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Building a hoplite shield with apron (parablema) - steps/pics
#1
Hello,

As the old saying goes: "New year, New shield." Or something like that.

I was so happy with how my last Greek hoplite shield (aspis) turned out, that I decided I was comfortable enough to add some complexity to my next shield (I'm slowly realizing there's always a "next shield"). My goal for this aspis was to accomplish 3 things. I wanted to 1) make a shield that was lighter than my last one 2) expand upon the metalwork (in the form of a brass shield device/blazon) and 3) add a shield apron (parablema). Like my previous shield, I wanted to make sure I based this one off of visual evidence (Greek pottery, etc.) Once I found a vase depicting the shield and parablema I liked, I set to work.

In this thread I'll share process photos of the project, but won't go into full detail of all the steps. Since the basic construction is essentially the same as my other shields (using the method described by Matt Amt at his site https://www.larp.com/hoplite/), I'll just link you back to those threads so that you can read the full description of the process. For those steps that are different or new, I'll add more detail in this thread. At the end of the post I'll summarize the cost of materials for the project, and the dimensions of the finished product.

My other hoplite shield builds here at RAT:

How I built my Greek aspis (hoplite shield) - step by step photos
https://www.romanarmytalk.com/showthread.php?tid=31343

My 2nd Greek aspis (shield) with improved porpax - steps & pics
https://www.romanarmytalk.com/showthread.php?tid=31290

   
Here are a few examples from Greek pottery of shields with aprons / parablema.

   
This is the krater I decided to base my shield upon. I liked the proportions, and I figured I had the materials (and ability) to make it all work. Here's the description of the krater depicted above:

British Museum, item number: 1961,0710.1
Red-figured bell-krater: warriors leaving home (back: revellers)
Attributed to: The Altamura Painter
Attica, 470BC-460BC
Height: 15.24 centimetres

   
This photo shows how I fit all my rings onto two 4'x4' sheets of 1/2" plywood (or 1 sheet of 4'x8' plywood). Two of the layers need to be done as semi-circular arcs in order to fit on the sheet. In the photo above you can also see my wooden porpax being glued and clamped.

   
Shaping the shield using a sanding disc on a grinder is very messy. I found it easiest to put a fan right next to where I was working to blast the sawdust away as I was working. Otherwise the dust accumulated so rapidly I couldn't see my lines or gauge how deep or shallow I was grinding. I paid special attention to try to be very careful in the way I shaped the shield so as to cut off uneeded weight. On my last shield, at this point in the process, the basic finished bowl shape weighed 10.5 pounds. This one weighed 8.2 pounds at this point, so I knew I was definitely on track to have this shield be lighter than the previous shield (notwithstanding the addition of a leather shield apron). And the photo also depicts how I attach my wooden porpax. I glue in the fabric, cut out the areas so that the porpax can be glued directly to the wood shield, then I apply weight until it dries.

   
The brass furniture for the interior of the shield, shaped then polished.

   
A view of the stencils I made for the porpax. Depicted is one of the pieces made from the remainder of the brass pot I used for the previous aspis. So much money can be saved when you save scraps of wood and brass from other projects (ie, drive your spouse crazy with your junkpile).

   
Porpax metal ready to be sanded, shaped and polished.

   
On my last shield build thread I described how I clenched the brass and bronze nails the way Matt Amt does, but I didn't have a photo of the process. I took some pics this time around. Anywhere you'd need to clench down a nail, first use a dremel tool to cut a shallow groove so that the clenched nail with lay flush to the shield. I didn't do this on my first shield, and it makes it so much easier to get them secure this way. You could use a chisel or knife to similar effect. Then bend the nail 90 degrees using needle nose pliers, cut off the excess at an angle (making sure that they aren't longer than the thickness of your shield), then pound them down with a hammer. They bite right into the shield and are secure. Easy peasy. (Thanks, Matt)

   
A view of clenched nails after puttying and sanding, and a view of the interior up to this point.

   
Onto the exterior. Fabric glued in place, and painted with 3 coats of paint.

   
Drew the pattern of the snake shield blazon onto paper so that I could transfer it onto a brass firewood/magazine holder that I bought at a thrift store for only $1.99 USD.

   
Traced the pattern onto the brass and cut it using hand snips. Definitely need to wear gloves for that part since the snake bends so much that your wrists invariably end up inside its coils.

   
I sanded the brass with 400 grit sandpaper to remove the lacquer and irregularities, then polished with 800 grit paper. Now that the brass was uniformly sanded, but not polished, I started on the reliefs. I hammered in the scales and the other details (like on the head of the snake), then I worked around the edges to make sure that they were uniform and would lay flat against the shield. After all the hammering was complete, I polished it with a scotchbrite wheel, buffed with a buffing wheel, then polished it to a mirror shine with Brasso metal polish. I was surprised that the metalwork on the snake, including polishing, was far faster than I feared. It probably took 3 hours from start to finish.

