Armour foundry

[Keymonus]

November 618, Le Bellan, Eltina

The settlement has grown quickly during the previous years and Eltina, today, resembles almost completely a large town of the Old World, except for the palms and the parrots: elegant bystanders walk along paved streets, flanked by houses built with stones.

Even the new troops garrisoned in the city, in particular the courassiers recently arrived on the island, are something quite unusual for a colonial settlement, more used to militiamen or, at most, a couple of infantry companies: Eltina citizens proudly consider them a sign of the importance of their island, now a province of Oleon, more than a godsforsaken, unexplored angle of wasteland.
Armoured cavalry, however, needs new armours: a new furnace was built for the purpose, with specialized smiths coming from Granoleon.

Making an armour, in fact, is not an easy task, and requires the best iron and the best expertise: first of all the iron ingots are heated in a coal furnace, the bellows keeping the temperature high enough.

Then the comes the core of the work: the steel bars are hammered, bent and hammered again, cooled and heated, cut in foils and moulded in the wanted shapes, again and again for hours. The number of different layers of steel determines the resistance of the armour: three layers (meaning basically three concentric armours welded together) represent a reasonable balance between weight and protection, but require a lot of time and work to be produced.

The armours are quenched in cold water to further improve their resistance and durability: the process must be quick enough to work, but not too brutal or the steel, instead of reinforcing, will become fragile and will crack.

At last, since courassiers are elite soldiers, the armours are carefully polished with a grindstone and finely decorated, one by one, by a specialized (and hopefully talented) artisan.

Even if armoured cavalry can still route almost anything with a frontal charge, the times of legendary kings, jousts and spears shining in the sun have ended centuries ago, and knights must be protected accordingly: the main menace, nowadays, is represented by infantry with firearms.

For this reason, each armour is tested under the sight of state officials: it must endure without damage a short range gunshot...

...or a musket ball from a longer distance.

The armour the courassiers wear, in fact, is not only a distinctive sign of the regiment or a decorative object: it can be pierced by a close range shot of a musket or of a modern rifle, this is true, but still provides a good protection aganist swords, arrows, pistols and blunderbusses, that means aganist weapons frequently used by cavalry and militias.

Armoured cavalry is not at its sunset yet: it's not invincible, but still can decide the result of a battle with its powerful charge. To do that, not to be cut down before reaching the enemy is a good start and, if that is possible, part of the credit for that also goes to Eltina armour smiths.

[Elostirion]

Your depiction of the whole process is fantastic. The selection of minifigures, especially the facial expressions, is flawless. Super cool!

[Capt Wolf]

I love these process builds! Well done throughout! I particularly like how you built the bellows. And of course the trans-orange pieces were perfect for the heated metal.

[Ayrlego]

Great foundry, good work showing all the processes, especially the quality control at the end!

[Kwatchi]

A very detailed step by step you have detailed and illustrated here.  A hearty well done to you.  The overview of the forge interior, with all the artisans at their posts, was a well staged scene and my personal favourite.

[Bodi]

Great build! The foundry looks great and the scenes represemting the manufacture process are very convincing, and instructive.  

And yes, it's quite unusualy to see cuirassiers in the tropics, with their heavy plastrons, they should suffer even more in the tropics. 

[Mesabi]

Very nice build! I really like what you've done, and your history that goes along with it! 

[Roadmonkeytj]

There's slot of small details in this that really make this a great build.   The building is simple enough but decorative from the street.   

The bellows is a nice feature as larger forges would have a bellows boy

The workplace is very similar to old forges with multiple work stations.  I like how you hammered the rounds flat, then the plain armor gets rivets and details. 

Even the testing area is great.  The fact you included a musket prop is great!

Nicely done indeed sir! 

Edited November 14, 2018 by Roadmonkeytj

[Captain Dee]

Very nice addition to your prior "process" builds, both inside and out. The bellows are really good, and the trans-orange tiles as heated iron were made specifically for this, as far as I'm concerned. Good job showing the whole process, especially in a build this size. I like it.

[Keymonus]

Thank you guys! I had the idea more than a year ago, when I saw armors exposed in a museum with the “safety guarantee” described in the build but, without anything armored in BoBS, I delayed it until the appearance of courassiers!

Building the bellows was quite challenging, all the previous attempts were too large! And I agree with you, those trans orange tiles always fit in a furnace/droid factory/blacksmith store!