[Cutting-Edge Armor Design] Real World SCA-legal Armour and Ballistics Armour

[mlangsdorf]

So on the availability of full body kevlar armor: I'm not aware of any. But you can buy fencing jackets made from Kevlar or Spectra, and you can just buy bolts of kevlar fabric, so there's no reason why you can't make your own body armor.

I went for a mid-end design that bounces bullets everywhere at great expensive. What can we do on the low end?

DR 15 improved kevlar vitals protector: 1 sqft, 1.2 lbs, $144.
DR 9 improved kevlar vest with groin and rib cover: 6 sqft, 4.3 lbs, $518
DR 4 Hard Steel Breastplate with gorget and fauld: 7.7 sqft, 12.3 lbs, $220
DR 4 Kevlar arms, legs, balaclava: 12.6 sqft, 5 lbs, $80
DR 4 Kevlar gloves, socks: 1.4 sqft, 0.6 lbs, $45
DR 3 mild steel arms, legs, gauntlets, boots: 14 sqft, WM .7, CM 2, 23 lbs, $230

Buy an off-the-shelf riot helmet with a ballistic helmet's visor for 4.4 lbs, $400.

Total is 50.9 lbs, $1960.

This is a lot less effective, but much simpler, than the previous example. It isn't effective against 7.62mm rounds anywhere and most of the limb armor is for show: it's effective enough against animal attacks and it looks intimidating, so hopefully most attackers won't bother trying to penetrate it. It will protect against light pistol rounds to the limbs, and heavy pistols to the torso, but 5.56mm rifle rounds will break through the weaker side protection.

The combined thickness of the armor on the limbs is less than half the maximum, so it shouldn't be too encumbering. You could make this armor by cutting the kevlar sleeves and leggings from bolts of fabric, attaching them to an Interceptor vest or equivalent, and then adding some mid-range SCA armor*.

* I do not believe you can get SCA legal steel armor for the limbs for USD 230, so adjust prices to match your expectations of reality.