OzLard Online Planning

 OzLard Online Planning

CANCELLED

Not enough support or interest to proceed

With Cancon 2021 being cancelled, I am planning on running an online equivalent of one of the Lard Days in Australia, with only online content. Thus OzLard Online.

Everything here is pencilled in subject to change. I am really interested in hearing what people think needs to be done - however my leadership style involves saying 'that is a great idea, you should do it' or 'that needs a team of three, all the best finding them' quite often.

Proposed DATES

 Cancon weekend 23rd and 24th January 2021

Proposed GAMES

We can run as many games for which we can find staff. Possible games are Chain of Command, What a Tanker, and Infamy! Infamy! 

Proposed TECHNOLOGY

Central meeting palce could be a Discord channel with multiple channels for each game, relaxed chatting, painting etc.

Games could be played via Tabletop Simulator or Filmed Live Tabletops. 

Tutorials and Panels could be held and enahnced by pre recorded Youtube presentations, pre-record video or presentations streams or live streams.

Proposed STAFF

Grand High Poobah - Bart

Each game will require:

    T.O. - tournament organiser who will be the contact point for the players, will co-ordinate up to the poobah, and down to the rest of their team

    Head Trainer - online games need a session held beforehand where people can test the technology and get a hand to ensure they are up to speed

    Player Trainers - these are the players who are confident they can play and walk someone through the game as well

    Players - ready to play!

If a game is a one-off demo with a maximum of say four players, a single person could the TO and trainer roles by themselves. If you have the ambition to run multiple scenarios and co-ordinate many results, I would suggest after the initial TO,  you need at least a staff memeber per 10 proposed players.

A Possible TIMETABLE

Saturday 9.00am  Discord Channel : Poobah

Poobah Bart welcomes everyone to OzLard Online, Rich ceremonially cracks the first tube. And the goes to bed becuase it is midnight in London :)

Saturday 9.15 Channel : Pub opens for the whole event

Saturday 9.15 Channel :ChoC Central

The Ten Chain of Command Players meet up and find their opponents. The first scenario download link is given so people can see it in Tabletop Simulator for the first time. The chain of Command discord channels Choc Game One through to Choc Game Five then populate.

Saturday 9.15 Channel : Bunch of Tankers 

The WaT trainer opens up for registration of trainees. At 9.30 the Tabletop simulator What a Tanker board is opened, and the trainer introduces new people to WaT.

Saturday 9.15 Channel : Sharpies

Scott Driscoll has already got his four players sorted - he reveals the board at his house with full camera rig and wonderful terrain, and starts the stream. His opponents in Johannesburg and Cardiff get him to show them and the spectators the angles to make decisions, and Scott consults with his ally in Hamburg for the four hours of the game. Unfortunately half way through the game there is a technical issue, and one of the spectators steps up to take an active role.

Saturday 13.00 Channel : Choc Central

The games that were finished at 12.30 are tallied, and the next round starts

Saturday 13.00 Channel :Painters Terrainium

John Bond streams the Youtube premiere of his video where he shows advanced dremel techniques to make his incredible terrain. He stops and starts the video stream to provide extra commentary

Saturday 13.00 Channel: Bunch of Tankers

Two of the trainees are keen for more and six experienced players join in for a eight tanks extravaganza

Saturday 18:00 Channel Pub: With most formal games over the pub kicks off and many stories are told, and every says how much the dice hated them and how tomorrow everything will work perfectly...

 

  

Zoom Armour Class Planning and Tools

Zoom Armour Class Planning and Tools

I have been asked how I did my Zoom 

class on armouring 101, and which tools I used. When you are explaining something once, why not put it in a blog and explain it to whoever shows interest?

First step was the skeleton. Quickly overview the whole course, then each of the six two hour lessons.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgCjJHQJ58ZIMpwRTxJRaPOvhr0qXYGHm0h3LsD-iaA/edit?usp=sharing

Important principles: First lesson should be assess each students needs. Do they match what you are planning to teach. Next is vocabulary - what must you teach otherwise the words make no sense?

