【Weapon Design】Become a Weaponsmith ～Shield Edition～

I love fantasy settings.
Weapons throwing off sparks, magic spells flying back and forth.
Mysterious potions reviving lives.
From fights between humans to friendships across races and species.
I truly love the world of fantasy that we will never be able to experience.

When it comes to fighting, what is the most important factor?
If the main purpose is to knock down the opponent, I’m sure many of you focus on raising strength and power.
However, battles cannot be won with just offensive moves.
What I’m trying to say is… you need defence power!
The theme of this article “shields” is one of the most important factors that equate to the power of weapons!

In this tutorial, we will be learning about the essence of defense from such shields!
I plan to write this article as a reference material to suggest various shield types to all the readers.
I hope this helps you with your future weapon design!

▼Become a Weaponsmith Season 1
【For Beginners】Become a Weaponsmith – Casting & Minting ~【Weapon Design】
【For Beginners & Intermediates】Become a Weaponsmith – Equipments 〜【Weapon Design】

▼Previous Articles
【For Beginners】Become a Weaponsmith ~Using Tools~
【Weapon Design】Become a Weaponsmith ~Bow Edition~
【Weapon Design】Become a Weaponsmith ~Wand Edition~

1, Shield Types

Shields can be categorized into a couple different types, depending on their shapes.
Having said that their names are very simple and can be remembered easily.
I will be introducing you the following; Buckler, Kite shield and Heater shield!

You might be familiar with the surface but do you know how the inside of these shields look?
I thought they had a strong stable grip but it turns out that soldiers were holding a leather belt!
The shield bodies tend to be made of wood and apparently the mainstream type has its surface covered with leather.
It is probably because lighter shields are much easier to control.
Speaking of which, sheathes are also mostly made of wood. I thought they were made of steel!

2, Casting

Just as usual, let’s start off with the four attributes/elements design.
I decided to make them into a series this time.
Looks very much protective with the power of magic!

Since it is an armor for protection, it would make me happy(?) if the design looks high in protection.

There are swords not purposed for practical use called the ceremonial sword so I feel like there are also “ceremonial shields” with elegant and graceful decorations!

There are more to shields than just standing still against the attacks.
Handling the opponent’s attacks, or even hitting them hard. I’m sure the shapes and sizes change accordingly to its purpose.
The battle of shields starts from how much you can make use of the empty hand…I think!

3, Equipping

As I researched about the use of shields, I learned about how important the role of shields used to be. The history of shields is much more profound than expected.
They really are a skilled armor that allows for offense and defense at the same time!

I imagined the shields to be held on back but apparently there were also ones with shoulder straps like crossbody bags.
Large ones will be a little challenging but small shields can be kept strapped on hand.

This completes the weapon design!
It really depends whether you want to equip the weapons but I introduced these poses since I have a feeling that most readers would want to imagine them with a character.

Up until now, I kept repeating that “Defense starts and ends with shields!” but in reality, shields became out of use with the evolution of armor suits.
Plate armor built off of sheet metals are basically a shield covering the entire body.
Although, the unique battle tactics of shields cannot be done with armor suits.
It really may be that the true charm of shields lies in the “offensive” side instead of their protective role.

Lastly, I refined one of the designs I liked, so I will include the image below.
Thank you for reading this tutorial!

 

（Text・Illustration／時計）
Twitter @Clock1231