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Improvised Armour: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
A [[Crazy Prepared]] or [[Disaster Scavengers]] character makes [[Bulletproof Vest|body armour]] or a [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|shield]] out of [[MacGyvering|materials to hand]], quite possibly to back up an [[Improvised Weapon]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* An advert for Strongbow cider had a guy giving a [[Braveheart]]-esque [[Rousing Speech]] to massed ranks of tradesmen with suitably working class [[Improvised Weapon
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* A [[Scavenger World]] example: in ''[[Japan]]'' (the manga by Kentaro Miura), body armor is cobbled together from available junk. The main character has an old tire as a pauldron.
* In ''[[Holyland]]'' when Masaki fights Taka the former uses a knuckleduster as an impromptu mini-shield. Yuu also uses books as bracers.
* The [[Chainmail Bikini|surprisingly protective]] card "[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=41163 Improvised Armor]" in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''.▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Deadpool]] once wore a bunch of frozen meat to beat Bullseye. In his own words. "I am the meat."
* An issue of ''[[The Punisher]]'' (one of the Summer Specials back from the late 80's - early 90's) had the titular character fighting an evil school principal with a penchant for handing out guns to his students (don't ask). This (like many fights in schools) gets dragged to the library, where the Punisher decided that to survive the situation, he needed protection. A little duct tape and some textbooks later, we have the glorious invention of '''book armor!'''.
* This is essentially [[Iron Man]]'s origin, although where he gets the material varies from retelling to retelling. Most famously, he used parts of his own stolen missiles to build his armor [[Memetic Mutation|IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!]]
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* In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]],'' Mr. Hyde uses a steel door in order to block enemy bullets.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Mentioned in one of [[Andrew Vachss]]'s Burke books. A prisoner who suspects he's going to get attacked will stuff as much newspaper as he can under his clothes. It won't totally stop a shiv, but even a centimetre or inch less of penetration can make the difference between a trip to the hospital and a trip to the morgue.
* As depicted above, in [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice in Wonderland|Through the Looking Glass]]'', Tweedledum and Tweedledee get Alice to help them dress in this sort of armor before fighting a not-very-lethal "battle".
* The 'Za Lord's Guard in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' have this.
== [[Live
* ''[[The Wire]]'', when Omar ends up in prison he [[Duct Tape for Everything|duct-tapes]] several thick books to his body before going to shank an enemy as an example to the other inmates.
* Unable to acquire an armored vehicle, Michael Westen of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' once filled the insides of an SUV's doors with phone books.
** This was deemed plausible by the [[
** Which was explained in Westen's voice-over: "You don't want to skimp on ballistic glass."
** In a later episode where Michael's in prison, he and another prisoner fashion temporary armor from several library books.
* Several episodes of ''[[Brainiac: Science Abuse]]'' have mannequins dress up in improvised armour based on the setting, and fired at with a slingshot, longbow and crossbow. For example, if war broke out in a home, a mannequin in the kitchen might use a wok as a
* In ''[[The Lost Room]]'', the protagonist uses the Coat as body armor, as Objects are indestructible. He is still hurt (unlike actual body armor, the Coat does nothing to spread the impact of a bullet).
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* In [[Classical Mythology|Greek Mythology]], Heracles strangled a lion that was terrorizing the countryside, [[Nemean Skinning|skinned it]] ([[Takes One to Kill One|with its own fangs]]), then took its [[Immune to Bullets|impenetrable skin]] for armor. The lion skin became his [[Iconic Item]].
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[GURPS]]: High-Tech'' has rules for homemade armor. Buckets can be made into a plastic ''lorica segmentata'' strong enough to provide noticeable protection from a shotgun blast.▼
* Pick a [[Scavenger World]], any scavenger world. One post-apocalyptic ''[[D20 Modern]]'' setting featured illustrations of thugs using American football shoulder pads for armor and a Stop sign for a shield.▼
* [[Dungeons & Dragons]]
** In the 3e ''Oriental Adventures''
▲*
* Pick a [[Scavenger World]], any scavenger world.
** Done in ''All Flesh Must Be Eaten'', similar to the ''[[D20 Modern]]'' example above.
** ''[[Hero System|Post-Apocalyptic Hero]]'' gives its front cover character a Stop sign shield and a helmet that started life as sporting equipment.
▲* The [[Chainmail Bikini|surprisingly protective]] card "[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=41163 Improvised Armor]" in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''.
▲* In the ''Oriental Adventures'' sourcebook for [[Dungeons and Dragons]], Nezumi are fond of making makeshift armor out of whatever they can cobble together, like tower shields made of the shells of turtle-like monsters called Kappa.
▲* ''[[GURPS]]: High-Tech'' has rules for homemade armor. Buckets can be made into a plastic ''lorica segmentata'' strong enough to provide noticeable protection from a shotgun blast.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* In ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]] 2'' the so-called armoured cars are clearly cobbled-together, with things like metal bars welded over the windscreens.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' there's a group of mutant hobos called "The Lost" with [[Elite Mooks]] who use various types of armor such as a STOP sign for chest protection and a TV set (with a broken screen) as a helmet.
* ''[[Freedroid RPG]]'' has bucklers made from a robot hull, and [[Item Crafting]] system allows to reinforce existing armor with "add-ons" built from robot parts.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' had Captain Landon wear [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/0308-wallpapers a riot shield strapped to the body] after he got into an armory. Because "[[Uplifted Animal|uplifted]] [[Everything's Worse with Bears|polar bear]]" is not a common size, and he didn't have time to go anywhere else due to an ongoing coup.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* [[Internet Backdraft|Without going into the reasons for it]], U.S. soldiers in Iraq resorted to using "Hillbilly Armor" to reinforce their vehicles for better protection against Improvised Explosive Devices (underside armor was an important first step). Some of their designs were so popular and effective that they became "kits" used throughout the army.
** Used in larger scale in [[World War II]]. Tankers would weld spare tread links onto their tanks or even use sandbags. Later, when shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons became more common, they would use thin metal sheets or wire mesh as so-called slatt-armor to detonate the shaped charges away from the tank's armor.
* [[wikipedia:Ned Kelly|Ned Kelly]]. His homemade armour stopped at least twenty direct hits during his infamous shootout against Australian law enforcement. Unfortunately for Ned, the armour was heavy and didn't protect him all over. A [[Achilles' Heel|shot to his ankle]] brought him down.
* Convicted NZ murderer [http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3351986/No-penalty-for-attack-by-Burton Graeme Burton] packed newspapers and magazines under his prison uniform when he stabbed another inmate, quite possibly inspiring the example from ''[[The Wire]]'', above.
* During the [[wikipedia:North hollywood shootout|North Hollywood shootout]], one of the bank robbers wore a full suit of patchwork body armor, including bullet-proof vests wrapped around his legs. The other robber simply wore a [[Bulletproof Vest]] with a metal trauma chestplate. Soon, however, the SWAT team arrived, in addition to a number of the regular officers acquiring assault rifles from a nearby gunstore, and both robbers soon learned the hard way that their body armor was only effective against the considerably less powerful handgun ammunition that the beat cops carried. Rifle rounds travel much faster and tend to go through kevlar quite easily, which is why soldiers wear ceramic armor plates inside their vests.
* Some of the Egyptian protesters against the Mubarak regime were seen sporting helmets made of concrete slabs tied on with rope, and even loaves of bread secured with tape.
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[[Category:Improvised Index]]
[[Category:Tropes in Shining Armor]]
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