My armour is coming along, and hit a milestone yesterday. My arming jacket finally had the necessary pointing holes for attaching the arm pieces, which have been ready since December. So this is the first time they have been tried on properly. And oh my, what happy bliss to be clanking about in STEEL!!

There will be some adjustments needed to the arms to get them fitting perfectly, but the armourer, Marko Saari, is a genius and a craftsman of the highest order, and so perfection is well within the realms of possibility.

This piece is a reproduction of the Avant armour, held in Glasgow's Kelvingrove museum, and the closest surviving example to the armour we see in Il Fior di Battaglia, especially the Pisani-Dossi MS.

Helmet next. Then legs. Then proper gauntlets.