The fresh guard of Riften

You know, Skyrim is, at least by my humble opinion responsible for 1 breakup every few days. Its one of those things you know - the ones you store non-perishable food, divorce your wife, put your kids and pets for adoption for. So anyway, instead of arguing about it, me and my girlfriend, decided to do something about it.(she was with the camera)

The Fresh Guard of Riften


Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the guard of a town called Riften
In west Tamriel born and raised
On the archery range was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some x-bows outside of the inn
When a couple of elves
Who were up to no good
Startin making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
And said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Riften'
I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she packed my armor and send me on my way
She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket.
I put my helm on and said, 'I might as well kick it'.
First trip, yo this is bad
The cold is freezing my gonads.
Is this what the people of Riften Living like?
Hmmmmm this can't be alright.
But wait I hear there're tricky, thieves and all that
Is this the type of place that they should send this cool cat?
I don't think so
I'll see when I get there
I hope they're prepared for the hero of Riften
Well, I crossed the border and when I looked around
There was an  elf who looked like a cop standing there with his bow out
I ain't trying to get shot yet but too late
 Alas, he got my knee here
and sprang with the quickness like lightning - disappeared
I whistled for a wagon and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had arrows in the rear
If anything I can say that this wagon was rare
But I thought 'Nah forget it' - 'Yo homes to Riften'
I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Guard of Riften

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On micro maille - tools, tips, and basics.

Right. Now, after doing a good amount of projects involving it, its time to write in depth about micromaille.

Micro maille or nanomaille or however you decide to call it is chainmail made by rings ranging from quite small to microscopic. It is by all means NOT something a newbie should try to tackle. First things first - supplies.

Supplies for micromaille can be bought at a jeweller's supply store - a real one or online. Usually you will find copper with some plating - in my case gold-plated, rhodium plated, bronze plated copper rings, but if you have the money - you can even do real silver for example. I don't think anyone has the money to do real gold...
The links will be moderately expensive too - for the amount of money needed for a chainmail shirt, you will barely get enough to fill in your hand.

 If you need something specific, because the stores will only have preset sizes, you can buy wire and make your own links. The wire is sold per meter usually(at least where I buy) and could be well under 1mm thick.

As an example - here are microscopic links I made by myself - so tiny I could fit them under my fingernail.

2 TOOLS


First of all you will need the smallest pliers you can find and then some! Those are pretty small but they are still not very comfortable for the job - I'm thinking about customizing them a bit. The nail clipper? Well...Its what I used to cut the home made microlinks above.

A magnifying glass of some sorts, or a monocle is also a good idea - you will ruin your eyes in no time otherwise. You won't be able to even do anything if you have eyesight problems in the first place, without one of these.

TIPS

VERY IMPORTANT!
And related to the above mentioned thing about the magnifying glass. ONLY WORK AT GOOD DAYLIGHT! Don't try to work on a lamp light or if its dark! Just don't! You will be looking at an optometry cabinet in no time. Its just not worth putting on glasses for this, believe me.

Forget about speedweaving. The rings are so small the only way to actually work is 1 by 1. Its impossible to grasp them by hand properly and they tend to slip a lot, so just do it 1 by 1.

Get something with a lot of tiny boxes. Like a fisherman's case or a tool box or something. You will need somewhere to keep those links sorted out and safe from getting spilled all over the floor. Good luck gathering them if you do!

That's all I can think of for now but I will add more later probably. Might split this into several posts too.

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The golden bikini of awesomeness(and win)

Been a while since I made a one these! Most fun you can have for a couple of hours indeed, especially the fitting&measuring part.

 

Needless to say there isn't nearly as much fun without making some slightly naughty photos. However I gotta keep this place following the rules so  PG13+ warning here.

http://i.imgur.com/JLUOk

 http://imgur.com/QTidH

http://imgur.com/mVnJr

Unfortunately, now I'm going to bore you with design notes. This is not my first piece of chainmail bikini, but definitely the best so far. Design wise - its simple. I attached the cups to an ordinary bra, which helped a lot with putting it on and off and keeping it comfortable. I used gold plated rings for jewellery which was also a good idea. I've made chainmail bikini from the same steel links I use for armor, and while the results are ok, its  a good several hundred grams, which is simply unsuitable. These copper links weight much less. Work time is just several hours with a price tag of supplies about 10$. If you feel like it, you can surprise your girlfriend too with one of these in just 1 afternoon.

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The cave spider

I saw several of these in the shop where I buy my supplies and I could not resist making one myself.
For those who don't play Minecraft - the cave spiders are a nasty variety of the normal ones, that can only be found in abandoned mineshafts deep underground. They can kill a player very quickly thanks to their venom.

