Image: lumecluster
Melissa Ng is the creator of this outfit, which is called “Sovereign Armour”, the result of a quest to “create a practical and versatile Medieval-inspired fantasy armour for a woman.”
Ng says it took over 500 hours to build the suit, most of which is 3D-printed and which weighs around eight pounds, with that time being split between research, sketching, modelling, painting and, most excruciating of all, the wiring and placement of all the LEDs that help give the suit its warm, glowing effect.
Image: lumecluster
While she isn’t strictly a cosplayer, Ng says that the research she put into creating this piece of fantasy armour is something she’d love to see more of from the cosplay scene.
“I also know I’ve only recently started familiarising myself with the cosplay community”, she writes. “But after studying up a bit on armour, it got me wondering how awesome it could be to see more cosplayers transform some of their favourite female character’s (impractical) armour designs into something more functional.”
It’s an absolutely astonishing piece of work, which needs to be seen in all its detail to be truly appreciated. The gauntlets in particular are just incredible.
Comments
10 responses to “Custom Fantasy Armour Is A Work Of Art”
“the result of a quest to “create a practical and versatile Medieval-inspired fantasy armour for a woman.”
I must have missed the part where practical means restrictive in important areas, uncovered in vital areas and more speed bumps that homer’s car. “But bloke” I hear you gasp “There is nowhere for a blade to catch on underboob of the breastplate”; yeah, you got me. The mad lack of fantasy underboob is totally not overshadowed by the lovely patterns that would totally not guide any attack straight into your innards.
Kotaku, sometimes you mix too much with tumblr.
What this reminds me of are the old ceremonial suits of armour that the old nobility used to wear. They’re clearly not practical for fighting, but they look amazing and are still clearly armour. So in that sense, this looks, to me, like a suit of ceremonial armour for a woman. And in that sense, practical. It’s wearable, allows reasonable mobility, and is functional (i.e. ceremonial) while still looking very much like armour.
Not meaning to sound aggressive, but could you cherry pick the meaning more? Their intention was to say it was good because it lacked the usual fantasy issues, but in reality it does not. It is a nice looking set, but it is not practical armor fantasy armor.
>Practical
>Fantasy
Choose one, they are normally mutually exclusive.
I think you’re overselling the ‘practical’ side of it. I can just mean that its wearable, which a lot of fantasy armor wouldnt be. It doesnt need to mean that it actually has to do the protective job a working set of armor would need to do.
Think of fantasy armor that has massive wings. Those arent practical, and would be representative of “the usual fantasy issues” you refer to. Something that can at least be worn for ceremonial purposes has a practical use – which can simply be to look good.
Armour has a definition though and it has nothing to do with looking nice. This is neither practical nor armour. Its nice, but don’t cherry pick meanings.
See, I think you’ve done exactly that – cherry picked a meaning. Yes, armor does typically mean its protective. I havent said otherwise, nor did sunskorpion. But you seem adamant that it cant possibly mean anything else, when it can when used with other nouns.
By default, fantasy armor isnt going to mean the base meaning of being purely protective in nature, which you seem to be unable or unwilling to accept. So to me, you’ve cherry picked the ‘armor’ part, and dismissed the ‘fantasy’ part. Its the ‘fantasy’ part that takes it beyond needing to be purely protective, and into other uses, which much like ceremonial armor means its more decorative than functional.
For ‘fantasy armor’, practical and impractical mean something different to what it would with just ‘armor’. Thats where we’re coming from.
So your argument is that its practical for some fictional purpose?
Really?
No, I’m arguing that practical has more than one meaning, depending on the context its used in. If a set of armor clearly fails on the protective front, then for all practical purposes it must serve another use. Otherwise, why does it exist?
In the real world, that means ceremonial armor, where its practical purpose is NOT defensive, but representative or artistic. In fiction, you extend that to include fantasy armor.
In fiction, that armor that clearly wouldnt do the job in the real world can still serve a defensive purpose for the narrative, but thats not what I’m getting at. Its that practical has more than just one meaning.
To get stuck with the mindset that it does just have one meaning is cherry picking, which you seem to be accusing everyone else of without understanding you’re doing it yourself.
Very nice! And no silly boob cups! Bravo!
The thing I liked about the Witcher’s armours were that they were all realistic. but having said that, they also gave you a gut…
I wonder how Ng would alter the “WitchBlade”?