   
I attached the device using brass brads. The shortest nails I could find were 3/4" long, which was far too long, so I cut each nail down to just over 1/4 inch in length using hand snips, drilled holes in the snake, and nailed it into place. This was the most stressful part of the build up to this point, since I needed to  make sure the nails were long enough to secure the metal, but not too long that they protruded onto the inside of the shield and cut my arm. It worked out flawlessly! I was so relieved!

   
I used some sheephide to line the porpax. Cut to size and glued into place. Very comfortable. Then I added the rope, grip and tassels. Touched up the paint wherever it got scratched up during final assembly.

   
Here's the finished shield. I was (and am) so pleased with how it turned out!

   
Now, onto the shield apron.

   
I estimated the dimensions of the apron depicted on the pottery relative to the shield, and then scaled it based upon the dimensions of my shield (36" diameter shield (91.44 cm)). I did my best to match the design on paper, and transferred the design onto 4 ounce, veg-tanned cowhide that was given to me by a friend who is a leatherworker. That was a good savings in money, and a very kind gift. It's thick enough to add protection for the legs (ostensibly from sling bullets and rocks), but thin enough to be flexible and lightweight. I made a few small changes in terms of adding a couple more flaps to the bottom of the apron. I zoomed in on the image on the krater to get a close-up view of the design in detail, but it was pretty blurry, so I did my best to replicate what I could observe of the patterns on the apron.

   
I cut the leather with heavy duty shears. That was pretty quick and easy. I folded the top 1" of the apron over and glued it (hence the boards and clamps in the image above). I did this so that the top would be reinforced and wouldn't tear or shrink/stretch from use. I lightly drew my design with pencil, and then painted all the designs using ink and #0 and #3 paintbrushes. I placed a towel over most of the leather to protect from dirt/oil from my hands and arms, and I worked verrrrry carefully and slowly. I used inks since I figured they would soak deep into the leather and be the most permanent without cracking.

   
I punched holes in the leather where it would attach to the shield. The apron on the krater appears to have 3 attachment points, but I decided to just use 2 points. I didn't want to drill a hole in the dome of the shield, since I knew those 2 points at the rim would provide enough support. And I wanted the flexibility of using the shield without the apron, and the holes are very hard to notice on the black painted rim. Using rosettes and cotter pins to attach the apron also made it easier to store the shield separately. I could hang the leather flat against the wall for storage so that it wouldn't get curled up or suffer (unwanted) damage. Based upon the other pottery examples of shield aprons, apart from shape and style of the apron, it seems there was variation in the placement of the apron. Sometimes it was at the very bottom of the rim, partially on the rim and dome, attached solely to the dome, sometimes almost midway up, and anywhere from 3 to 9 attachment points. I thought about riveting a brass rosette to the middle of the apron to simulate the third, central, attachment point, but then thought that was just too much overthinking. From the pottery examples I've found depicting the inside of shields that have aprons, I couldn't observe the attachment passing all the way through the shield. So perhaps they were just nailed in place, or the nail was obscured by paint, or it was glued, a combination of those, or maybe an oversight by the artist? Who knows. The design of the parablema was honestly the most stressful part of the process: I had only one shot at it (based on the leather I had) and I didn't want to mess it up.

   
When it came time to treat the leather, I didn't want to ruin the design. I did some test of the inks on a scrap piece of leather, and then tried neatsfoot oil that my leatherworker friend lent me. It worked great, without any ink bleeding, even when vigorously worked in, and the leather didn't get too dark after it had a chance to set. In the image above you can see the leather as it looked immediately after being oiled, and then the leather as it looked after 24 hours. At a later date I may try beeswax, but for now I'm extremely happy with how the leather looks and feels without any shininess using the oil.

   
I made some brass rosettes and used brass cotter pins to attach the apron to the shield.

   
And here's how the apron attaches using the pins. Because those brass pins are so darn thick, it's possible to really clamp the apron so securely that it doesn't budge. In the end, I found out that maybe it's too secure, since removing the pins was a little tough. So I'll probably make the next set of pins from slightly thinner brass when it comes time to re-attach (for when reenacting season comes back around).

   
The finished shield with apron attached.

   
   
   

And here's a side-by-side comparison of the design on the krater, and my impression. I'm so very pleased with how it turned out!

