I have a set of Xknees that I'm in love with the fit and stability and comfort of. I REALLY wanted to use them as a base for my new knees. It's taken quite some time, though, and I've gone through a bunch of different revisions.
Original sketch of my concept to rework my armor:
You can see my first idea to camouflage the Xknees, and how there are no visible holes, a single smooth knee plate and then side plates inspired by medieval jousting armor joint protection.
I tried all kinds of templates in card (no photos) and had no satisfactory success.
Pity, I REALLY liked that design. I can probably make it work, but it'll take more engineering and patience than I have time for.
Next versions only made it to sketches. I hated how they looked for my overall concept. But they are workable designs, and maybe someone else can use them!
Front:
Sides:
FINAL VERSION:
I have no photos of the patterning process of the final version, but basically I wanted something that worked with my shins as well as possible because they will be so close together. I ended up with a design that echoed the center rib design of the shins.
This is a scan of the pattern I worked out with cardstock over the xknee plates:
Cut, shaped and glued:
First coat of Evil Frosting:
Sanded, ready for primer:
How the plate covers the original knee plate:
You are probably wondering how I am planning to deal with the pad and the bands and the handy, handy clips. That's all still in process, but essentially, I am covering the pads AND the clips with the same cloth my suit is made from, dyed the same, and making a channel behind the knee for each band in my pantlegs. I haven't done the alterations to my suit yet, but I DO plan to take detailed photos of the process and make sketches of what is going where for that portion of the process.
I have partially covered one pad, but it's not done yet. I still need to sew on the elastic along the "button" edge so that it lines up to cover the openings of the channels in my pantleg. So it's waiting for the work on the suit to be done.
Unfinished covered pad, front, no visible sewing stitches - my plan is for this to appear to be just some wrinkles in my suit when worn:
Back (you can see the stitches here):
Plate on unfinished covered pad:
Finally, I plan to attach the plates after they are painted by inserting six chicago screws through a small slash in the pad covering under the original plate, and then gluing them down to the plates with hotglue (flexible hot melt so they don't crack off).