Lesson One - I spoke to the students about their personal expectations. I had written a five page google document on types of workshops. This document was the skeleton, and my knowledge filled it out. It was also the vocabulary lesson - each of the critical words was discussed and brought up so students could hear them in a context. This was a 'talking head' lesson done in front of my computer.

Lesson Two-Four. Each of these practical skills lessons involved iphone video days. My beloved Tig would be the cameraperson and count me in. I would have a printed list of each technique, and would explain them from memory. Later, we would extract the video files from my iPhone using a iXpand lightning made by Sandisk. 

These gizmos are an iPhone lightning adaptor at one end, and a USB stick at the other. Then I would transfer the files to my Windows 10 PC. I would convert these files from Apple format to .mp4 and edit them using HD Movie Maker - PRO which cost $15AUD from the Microsoft store.

I estimate that a two hour lesson needs about 50 minutes of video if, like me, you stop the video at bits that need expanding, answer questions, and prompts for questions from your audience. Shooting for 40 minutes of video generally took about four hours of shooting, and six hours of editing. Armour videos have sound problems. The loud hammering and grinding noises you make can cut out the sound and stop your words from being heard. In the lessons I just explained what I said during the zoom. To publish my videos on Youtube, I decide subtitling would be needed. I used Aegissub for this. I estimate 40 minutes of subtitling will take about four hours.

Lessons Five and Six - Were again talking head. Parts were based off a blog post, which involved me showing the blog post, and talking about the key points, expanding on them, and constantly quizzing the listeners about why decisions might have been made. Parts were based of memory without scripting - talking about shop practice and how decisions come about. Yet another part was showing and presenting over a Microsoft Powerpoint

The final part was going over the expectations expressed in the very first lesson, and then expanding on them. The student who expressed an interest in Mongol armour - I advised which workshop they needed, which groups they should look to to research Mongol, and examples of Mongol armour for example. The last 30 minutes were left for final questions. 

So I used a bevvy of technical tools, but I would say the most important was a good skeleton put together on a Google Document.

Bart Heart Story

Bart Heart Story

Since Forever:

I hate running. I've always done power, short sports. Running has always made me feel like crap. Cricket, SCA, Volleyball - power burst rather than sustained constant effort.

2017-2019

After heavy effort such as a day of SCA armoured combat, or a day in the armoury hammering heavily, I would get very cold and my heart would pound. Sometimes when fighting, people told me I looked like crap. Something was happening...

2019-2020

I go through a good gp, the a cardiologist, then a surgical cardiologist. It is determined that I have SVT. Short version: The electricals in my heart are doing odd things. More detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supraventricular_tachycardia

Tuesday 19th May 2020

I go to have a heart study and ablation. Short Version: An instrument goes in my groin and through to my heart and detects the problems (the study), and then burns the heart muscle in such a way that the electrical fault is cured (the ablation) . More detail: https://www.melbourneheartrhythm.com.au/learn/procedures/11-supraventricular-tachycardia-ablation

This does not work this time under twilight. When they induce the problem, it does not behave as it should, and the choice was made to not ablate because everything was too unusual. It was suspected that this was due to the twilight. My surgery was also very late at night, due to being one of the first elective surgeries post COVID-19 lockdowns being lifted. Sleeping afterwards was tough as I received a nasty burn from the heart zap pads.

I recover from the process quite nicely. I am put onto Betaloc, which is a beta blocker. This tablet makes me dimmer intellectually and nauseous. I had to pull back from multiple commitments such as not re-running for the ANCA president.

Tuesday 22nd June 2020

I am due to have another heart study and ablation. I am washed, shaved up and ready - and it is cancelled due to a problem with the machine.

Tuesday 14th July 2020 - I have another heart study and four ablations. The study finds an atrial flutter, AVNRT, and two SVT. They are all radio ablated. I am on the table for six hours. This is much more than was expected, but after two previous sessions the doctor decided to get everything done at once. I am now on Eliquis Apixaban (blood thinner) and Pantoprazole Sandoz (reflux prevention) and painkillers.

So what did this FEEL like?

After sitting around bored in the gown, I got wheeled down to surgery around 12. There they explain that due to the failure to map properly last time, I will only have local on my groin, and no twilight. I'm going to be awake for most of this, hooray... The groin is drugged and the instruments are put in. This time I am positioned slightly differently so I can't see the big monitors that show the action.

