MOBILE, Alabama -- At 6 feet 3 inches tall, Edward Lindey is a personable husband and dad, a gentle giant who transforms, slowly, into an iron man.

At his home in west Mobile, as he puts on his 14th century armor, piece by piece, he becomes a medieval warrior, ready to deflect attackers with a shield and best them with his swift moves and tournament sword.

Lindey is a member of Team USA (www.usaknights.us), a group of men from around the country who head out, clad in armor, to do mock battle with warriors from other nations.

Their hobby is an art.

“You don’t just pick up stuff and hack at each other,” he said.

While suits of armor can be purchased for as little as $300 — from India, surprisingly enough, through the Internet, he said — they can also run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

“We tend to view the Middle Ages as unintelligent, the Dark Ages. Their sense of technology,” he said of the way the suits are pieced together, “would surprise you.”

A recruiter by trade, Lindey says that Team USA members work in professions from law enforcement, to the military to medical services.

They range in age from 26 to 54. At 30, Lindey’s tall and lean — he weighs in at 206 pounds — but powerful enough to wear 85 pounds of steel and remain agile enough to fell a formidable opponent.

In April he joined with Team USA as members made their first trip to the Battle of the Nations, held in Poland (www.bnfest.pl). The Americans came in fourth — excellent for a first-time showing, Lindey said — including combatants from Russia, Germany, Poland, Israel, Denmark and the Baltic states.

Lindey, whose battle dress was tailor-made for him by an artisan in New York, won the top international prize for the authenticity of his armor.

Does it make him feel like the superhero Iron Man?

“I only wish mine could fly,” he said.

He is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a popular group that pursues living history reenactments of the Middle Ages.

But his participation with Team USA in Battle of the Nations is of a different order, he said.

“We’re not reeanactors,” he said. “You have to disable your opponent by taking him down.”

One of the contests Lindey took part in pits five men each from two different countries going head-to-head in combat.

With blunted swords — no thrusting, the rules say — the warriors clobbered each other, holding up their shields, engaging each other physically.

“To fight in the Battle of the Nations,” Lindey said, “each combatant needed to have an advanced knowledge of Western martial arts, with a general understanding of grappling and wrestling techniques.”

There were some injuries sustained among all the teams, Lindey said — a concussion, broken feet.

“Aggression, physical fitness and skill were a great factor,” he said.

For all of Lindey’s prowess in the medieval art of war, he still needs help getting dressed.

On a recent evening, his wife, Stephanie, stood alongside at their home, lacing up the sides of his breastplate, aiding him with his leg and arm armor.

Over his suit he put the heraldry of Team USA — red-white-and-blue with an American eagle.

Then came the headpiece.

He lifted the heavy helmet and lowered it over his head. Pulling the visor in place — its nose like the beak of a hawk, slits for the eyes — he became part of a world seven centuries ago.