My latest shield

Figured I might as well share since the design is unusual

My original plan was to build a Celtic thureos, the forerunner to the shields of the thuerophoroi in late Hellenistic armies



So, I started off with a 48x7.25x1 piece of "whitewood" (I think that's what Lowes called it), I then made three layers of blue foam on top, and cut it to the right shape, here's a front and back view




Next, I built up some reinforcement in the center, top, and bottom, at it's thickest, the shield is 6 layers thick, or 3 inches



So, when all of that was dry, I cut out some rectangular holes around the center reinforcement for straps, which in this case is some bungee strap stuff, that seems pretty strong, but it's adjustable

After that, I put some more foam around the edges, to make sure everything stayed in place, put some foam on the core, just to make sure I don't get splinters, etc., and finally, I did some duct taping to make sure everything was sturdy, so, final result:




I'll add some more when I get a cover and do some combat testing, but so far it seems to be sturdy, and it's very light, so thoughts?

to be fought with a sword or spear?

I'm working on some javelins to go with it, so I'll fight single green, with a blue in reserve in case I run out of ammo

i like the set up. very roman

Well, basically all military strategy at the time consisted of

1. throw some javelins
2. charge

unless you were in a phalanx or cavalry, the Romans just figured, why don't we give them giant shields and heavy armor

in any case, the Roman scuta has a pretty similar shape, but I'm not nearly good enough to get it to curve

pickle barrels work well, so i'm told. i'm glad there will be some javies back on the field. i keep forgetting to bring mine up.

Odin is right. Pickle barrels are excellent cores for curved shields. I had Iohn make one for my brother once and he loved it. However, I usually advise against them, mainly because we discovered it's not as effective at helping block your comrades from blows because of it's shape. They're great for people who aren't really team players, though (and they'd probably be more effective in a unit if everyone in the unit had them, like, say... Rome. ).

Well, you can make anything work if everyone has them, if we ever got that organized, we should make some sarissas (20ft spear that made Hellenistic phalanxs possible) and own as a group

of course, Roman legions were super effective at destroying phalanxs, because they didn't have to fight as a team in order to do anything...

I like your design. Are those straps held in by only foam? I'd be worried they would tear through after a few weeks of hard use. 1" also seems a bit thick to me, but if it works...

Will you put a boss in the center or keep it a strap? You could cut out a bit from the center and make a punch shield (more accurate for your shield).

The straps would have to cut through 6 layers of foam and some duct tape, so I should see some warning signs it it's failing

I think it would have worked as a punch shield, but I wanted to be able to hold stuff

Depending on what your punch handle is, you can hold stuff just fine imo.