Just figured I'd mention, if you're going for something realistic - don't make a design for female body armour that shows the breasts like you see everywhere(including the picture above). It's not exactly often that women have donned armour, but when they did, they generally wore the same armour as the men.
That's not the only reason though - a few months back I randomly read an article by an armour smith where he explained how such "boob plates," as he called them, would actually direct the sword, spear tip, arrow, whatever towards the center of the chest, instead of deflecting it off of the body, actually making it dangerous to wear in combat. As such, he never took on jobs making them for people who would actually use them for anything more than dressing up for events, and rarely even then.
In other words, it's about as effective as a chainmail bikini. ;)
So basically it's like this:
Figured I'd share this tiny bit of info as I'm sure not everyone knows this, but it would be good to know for anyone thinking of starting a project where logic, history, and/or realism has a big impact on design decisions. If you're going for something that just looks cool and/or sexy though, go right ahead. (It's
fantasy, after all! :D )
