Armor made from Traffic Signs (Pic Heavy)

[Archaic_Artisan]

Hi all, I'm brand new to this forum and thought I'd share this with you folks:

This armor was one of my most fun projects to date. Inspired by the wholesome goodness of post apocalypse films, medieval armor and the Fallout games, I had the privilege of working with a nice fellow who found me via Etsy to bring his ideas to life.

As you could probably guess from the pictures, the armor plates were made from a stop and a dead end sign (obtained through legal means, of course). These are affixed via arming points to a harness made from belts that features ammo loops and two straps to hold equipment. The plates were formed, in the spirit of the end of the world theme, the old fashioned way; with a ball peen hammer and an anvil. Adding some ammo loops to the harness gives it the added bonus that it reduces the AP cost to reload your weapon!

To top it all off, the extremely tallented Jen Owen of Jen Martin Studios (http://www.jenmartinstudios.blogspot.com/) captured images of the armor at an abandoned mental institution in Washington State. This created the perfect setting and really brought everything together. Now that's what I call a road warrior!

!Behind the scenes look! Here are a few images that show the progression from signs to armor:

KILL THE MUTANTS!!!!

Special thanks to Eric L. for modeling the armor!
More images of the armor can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.254780294533679.73230.176049985740044&type=1

 

[Gaspard]

That's pretty cool. And rather funny

 

[Yamu]

Hats off, sir. Not only is it good clean work, but you've shown more skill and panache at outfitting wasteland scavengers than Bethesda themselves managed.

 

[Atomkilla]

Really, really cool. I love it.
Now I have a picture in my head of the Roman armor made from this. It looks awesome, too

 

[Archaic_Artisan]

Really, really cool. I love it.
Now I have a picture in my head of the Roman armor made from this. It looks awesome, too

That's a great idea!

I have a giant "Road Work Ahead" sign in my garage that I've been thinking about turning into a lorica segmentata. I'd use the orange sign for the torso plates, and then green street signs for the shoulders (Seattle is selling a bunch of their old street signs currently)

 

[Atomkilla]

Good luck with that!

One thing though: one day, if I come to Seattle, gonna find you, and steal that armor

 

[Courier]

Now I know what to do with that giant Stop sign in my house.

 

[Archaic_Artisan]

Good luck with that!

One thing though: one day, if I come to Seattle, gonna find you, and steal that armor

You'll never find me!!! I'll completely blend into the crowd!!!


.... oh... wait a minute....

 

[Courier]

Dammit, I already got rid of my Stop sign. It might have been obtained through less than legal means (might have been).

 

[SuAside]

Very neat! Very Mad Max, I like it. Now you just need to make something to cover your torso was well as your shoulders.


PS: as a nitpicking side note, I just wanted to say that as armor these plates would not really serve you well. They are unlikely to even stop an arrow and the fact they're reflecting would draw attention to yourself. Not post-apoc recommended gear.

 

[Wooz]

Sweet!

Could use some kind of breastplate tho'

 

[Courier]

PS: as a nitpicking side note, I just wanted to say that as armor these plates would not really serve you well. They are unlikely to even stop an arrow and the fact they're reflecting would draw attention to yourself. Not post-apoc recommended gear.

They could help him in a knife fight.

 

[SuAside]

They could help him in a knife fight.

For slashes & light stabs, yes.
But anything with a decent point can punch through a traffic sign's metal.

But I would hope OP makes it a rule not to partake in knife fights.

 

[alec]

Looks cool and looks pretty well-made.

 

[Eternauta]

Aw come on, reloading only costs 2 action points Nice work done there, the result looks awesome!

 

[Two-step]

Stolen/ salvages/ scavenged street signs are SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms) standard armor building materials. I have seen entire suits (sans helmet) of plate armor built from street signs.

In a pinch, street sign armor would serve just fine in H-to-H or melee combat... not to mention it looks Bad A$$.

 

[Hassknecht]

I don't think it would serve all that well. Signs are usually made from very thin metal sheets. They might stop a blade, but I don't think it's worth the effort. Look nice, though
A realistic post-apocalyptic armor made from junk? Use tires.
Thick rubber with a mesh of steel in them. Will stop about everything but bullets. And if they are really strong tires, they might even stop small caliber pistol rounds.

 

[Mr Krepe]

Beautiful, I applaud you my good sir. Just out of interest, how long did it take you to make it, because i'm currently doing some armour made from scrap and salvaged materials in my garage (usually old car bits, and mesh metal put together and the sort), and my armour has taken several months (over a year really), to even get about half way through.

 

[WillisPDunlevey]

rubber tires with street signs on the outside would also provide more padding from hits. (though not from bullets)

If you had access to a very hard but thin steel, that could be put on the outside of tires and it would serve to possibly stop lead bullets. It would at least deform or break up the stronger lead versions. I would say in game terms it would defeat most reloads, all HP and some round nose lead bullets.
Steel core AP bullets would obviously go right through it... but after the apocalypse, those bullets would be hard to come by....

Unless of course someone was making their own out of drill bit shanks and cast lead bullets.

WPD

 

[Two-step]

If you really think about it, modern ammunition will be very scarce in a post apocalyptic world. This is simply because manufacturing will be difficult at best and reserves would dry up pretty rapidly.

Even having reloading equipment does not mean that you will have the finished materials to cast AP or FMJ. Lead bullets will probably be the "norm" and composite ammunition simply requires to know how and specialized casting equipment for the average person to manufacture. Not to mention the improbability of people being able to manufacture brass cartridges and primers.

It is not unreasonable to think that metal signs would not serve as adequate armour for the average adventurer, in a post apocalyptic world, where the main threat will probably come from thugs armed with melee weapons. Granted, I would most likely line the edges of the armor plates with rubber tires, to help prevent accidental damage from rough edges.... but other than that, your armor looks like it would do a fine job in the post apocalyptic world. In fact, you have inspired me to make my own armor.