they had the money to do was pad some of their clothing. Even padded though, cloth was a fairly poor armor.
Cloth armor was later worn under other armor types (under chain mail or plate mail) to decrease impact power.
3. Scale Mail
Scale mail or scale armor involved attaching hundreds of small scale-size pieces of metal to a leather or cloth backing. Advanced smelting techniques were not required since the scales were quite often small. Scale mail is one of the first metal armors to appear in ancient times.
4. Lamellar Armor
Lamellar armor is a version of scale armor. Scale armor is usually only secured to the backing by a couple holes near the top of the scale. The scales in lamellar armor are attached to all of the adjacent scales making it stronger and allowing it to be made without a restrictive leather or cloth backing. Lamellar armor was popular among the Roman armies.
Lamellar armor was used by Japanese samurais, Roman legionaries, vikings, Russians, Mongols, in ancient Sumer, Persia and China.
Roman Armor – Lorica (made of plates)
Japanese samurai armor
Armor used in feudal Japan. Leather components.
5. ChainMail Armor
Chain mail armor is a very good armor made from thousands of metal rings, pressed or riveted together. Chain mail is by no means a new advancement, but neither is it close to the age of most scale and lamellar armors. Chain mail combines great maneuverability and excellent protection against blunt weapons and slashing weapons.
Norman armor-11th century. Chain mail + Norman shield and helmet
6. Brigandine Armor
Brigandine involved a cloth or leather outer shell with concealed flat metal plates riveted to the inside. Brigandine was fairly cheap for soldiers to make and repair themselves.
7. Plate armor
Plate armor is the heaviest and the most complex type or armor. Partial plate armor was used in ancient Greece an Rome but Medieval times mean Golden age of Full plate armor.
Plate armor was massively used also later in renaissance times, during 30 years war and in Napoleonic wars.
Gothic armor
High gothic knight armor, Germany 15th century:
Renaissance armor
Renaissance cavalry armor, 16th century. (Polish royal armor):
30 years war armor (17th century):
Napoleonic Cuirassier armor (early 19th century)
French cuirassiers (heavy Napoleonic cavalry) worn steel helmet and breatplate (cuirass):