The study begins, which is where they chemically induce a fast heart rate to cause the problem, so they understand how to fix it. This is like chemically running a marathon - your heart rate is jacked up and you feel like you are straining hard. I start breathing hard. The doctor then says that my breaths are too big, and that they interfere with his instruments. I'm going to have to run a marathon on tiny breaths. This is EXHAUSTING. I develop a mantra to shorten my breathes, which is "Aus-trali-A, The AC-T" with an up on the A, and a down on the T. I don't know how long this goes on, maybe an hour? Where the doctor keeps finding more and more issues. They expected one issue and one ablation, but during the study they find a flutter, and AVNRT, and two SVTs.

Eventually they begin the first ablation which was fixing the flutter. This is excruciating, and feels like my ribcage is being pulled apart by a carjack. My life has been full of sport and adventures in silly, painful things, so I know many of the very bad types of pain. This one was the slow pulling apart of ligaments and tendons, and you know they are close to just bursting apart. The main agony was focused just above my right rotator cuff. I believe I broke that bone once, so I suspect that it is the weak point of my whole rib cage, so it reported in as the part most likely to tear apart first. My whole rib cage was yelling very angrily at me, but the right shoulder felt ready to tear apart.

I had been doing to short breathing for an hour, so I told the doc I needed to breathe big when I could to take this pain. He told me when I could breathe big, then he told me when he was working and I had to stay on shallow breathes. I would have been crying heavily at this point, but there was no liquid to let go, so I was salt crying, which as you know stings pretty badly. At this point I think they realised how badly I was doing here, and I was told I was going under general, and the other ablations would be done with out me being awake. I got told to suck in big breaths of the gas, and I was soon blessedly out.

When I came back with the program, I was in my room, it was around 7pm and Tig was next to me. My ribcage hurt like blazes, feeling like I was recovering from my ribcage being jacked apart. I had been intubated (tubes down my throat) which feels nasty. I was actually more comfortable than last time as I could semi-rest as I did not have the burn on my back this time. My main discomfort was actually that I needed to go for a #2. There was an attempt to organise a bedpan, but that didn't work. As it was I drifted in and out of sleep listening to TFL YouTubes.

Wednesday 15th July 2020 -I was finally allowed to be mostly unplugged and go to the toilet. Blessed relief!

I kept rotating between listening to TFL YouTubes and sleeping and tripping out from all the drugs I was on. I was having all sorts of visual illusions and weird visions. I knew they were hallucinations  and waking dreams because I could turn them off by opening my eyes and breathing deeply.

Over the day I was gradually unplugged from all the things, and observations stopped. I was offered painkillers, but only went as far as Panadol. I didn't need Endone this time as I was sleeping okay over the ache. Last time I had more hardcore drugs due to sleep being an impossibility due to the burn.

During the day I was okay, trippy due to the drugs, napping, and tired, but okay. Doc came late, and we had a chat, and I was okay to go home. I get unplugged from all the toys, got dressed, got drugs, and went home. I chilled on the couch while we watched a little bit of DC Legends of Tomorrow, and then we set up the bed and I went to sleep around 8pm.

Thursday 16th July 2020 - I ache in my ribs and throat, I am still woozy AF, but I can paint tokens, I fed the dogs this morning, and I fed myself lunch. I am nicely on the mend. I am compis mentis enough to write this missive at 4pm. I think the recover will be much slower this time due to my rib tendon and ligament stetching, let alone my heart actually being spot welded, but I am confident that in a few months I will be better that ever.

I'm quite curious to see if running becomes actually fun, and if SVT was the reason I have always loathed it!

Practical Armouring 101

Armoury Types

Booking form: https://bit.ly/bookPolitUniEvent Booklet: https://bit.ly/EventBooklet

“Everyone has time, money, or a terrible lifestyle.” Bart Beswick, circa 1995.

Choosing the type of armoury you make means thinking deeply about which one you have more of - time, or money? Then, how much spare do you have of each?

