OT - a suit of shining armour...

[Loser]

Oh, wow. SCAdians.

Greetings from Dragonspine. (Not an actual member, just enjoy their parties.)

Another way to whip up a quick suit of armor is to use camping foam, aluminum foil, and that crystal-clear packing tape.

Camping foam is cheap, so working out your own pattern won't be to bad, but it will hold curves and peaks better than cardboard. Put the aluminum foin on in strips, covering each strip with the tape and, of course, overlapping the tape onto previous strips or the uncovered surface of the foam. Try to keep the tape from folding ot catching itself, as this will cloud it.

This will work better for round shapes than cardboard.

I didn't get this design from SCA-folk, but from a more casual, unregulated, irregular event around here, where we put the padding on the weapons and not the people. Basically we make swords or whatever out of PCV and the camping foam and typically cover it the duct-tape. Then we knock eachother around without worry about 'suiting up' or anything else first. It's great for parties, and you can build and reasonable weild great, cartoony swords, axes, hammers, or whatever.