Posts
Beans left a hell of a comment!
I have not researched police and prison armor sufficiently to give him a decent answer.
But here's a couple of points...
Most of my armor ramblings are game effects, not reality effects.
At best I successfully translate a real world item into game terms in a manner which gives a believable effect in the game.
Armor is more complicated than the game stats lead you to believe most of the time.
GURPS has provision to make armor as complicated as you'd like it to be.
Does Kevlar® provide less protection against icepicks? You can give your armor a split DR and specify a lower amount against a particular kind of attack.
An icepick would do impaling damage so you say DR 12/4* and note that the lower DR is used against imp. Flak vests are to protect against fragmentation, which is cutting damage (cut) so the vest still does well even if it's vulnerable to a stiletto.
Pickle barrel plastic is about the same resistance as boiled leather for less weight. Numbers could be generated once I got numbers for the mass difference. Plastic will also require less upkeep!
Because plastic scales are lighter than leather, though, a split DR with a lower value against crushing (cr) damage might be appropriate.
Kydex® strips in a Kevlar® backing is actually modeled on ancient styles of armor; jack of plates or brigandine. Everything old is new again! Stats would be some increase in DR and reduction in mass from the TL2 or 4 versions.
There's more to unpack! Especially to make stats for the modern versions.
A brigandine of pickle barrel, or a coat-of-plates of pickle barrel, works very nice. Same with aluminum.
ReplyDeleteStainless steel or titanium works excellently in lamellar or brigandine. The small-flat-piece work tends to not embrittle the metal, and so you can go with low-care stainless or light-weight titanium. Bonus points if you know someone with a waterjet to cut the pieces out (including the lacing/riveting holes) and a commercial tumbler to polish and smooth all the edges.
normal police soft body armor isn't made to stop piercing objects like knives, picks, scissors, etc...and body armor in general is not "bullet proof", just in case it doesn't stop a bullet it's rated for...even though the manufacturers only "warranty" it for 5 years i've shot 20+ year old vests and it stopped bullets, even a 12 ga slug...it would have hurt, probably ruptured an organ or 2 and maybe killed you anyway, it deformed it on the backside about 3 inches...panzer guy...
ReplyDeleteTo further add or modify to what panzer guy said, as long as you're willing to accept blunt trauma you can use less layers of kevlar to stop the same round as the commercial stuff. This was touched on in "John Wick 2" when Wick gets a fine Italian business suit with built-in armor. And in "Unintended Consequences" and on an episode of "CSI - Las Vegas."
DeleteA lot of police departments up-armor bank trucks with 'warrantied-out' vests. As the bank trucks are usually only rated for NIJ Lvl III, maybe III+ (most pistol rounds, not .44 mag out of a 4" barrel but an AK.) And the engine compartments aren't usually armored at all. So the vests are stuffed into all the 'empty' areas in the body panels and velcroed inside the armored shell.