THE ARMOR

It's plastic.  Really.  People make fun of plastic armor until they realize ours is plastic.  And then we tell them the torso was free.

Vici manufactures the armor from Vito's design, an alteration of Newstead Roman lorica segmentata.  It's HDPE plastic, won't shatter in the cold, floats well, lightweight, won't absorb sweat, and is more durable than anything else on the battlefield except stainless and titanium, the armor of the wealthy. 

The biggest obstacle to someone joining the SCA and fighting is the up-front cost of the kit.  Our goal is to outfit new minions at no expense to the new guy.  We have reduced the up-front cost to about $125.  That's the cost of helm halves, aluminum for the shield, elbows and knees, cup and pads.  We are continuing to reduce that cost.  We build a custom plastic torso with attached skirting, leather straps on nickel-plated brass buckles, nylon cording and strapping inside, with brass rivets and cadmium-plated washers.  We make greaves attached to your metal knees, bazubands fit with your metal elbows, cuphilt, gauntlets and gorget all in plastic.  We build a custom Roman helmet from 12-gauge halves and 14-gauge sheet, in mild steel, with either a 1/4 inch bar grille, or 3/16ths.

This all sounds good.  But there's a catch.  We only build it for Vito's Minions, at Vito's orders.  There was a lot of R&D work put into the armoring process, and a lot of expenses on tools and materials.  If you join, we build you a kit.  We have enough in enough sizes to give you a test run, to see if you like it.  If you'll swear an oath to Vito that you'll fight with us, and he accepts you, we'll build you a kit.  If you quit, we take it back.  If you really want to keep the stuff you paid for, we'll drill rivets, plasmacut metal, and let you keep the parts.  If you don't, they will get used by another minion.

6-megapixel images of the armor:

Vici's kit has been through two Pennsic Wars.

Vici (left) has the oldest kit.  Sifu (middle) has a one-war kit.  Cassius (right) is depicted in his kit for the first time.  His helmet isn't custom, it was still being made.