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BILL OF MATERIALS


Things I had to buy for this project:

6'x9' Medium weight, painting drop cloth  -  $12.80
Green paint, quart (discount/returned paint)  -  $2.00
1 sheet of 1/2" thick, 4'x8' Plywood  -  $19.80
4 Embroidery thread hanks (for tassels)  -  $2.40
Brass firewood holder, used (thrift store)  -  $1.99
------
Total $38.99



Things I already had on hand:

Brass scraps
Rope
Leather cord
Wood glue
Sheep hide
24" length of 1"x8" poplar board
Paper for stencils
Pencils
Paintbrushes
Ink
Sharpie marker
Peen hammer
Chisels/punches
Belt sander
Angle grinder
100-800 grit sandpapers
Buffing wheel
Brasso polish
Electric drill and drill bits
Electric fan
Bronze boat nails
Brass escutcheon pins (nails)
Metal snips/cutters
Leather and neatsfoot oil

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The finished shield (without apron attached), weighs 11.8 pounds (5.35 kg). That makes it 2.2 pounds lighter (0.99 kg) than my previous shield. With the apron attached, the shield weighs exactly 13 pounds (5.89 kg). So even with the leather parablema and the metal blazon, it's still 1 pound lighter (0.45 kg) than my previous shield. Hurray! I feel the metal snake device and leather apron look excellent, and the overall finished product does justice as an impression of the shield depicted on that krater. I feel like it was an all-around success. And it cost almost $30 less than the previous shield. If I had to buy that piece of leather, it probably would've cost around $40-$50. It did, however, take significantly longer to complete. My previous shield took around 10 hours (spread over a week), and this one took around 20 hours (spread over 3 weeks) and a good deal more planning. But I am so pleased with the results.

I hope this write-up was entertaining and helpful. Thanks for reading!

Marcus
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#2
My next, and hopefully last, aspis build will be to recreate the gorgon shield from Olympia:

   

Tongue
Marcus

-----------------
My latest build
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#3
Beautiful! And you don't see green so often with Greek reenactors, so thats a nice touch.
My shield will be my next project so seeing your step by step is very helpful, and gave me some ideas!
How thick did you end up making this shield? Sorry if you explain above, I didn't see when I read through (selectively), however.
Thanks!
Reply
#4
(04-27-2021, 05:56 PM)Zephyrides Wrote: Beautiful! And you don't see green so often with Greek reenactors, so thats a nice touch.
My shield will be my next project so seeing your step by step is very helpful, and gave me some ideas!
How thick did you end up making this shield? Sorry if you explain above, I didn't see when I read through (selectively), however.
Thanks!

Thanks! I hope it was helpful.

It's thicker near the rim. From what I've read, they were thicker where the dome meets the rim. So on this one it's around 3/4 inch thick there, and as it moves away from the rim to the top of the dome it ends up under 1/2 inch, probably 3/8 inch.

   

On my first shield I didn't take off enough material, so it was an inch thick near the rim, and 1/2 inch at the dome. That shield was too heavy (kinda what Cheryl was talking about in regard to new research showing the shields were probably lighter than we previously thought). My next 2 shields follow the pattern attached (see pic), but I just made a point of being careful in removing as much material as I could without compromising its strength. 

My first shield (owl) was 16.5 pounds. Not heavy in that it was difficult to carry, but heavy in that its weight is incorrect based on current research. But in either case, a lighter shield is more fun to carry for reenacting than a heavy one.... My second shield (crab) is 14 pounds, which is much better. This one is under 12 pounds (13 with the apron) which is, for me, the perfect balance of weight versus strength. If it were lighter, like around 10 pounds, I'd be worried that it might not be resilient enough.

If you check out the other shield threads I posted I think the 2 biggest improvements are 1) decreasing the weight through planning ahead and sanding/wood removal, and 2) making the porpax more comfortable. Making the opening for your arm a little larger than you think is a good idea since you can always pad it. But if it's too tight it'll always be uncomfortable, regardless of how light the aspis is. I think setting a target weight of 13 pounds or under for your aspis is a good goal. Trust me, the aspis is the easy piece of kit, your amazing spolas was the difficult part. So I think you're going to have fun making it.

Marcus
Marcus

-----------------
My latest build
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#5
Outstanding work! The stacked circle technique is ingenious, I would never have thought of that! Very inspiring Idea
Reply
#6
Smile 
(07-08-2021, 06:19 PM)czaczaja Wrote: Outstanding work! The stacked circle technique is ingenious, I would never have thought of that! Very inspiring Idea
Thank you. If you click the links in my first post of this thread you can see better pics of the full process, and avoid the mistakes I made along the way Smile 

Marcus
Marcus

-----------------
My latest build
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#7
(07-20-2021, 01:47 PM)PygmyHippo Wrote:
(07-08-2021, 06:19 PM)czaczaja Wrote: Outstanding work! The stacked circle technique is ingenious, I would never have thought of that! Very inspiring Idea
Thank you. If you click the links in my first post of this thread you can see better pics of the full process, and avoid the mistakes I made along the way Smile 

Marcus

Yes I have looked at both and learned alot Smile Im currently working on a spolas but a shield is definitely in the pipeline
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#8
This is a really impressive effort!
Joe Balmos
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