Dilated pupils thoughts of murder . <| sep |> Keep being kind and sensitive despite this , friend . <| sep |> They work . They can be pretty . Popular over much of the world there are European , Indian , Chinese , and Korean examples . Steeliron was the most popular version , followed by rawhide . The European style is IMO the hardest to make , since they tend to be more formfitting , and the plates need to be more carefully shaped they ' re not identical the size and shape varies with position in the armour . Chinese or Korean style is the easiest to make . One advantage of brigandine is that the armour plates are hidden , so you can use a wide variety of materials and still have it look authentic e . g . , galvanised or stainless , if using steel . Plastic or leather work as rawhide substitutes . There ' s lots of overlap . 50 % overlap sideways , and 50 % overlap upanddown is common . That ' s 4 layers of steel or whatever between you and the incoming weapon . The downside of this is that if you make the plates thick enough to be dent resistant , the weight will be very high . For modern sporting armour , you don ' t need as much overlap and depending on the weapons in use , can get away without any . But then it doesn ' t look as authentic .