Greek Tower Shield

First, I found a cardboard box long enough and wide enough to draw the pattern. The box I used was actually a desk box. Recently my brother ordered a desk and I took advantage of his box. There are three different designs of tower shields. Research had led me to creating the rectangular design.

After drawing, I cut it out.

Now that I cut out the cardboard, i'm going to transfer the drawing to a sheet of siding. I bought this sheet at lowes.

Once the pattern was transferred and cut, I laid styrofoam from the board in the middle. With left over pieces of siding, I cut and laid them across the shield. Now it has a curved look. (What I forgot to do that would have been a good idea was to place a piece of wood in the center as well, this is thin and the screws used to hold the straps in place will pull through the back. Not even one day after finishing, a screw came undone.)

Laying on top of my shield is faux leather. According to Homer, Greek warriors typically had 7 layers of hide on these shields. Mine has 3 layers. The first is red, second is dark brown, and third is light brown. To hold these on, I used a staple gun, stretched the leather out while clamps held the other side down, and stapled away
. One sheet after the other, your shield should be almost done. Note that the curves can be hard to bend the leather over perfectly.

Now that my hard part was done, I had to do the lesser hard part. I took more faux black leather and cut a 4 inch border of the shield. I used tack like buttons to hold the leather on. With all the staples and screws, it can be hard at points to hammer the tacks in. On the back are tacks and staples to help with the curved end.

Now that the shield is done, put the straps on. I went to goodwill and bought a couple of old belts for a couple of bucks. Cut them to the size. Drilled holes in The arm strap for different arms, and screwed them in. Now it's done.
(The second picture is the reason why you should include a wooden block in the center.)