How to Make an Aspis (Ancient Greek Hoplite Shield) pt 2

Welcome or welcome back to Lost in Thought. My name is Jen and this is part 2 of how to build a Greek Aspis or a hoplite shield. If you haven't watched part 1, go find it on my channel. If you like this video, please like, comment, share and most importantly, please subscribe. And well, let's get cracking. I found these draw handles online and they're very similar to shield fittings that you see in archaeology. Obviously they're not perfect, they're mass manufactured. But they're cheap and they're very easy to buy. Obviously if you're buying these yourself, just check the measurements. Make sure you're not getting great big ones with handles about that big. Because they'll be far, far too big. So these are about an inch, inch and a half across or 6cm. And they do look rather similar to the ones found in archaeology. For the pull packs, first of all, I did a pattern in some paper. And then I'm going to use this to trace on some 1.5mm mild steel. Now iron examples have been found. I understand that in May it's been incredibly difficult to find proper bronze. So using iron or mild steel in this case, I find is an acceptable version. A lot of the originals, they were carved with wood. I'm not going to do that on this shield, on my next shield. I need to make it far more authentic than this. For that one, I'm going to be using pull packs with a, hopefully, proper bronze attachment to it. There we go, just run around it. And all I need to do now is put this apart. For the paint at the back, I'm going to use red. And for this, it's just a little bit of PVA, a little bit of water. About 75% PVA to 25% water. And just about a teaspoonful of iron oxide. This is just, I think it costs about £7.50, a massive tub. And it's lasted me for about five years. Because you don't actually need a lot of powder as a pigment. Just give that a stir. There we go, it's all mixed together. Now I know it doesn't look like it produces a very strong red. But when it's on, when it's dried, it makes an absolutely lovely dark red colour. As soon as you put it on, you can tell it's much darker. And once it's dried, it'll be even darker. I'm just drilling out some holes. And positioning it in the centre of the shield. And to attach it, I'm going to use copper rivets. One, I really like the colour. And two, they're really soft, so they're easy to rivet over. Now on to painting the front. I'm going to keep this aspis just plain red. I might in the future paint an animal on the front. Just like one of the Greek heroic animals. But there is evidence for plain shields. There's also a fabulous story about a Spartan who has a fly painted on his shield. And the fly's tiny, it's painted life-size. And when people are making fun of him, saying that nobody will recognise him on the battlefield because his fly is so tiny they won't be able to recognise him from a distance. He says that when he's bearing down upon them, that the fly will appear gigantic to them. I just think it's a typical brilliant story of a Spartan bravado. Last of all, I've just popped some leather to add some light rope through these rings at the inside. I will replace this shortly with copper rope that I've spliced. And that's it, that's the aspis done. I hope you've enjoyed this video. I hopefully am going to make a far more historical, accurate version of the aspis in the near future. But this should be perfectly fine for mock battles, that sort of thing. And I really hope you've enjoyed this video, I've enjoyed making it. It has been a learning curve for me. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you've liked this, please like, comment, share, subscribe. And I hope to see you again soon. Thank you ever so much and goodbye for now.