Bare Bones $140

All the cheapest, highest labour options

Cutting - Cold chisel $15

Edge cleaning - A $20 file $10 sandpaper

Shaping Hammer, and Planishing - $25 ballpien

Shaping Dies - purchased sledgehammer head

Drilling $15 hand drill, $10 bits

Riveting - $20 gal nails

Welding & Heat - none

Leatherworking - one knife, rigged nail, needle and thread - $20

Wood Shaping - one crosscut saw and the same pack of riveting nails - $5

Electrical Theme $2 800

Cutting JigSaw and Angle Grinder $80

Edge cleaning Multitool $755

Shaping Hammer $220 multiple Thors

Shaping Dies Tree trunk project $400

Planishing - Planishing hammer $45

Drilling - both Electrical drills $300

Riveting - Hammer Riveting $25

Welding - any = $400

Heat - none

Leatherworking $100

Wood Shaping $300 - Multiple electrical versions of tools

Air Tool Fan $2 500

A good compressor - $1000

Cutting and Edge cleaning Multiple tools - $180

Shaping Hammer $220

Shaping Dies - Scuba plan - $500

Planishing - air planish tool - $300

Drilling - air drill $60

Riveting - air riveter - $200

Welding - none

Heat - none

Leatherworking $50

Wood Shaping $150

Rechargeable Battery User $1 500

Three good batteries $200

Cutting - $100 jigsaw

Edge cleaning - Angle grinder & polisher $200

Shaping Hammer - $220

Shaping Dies - Tree trunks - $400

Planishing - Hand - $50

Drilling - hand drill skin $100

Riveting - Hand $25

Welding - none

Heat - None

Leatherworking $50

Wood Shaping $150

Period As Possible $3 000

Cutting - $20 Cold Chisel and $300 straight cut shear

Edge cleaning - $200 files

Shaping Hammers - $500 various

Shaping Dies - $1000 specialty stakes

Planishing - $50 Hand hammer

Drilling - $50 Hand drill and punching

Riveting - $100 hammers and iron rivets

Welding and Heat - Forge and Borax $300

Leatherworking - $200

Wood Shaping - $300

Bart/Corny/Rob Style $6 300

Cutting - Shear, Jigsaw and Angle grinder - $600

Edge cleaning - Power Sander and files - $1000

Shaping Hammers -All listed and multiples $1000

Shaping Dies - Scuba and tree and dollies - $1000

Planishing - Hand Planishing - various hammers $100

Drilling - Hand, hand electric and Bench - $600

Riveting - $25

Welding and Heat - Oxy/Act and Electric $1200

Leatherworking - $400

Wood Shaping - $400

Hydraulics-R-US - $2 800

Cutting - Throatless - $300

Edge cleaning - Power Sander - $755

Shaping Hydraulic Press - $1000

Planishing - $45

Drilling - Hand Electric $40

Riveting - Hand $25

Welding - Mig - $400

Heat - none

Leatherworking - $50

Wood Shaping - $150

Moneybags $68 500

Cutting - All - $4000

Edge cleaning - Best of all - $1500

Shaping Hammers - Multiple of all - $20000

Shaping Dies - Best of all - $5000

Planishing - $22000

Drilling - $1000

Riveting - $2000

Welding - Best of All - $4000

Heat - Best of all - $5000

Leatherworking - $1000

Wood Shaping - $3000

Back to the Practical Armouring 101 Overview

Practical Armouring 101 Workshop Cost Benefit Analysis

Practical Armouring 101

Workshop Cost Benefit Analysis

Booking form: https://bit.ly/bookPolitUniEvent Booklet: https://bit.ly/EventBooklet

This document has sufficient formatting that I am uninteresting in re-formatting it for my blog - please read it as a Google Document

or 

Go to the Practical Armouring 101 Overview

Practical Armouring 101 - Overview

Practical Armouring 101

Overview

Booking form: https://bit.ly/bookPolitUniEvent Booklet: https://bit.ly/EventBooklet

“Lets see the big picture” Anon, circa 1904.


I will be teaching Practical Armouring 101 at the online SCA event “Politarchopolis Uni” using 2 hour Zoom lessons over six weeks in 2020. My aim is to give a person who was interested in making their own armour an introduction to the basic skills and techniques of armouring, with a focus on this student being able to attend every lesson, and at the end have the confidence to attempt their first kit of SCA sports armour.

