Over the years, I have built a number of stands for reproduction and antique armors. I keep changing the design as time goes on.
I don't know that one is really better than another, but they are different.
Sometimes I change the stand to make it easier/faster to build, sometimes in an effort to make it display the specific piece better.
In general, I am trying to build a stable stand that will stand on its own without a base and which will hold the armor in a
reasonably accurate static position. This means that I tend to include some basic features. These include:
The legs splay out some. They aren't vertical. This adds to the stability of the stand, and makes the armor look more natural.
The feet angle out. Again, this makes the stand more stable and looks more like a person standing.
The legs have a profile that reflects the thigh, knee and calf. This helps to hold the armour in the right position.
The body has a profile that reflects the shoulders, chest, waist and hips. This helps the look of the display and also allows me to support more of the armour, limiting stress on the pieces.
The shoulders (usually) have some slope to properly mimic the human body. This helps to properly display the breastplate/cuirass, gorget and shoulders.
I have a hard time with arms. Sometimes I can just let them dangle, other times I need a little more structure so I have added some upper arm. I often give up and use a mechanism that I found on a stand that I obtained with a part armor. If you run a wire or cable inside the arm and secure it to the shoulder of the stand or a relevant bit of the shoulder armor and then hook it to the wrist of the vambrace or cuff of the gauntlet, you can provide a bend to the arm. This only works is the arm is reasonably solid - an articulated arm with pauldron works well. It won't work with separate parts.
You will notice that the waist on these stands is pretty narrow. It will look very unnatural. That is because the sides are not at the center of the body. The waist has to be cut in to reflect the shape of the body at the point that aligns with the center of the femur.
This is a stand I made for a mid 16th c. white half armor. This is the most basic form of this style of stand. The main plywood frame provides profile form. It could be used to display many armors. The shape of the legs can keep the leg armor centered and in the right position relative to the body. The form of the body will properly support a gorget and cuirass. The helmet support is about as primitive as it could be. Sloping it forward like this allows the helmet to sit in the right position relative to the body. Since I didn't have a backplate for this armor, I secured leather straps to the frame allowing me to hang the breastplate over the gorget in the same way it would have been secured to the backplate.This is a stand I made for a mid 16th c. black and white armor made for a child. The main plywood frame provides profile form and I have added blocking to mimic the outline of the body. The blocking on the sides helps to support the clothing a little bit, and it would help to keep leg harness in just the right place. As you can see from the previous one, it isn't strictly necessary. I think that I also felt that somehow the waist had become pretty narrow, and I wanted a little more structure there, and, well, why not have some fun at the same time?This is a stand I made for a mid 15th c. heavy Italian armor. The armor was originally made for Tobias Capwell. It is.. Heavy. So the stand has to hold the armour in the right position, but also support all of the weight. It is generally based on the same concepts behind many of the others, but it adds some extra support and structure to the shoulders to try to keep the pauldrons and arms in the right position. I could have done a full silhouette for the calf, but it isn't necessary. The blocking holds the cuisses in place and the cuises hold the greaves. The profile keeps things centered.This is a stand I made for a late 16th c. full armor. The legs are the standard profile. The profile of the shoulders was tailored to fit the gorget. This allows it to be supported beneath much of its surface, preventing damage since it supports the cuirass. The shoulder board allows the pauldrons to sit in a reasonable position. This one is basically the same as the first one, but I used a piece of scrap 2x2 for the head instead of dowel, and I added the shoulder block to hold the pauldrons out. The sloped forward helmet stand seems to keep the helmet in a good position. The images which show the full stand show it in front of the armor which it normally supports. At that time, the armor was being tried on my new WAM style adjustable stand. The new stand seems to work better for the arms, but it isn't as well tailored to this armor in the body or legs. This is a stand I made for a 17th c. cuirassier's 3/4 armor. The main body is constructed of two pieces of plywood slotted together. One forms a profile, the other a front view of the body. This covers from the neck to the hips. The shoulders and the upper chest were cut to very carefully mimic and support the gorget that forms part of the armor. The waist of the pieces supports the waist of the breastplate in the proper position. In its current form it is resting on top of a stool. The pieces of the stand are just pressed to fit, the body could be "flat packed". At present the arms and gauntlets are held in position with an internal wire. The helmet is supported by a dowel with a shaped block on top. I didn't take the armor apart as part of this documentation, instead I have pictures of the "patterns" I made for the plywood. The central slot was cut wider to fit the thickness of the wood, and I later carved the top of the chest down to precisely match the gorget. I also used a flat rate shipping box for the pattern, so I had to add the hips and buttocks on to the bottom of the patterns when I transferred to wood.This is a stand I made for a mid 17th c. breast, back and pot. It is basically a cross, but it has been enhanced with tapered shoulders which have been built up to provide thickness in the shoulders. It is secured to a hexagonal base constructed of plywood with a narrow molding at the top. This is a stand I made for a late 16th c. half armour with long tassets. I decided to play with a box to form the volume of the body and buid the shoulders, and (atypically for me) a central moulded post. This is similar to many arsenal stands. The helmet is supported by a 2x4. This really should be carved to allow for a more reasonable shoulder/neck/head transition.
