Finished arms

Random pictures of Amanda's completed arms.

Things I learned:

Spending a day just getting really good with hinges would be worth while.  These totally work, and they look OK, but I want them to be better.

A steeper walled cop and maybe one extra lame would be a plus; easier articulation, conforms better to the shape of the flesh and bone elbow and it looks good.  I'd need to modify my elbow planishing stake.

I need to make a little spacer tool so my rivets are every so slightly looser.  I think the articulation would flow a bit better if I used it. It wouldn't take much, the tool could be 22 gauge. 

I need to hunt for better paint, and only use it when it's above 50 degrees.  This stuff didn't adhere as evenly as I would have liked.

I could do a taller rerebrace that covers the bicep more. Need to look at effigies instead of just the Churburg #13 poster.

I learned my cop pattern wasn't symmetrical.  I've made like 4 pairs of arms with a slightly skewed pattern and only noticed it when Eli wanted something different for his arms.

With this design I have to cheat the rivet holes inward on the cop and/or the cop side of the lames to keep them from gapping.  If I hacked the pattern to taper off slightly faster toward the fan and inside of the elbow it could do the same thing.  My present elbow pattern is smooth, shaped kind of like an eye.  If it were slightly more like a bell curve it might put the rivets in the right place without me having to think about it.

These would be substantially easier in thicker steel.  Of course, they'd also weigh more.

I like the pins I put in to hold the vambrace closed.  I've never seen it done, but it seems like doing sort of a hinge on the inside and the outside of the vambrace, but with one of them having a removable hinge pin would be super secure.  A decent dent to that might get you trapped in the vambrace, but I bet they'd never open up in the middle of a fight when you didn't want them to, and it would be pretty low maintenance.  More weight and a pain to make though.