Lesson Plan

Week One: Discussion held at my PC - Introduction and workshop setup. Students will advise on their intent and goal for the series so I can shape my examples and focus my examples. I will then look at workshops - types of workshops, advantages and disadvantages of each, and the cost benefit of the tools and techniques.


Link: Practical Armouring 101 - Tools and techniques cost benefit analysis


Link: Practical Armouring 101 - Armoury Type

Week Two: Practical skills demonstration based at my workshop. I will give a brief overview of obtaining patterns and using patterns. I will then demonstrate the various ways of cutting metal, and then cleaning up the resulting rough edge.

Week Three: Practical skills demonstration based at my workshop. I will demonstrate the various ways of shaping metal then I will show planishing. This will involve many different tools and methods.

Week Four: Practical skills demonstration based at my workshop. I will demonstrate the various ways of joining metal. There will be practical examples of riveting, Forge welding, Tig welding, and Oxy-Acetylene welding, and videos suggested on ARC and MIG. If time permits, I will go into final techniques such as painting or polishing.

Week Five: Discussion held at my PC - I will lead a discussion on medieval period practice, and how do move towards more a more period in your workshop, and when the period technique is the right choice.

Week Six: Discussion held at my PC - I will lead a discussion on shop practice. After you have made your first suit of SCA sports armour, where to from there? How will you talk to customers who might want you to make armour? What is, and how do I use Bart’s Armour Decision Point guide
What do I charge my client? How do I stay motivated? Why should I make someone else new armour when I could make yet another kit, and how can I use the excuse of “marketing”?

Thigh plate fitting and Chausses construction

Thigh plate fitting
 and
 Chausses construction
for
Rattan Sport (SCA) armour

I am back making armour, and occasionally I get asked to explain how things are done so people can do things who are far from me and unable to visit.

I explain the inevitable Internet no fit guarantee (tm) means that giving exact dimensions is no guarantee of anything fitting, so I try and get the principles across. Getting principles across can be very hard to do in five minutes at an event, so I am making these blog posts to try and get the points written down at least.

Thigh plate

There are a few critical principles to the thigh plate.

1)The distance from the knee safety point to the thigh fold point

2) The conicality of the thigh

3) The roundness of the thigh.

The knee safety point is distance above the knee such that a plate firmly secure there does provide protection in conjunction with the knee armour. With my militia sport armour kit, this is approximately two inches (5cm) above the knee.

Te thigh fold point is the maximum height at which a thigh plate can extend which does not inhibit the user from touching their toes while the thigh plate is in place. The torso needs to be able to fold completely over the plate and allow complete range of movement. 

The conicality (the degree to which your thigh is more like a cone or a tube) is different on most people. Leonardo's drawing of  the man in the circles has 'standard' conicality - very fine taper with significant drop at the knee.

The roundness of the thigh can be defined with a measuring tape, but needs to have a profile - some legs are very circular, some legs are very oval.

The red lines are the three lines that show the distance from the knee to the top of thigh
The green line is the distance around the thigh, best measured at the bottom and the top of the shortest red line.

Chausses

(fabric padding for under leg armour)

Chausses have a great deal of variance, but are essentially a tube of padding that matches the shape of the operators leg. 

Long chausses are essentially padded tights, and can go a foot covering all the way to the top of the thigh. Short chausses can cover to just under the knee to the top of the thigh plate. 

Chausses can be tubes of one shape only that the  operator steps into, or they can be affixed and adjusted by lacing at the back.

The example listed shown at Steel mastery is long one. It has lacing at the back of the calf to gain a tighter fit, but it is a tube over the thigh. It has a strap that goes under the foot, instead of being a full sock. I chose this example because it has a most excellent rear view.

https://steel-mastery.com/long-padded-chausses.html

Padding can be thick or thin by choice. I tend to use one layer of cotton-wool horse blanket all over the garment, and three layers from about two fingers above the knee to two fingers below the knee. This extra padding covers the front and sides of the knee, but does not extend to the back of the knee to allow easier bending. 

I find it takes me four hours to machine sew chausses. I make short chausses and my machine has an auto-eyelet setting so I make the type that is laced at the back.