I'm guessing that it might be an idea, when trying to figure out how to mount your armour to look at how Plate Armour was mounted. Straps have been mentioned by several people here and I'd agree in theory that it's a sound idea, I mean that's how it used to be done anyway right?! I too am curious about mounting the leg armour though. I'm in no rush with my own armour at the moment, but knowing ahead of time might save me some headaches later.
Ah, I wish I had some photos of what I'm about to describe to you. Here's what I ended up doing for my War Machine build. I did something a little bit like this for my Robocop, so I'm learning more with each build:
1) I started with a strong leather belt to go around my waist.
2) I gathered pieces from 4 belts. I matched their widths so that they were about the same, so that when I brought one piece's buckle over to another piece's strap-with-holes, they'd connect just fine. I then connected the pieces to each other in pairs, so that I ended up with two pieces that were like very long belts that had been connected/buckled...and then cut / severed at the very back.
I then drilled holes and put bolts, washers, and nuts through so as to connect each of these two severed-belts to my waist belt in the front and back. Basically, they formed large, somewhat loose "suspenders".
3) When I put on these suspenders, I actually tucked my head under each one and moved each one to the opposite shoulder, forming a tight fitting "X" across my chest and back.
4) I put on my thigh pieces, more or less holding them up with my hands. I then took leather straps (more belt pieces) and measured lengths from my waist down to about the center of the front of each of my thigh pieces. Next, I drilled and bolted these straps so as to connect them / let them hang from the main belt while also attaching the thigh pieces "semi-permanently" to them.
So, at this point, I had a belt-and-suspenders system made completely out of leather belts, where my thighs were already attached. Yes, sort of like War Machine's "lederhosen" !!
I should mention that at first, I only attached the FRONTS of the thighs. But then, I thought more about what I'd done. I then added pieces of elastic that I had cut from a pair of actual suspenders... and attached those to the backs of the thighs. I left the little metal clips that help you resize the elastic lengths on the backs of those suspenders. So, when I put the thighs back on, I was able to adjust those clips so as to make a fairly snug fit.
One other good benefit from adding back straps: Without them, my whole harness-and-thighs piece would get really tangled whenever I wasn't wearing it. That became really annoying. Adding the back straps prevented such tangling.
5) Now, my INTENT was to later attach my cod-piece to the waist-belt and my abdomen to the suspenders. However, I ran out of time and ended up just letting the pieces sort of "hang" on me. That worked okay. But what I had wanted to do was use small pieces of either leather or elastic to attach them. The trick is, I would have had to had built those straps so that they had clips or somehow otherwise allowed you to remove the armor from the straps quickly. I mean, I had to cross the suspenders when putting them on. I can't imagine the abdomen being already attached at that point.
So, some small straps with some clips on them... and then I'm not sure what on the armor pieces... small metal rings somehow attached to the armor? And I certainly would have had to attach the cod-piece to the waist-belt AFTER putting on the belt. Sure, one could have put it on there permanently, but then, how would you tighten your belt to fit your waist, once you had put it on?
Near the end of my little project in building this harness, the idea of straps for the abdomen and cod-piece came to me. But I knew that I was recalling reading about someone else doing this over two years ago on some other forums. I really had the strong sense that this was "the way to go" for attaching armor: build a harness and let parts "hang" off of you. Don't necessarily bolt them to your harness without giving them a small strip of leather or elastic to allow them to move and sway a bit if they need to. I honestly think that must be the best way to go. It makes a lot of sense.
Oh, you may be wondering what I did for the arms and shoulders. Well, I did not attach these to my harness. Instead, for the shoulders, I did use leather straps, but I attached them directly to the chest piece. Those worked out okay. Every now and then, one of the shoulder bells would get turned out of alignment with my actual shoulder. But I could easily correct that with a shrug.
As for the biceps, I had worked off of the premise that lining them with foam (and making sure it fit me tightly) would be enough to keep them from slipping down. WRONG! Same for the forearms. I hadn't read any information or got anyone to respond to my questions about other solutions for those pieces. Seems like every 5 minutes I was trying to discretely shove my arms back upwards.
If I had to do it again or if I have to go fix and upgrade my War Machine, I would come up with some sort of strap system for these, and probably would attach them to the chest, though I suppose I could figure out a way to attach them to the tops of those suspenders too.... or maybe bypass the suspenders and instead, connect the left arm and right arm to each other with a long strap that goes across your shoulders. (Did that for Robocop. Had the connection meet at the back with Velcro. That worked out VERY well. The tension between the right arm and the left arm kept them in place just fine. And I never even felt anything across my shoulders while wearing them.)
Sorry so lengthy a post, but I find talking out these "mounting" issues to be very, very helpful to myself, even after the fact.
