Samurai Armor

I have a little spare time and was thinking of making some samurai (like from movie Last Samurai) armor out of composite materials. I have some carbon fiber/kevlar stuff, which I thought would make some kickass armor ( I have red/black, yellow/black and blue/black see sample below).

However I am not as experienced, talanted or skilled as many on TDH site.

I was thinking of starting with cardboard, then fiberglassing over it then using the carbonfiber/kevlar as the top layer. Then spray with clearcoat, then sand to class A finish (being careful not to damage the cloth.

alternative method would be to make cardboard plugs, then fiberglass molds then lay the carbonfiber/kevlar in them for a class A Finish.

any thoughts or suggestions?

Progress report

I made some cardboard molds, and tried to pull some casts from them they worked good for the first pull, but then started to get tore up on the second pull.

I think I am going to make some cardboard plugs then create fiberglass mold then use that to pull the casts. Will be more durable.

I also experimented with different material to save money. I am using paper towels in some of the layers in stead of the glass. I use it on the back layer and it gives a smoother surface then the glass.

The first picture shows the cardboard molds I had created. they are a negative shape from the final.

The next picture is of the plates I got off the molds, the longer one will be for the SODE (arm armor).

On the second pull of the plates I used starting with the outer surface layer, paper towel, glass mat, papertowel, glass mat, paper towel.

If you want to build Samurai armor check out this site

http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/katchu.html

They have patterns and some great info. However if you want to build some get your hands on some plastic barrels. I currently have a suit made from one.

Thanks for the info.

I am familiar with Anthony Bryant's site on samurai armor. I am using some of the information from there. However I am doing a display piece and will be borrowing from his site as well as what has been done for the movies for dramatic effect, not authenticity.

I liked your plastic barrel suit. I had seen a site which describes how to make one. But again for display purposes, I decided to use fiberglass, and will give it a smooth finish, and can do custom form fitting where necessary. Nice job lacing the haidate (if that is your armor in the picture you sent).