Jean Chandler

A vest of relatively thick but soft leather, like a modern leather jacket. Provides marginal protection.

This is a doublet or corslet of stiff, quite thick leather like saddle leather. It is fairly rigid and restricts movement similarly to an iron cuirass, but is much lighter. It is not very efficient armor and offers only limited protection, there is little evidence of this type of armor being used in Europe, but it’s better than nothing. (Leather armor of this type may have sometimes been used in Central Asia)

A lamellar vest made of thick leather pieces like saddle leather, strung together on heavy laces. Provides adequate if not excellent protection.

This is a sort of poor-mans brigandine armor consisting of small metal plates sewn inside two layers of textile armor. It was used by common footsoldiers in late Medieval through Renaissance Europe.

This is a type of mail armor coat made of thinner gauge wire, significantly lighter and less bulky than ordinary mail, but also less effective protection.

This is a sleeveless vest of iron lamellar armor. Provides good protection against cuts and low inertia missile weapons like arrows, and cheap and easy to manufacture.

A sleeveless vest of brigandine armor, consisting of two layers of textile armor with overlapping metal plates sandwiched in between. Quite effective protection.

Iron breast plate with a back-plate.

Heavier than an ordinary cuirass, typically bullet proof, these began to appear in the 16th Century, and were used by heavy cavalry through World War I. The shape of a heavy cuirass could be of the ‘gloubus’ type, the box-shaped type, or relatively form-fitting.

A cuirass with specific type of shape featuring vertical central ridge, called the tapul, which split the middle of the breast plate like sloped armor on a tank. This type was very good protection from both missiles and lance strikes.

The Japanese adopted the peascod cuirass from Portuguese soldiers, in many cases incorporating foreign made cuirasses into their own ‘modern armor’ panoplies (Toudei-Gusoku), and also copying the design. They called the peascod breast plate specifically Hatomune dô or ‘pigeon breast armor’