Ok so MAAAAYBE it does not have glowing red eyes really, but I'll see what I can do about it - and yes I know cave spiders are not greenish, but I could not find blue-tinted ahem...body parts, nor black for that matter. Maybe I will have more luck next time.

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Lego armor - new and improved

Happy new year everyone!

Here is the second version of the armored lego. Now the chainmail is a much better fit, and the coif looks much better.I will do version 3 though - will try for classic norman armor - coif integrated in the hauberk.

The front is slit(as it should be) so walking is OK.

 The back is now symmetric and completely covered.

 The coif has a proper bishop mantle from gold plated rings. Its easy to fall off though, nothing I can about about that. Maybe an elastic tied in the rings?

 And finally - full chainmaille gear.

 The sides can't be closed off - it blocks arms movement. Better results are possible with smaller rings, but I doubt I can get any smaller - besides I don't think i can find the tools for such tiny work.

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The Ringlord

No, not Lord of the Rings, the Ringlord. And believe me, the name is no boast.

For the people who have the money but don't have the time to do home experiments, or those who want something exotic, there is the Ringlord.

http://theringlord.com/cart/default.asp

Its based in Canada and has...well everything. The Ringlord sells all you could possibly need for making chainmaille of all kinds and a few other things as well.One of my minor dreams involves driving up to the place with a big truck, several strong lads and grabbing everything thats not bolted down and we'd carry bolt cutters just in case.

Starting with the tools - it has all the kinds of pliers you'd need, the wire cutters and the saws for the coils, mandrels, more miscellaneous stuff like mini scales to calculate weight, welders, tumblers etc.

As far as products go it sells wire, coils and cut rings from trivial materials like copper, galvanized and stainless steel to exotic ones like brass, inconel, nickel silver, gold, niobium and titanium. The very prospect of making a titanium maille shirt is definitely tempting. The Ringlord is also responsible for the small leaf like scalemail that can be seen around the web - it makes them. Finally they also have finished maille shirts and sheets of chainmaille from most of the above mentioned materials. All in all the price range for most products is what i'd call acceptable. I've never personally purchased but I've heard a lot of positive reviews, and well let's be honest, there is no other like it. If you are on a tight budget, well you can daydream like me. But if you can afford it or its something special you want, look no further.
 
All in all - seriously just go have a look.
http://theringlord.com/cart/default.asp

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The smallest(and most adorable) barbarian in the horde

Right, so on this Christmas my cousin Nevena - a charming lil' girl got the chance to try out wearing  real steel armor. Not exactly the proper gift for a little girl, but then again Nevena ain't into dolls anyway and did not complain about it being heavy at all. It was a bit of a challenge to gear her up- the helmet especially was way too big for her head so I had to pad it quite a lot. She found the whole ordeal really funny and she even wants to come to some of our trainings once the weather warms up. All well and good of course, as long as she is a spectator only. Oh well, at least I know what to give her for her next birthday - her own aluminium chainmail shirt. Let's hope she doesn't go all medieval on the boys that are teasing her in class(she is 9 and she started school 1 year earlier than the rest) or the teachers in her school. Its not that I am worried about the outcome, I just don't know how are we going to bury them all.

Now I know I may be in the process of creating the future warlord that will burn down your homes but we can't be sure can we? Right?!

 

 I also took the liberty of turning some of the photos into motivational posters. I just couldn't resist the temptation.

Ok that's all! Now move along citizen!

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Blog redesign after New year's Eve.

Right, so, at some point next week(and next year too, as it happens) I will be changing the template of the blog again, This one is better than the basic blogger, sure, but on other hand its well - a stiff, I can't modify it much since I know almost nothing about coding, web design and html. I'd like to put on something brighter, and get some quick links and categories in here, leading to different sections - after all the first part of the blog involves tutorials, I'm not sure if many visitors are even aware of it, and a gallery for the finished projects/WIPs and so on. A welcoming message would be a good addition too, maybe a decent wallpaper for background if I can find a relevant one. While I know of several sites with blogger templates, I could use suggestions here, and when the time comes some help too I don't want to lose my nerve over a missing piece of code or something, nor do I want to turn my site into a total mess.  Oh yeah - expect some juicy updates soon. I got stuff to show to the world. As Dexter from Dexter's laboratory would say - "My greatest creation is completed!", right before unveiling the new "greatest creation".

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Birthday time! Turned 23

Eh, How fast time flies. So yeah happy birthday to me...

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