Part 4 – Ballistic Neck protector

Soft/hard armour: layers of Kevlar or similar fabric, can also be made from flexible kevlar composite plates (level IIIA)

Difficulty level to create: EASY (it is suggested that you create these as they are relatively hard to acquire on the open market)

Coverage area: neck – front/back. Some vests like the IDF vest has a neck protector already implemented in the system while many European and US vests, especially civilian vests lack a neck protector or is based on a modular system where a neck protector comes as a modular piece and attaches with hook/loop or buttons. As with the DAPS and the groin protector, these are hard to acquire for “civilians”, but very easy to create. Simply follow the above steps and use the neck illustration/blue print and measurements.

Aproximate cost: 30-80 Euro

Hours of labour required: 4 full hours of cutting/sewing/dying (not including time it takes to order Kevlar fabric and other material)

Part 5 - Ballistic Leg Protectors (3 pieces: 1: upper leg, 2: knee and shin, 3: boot)

Hard/soft armour: upper leg plates and shin plates should be made from flexible kevlar composite plates (lvl IIIA) and applied on top of your Damascus FX1 – Flexforce plastic plates (see blueprint). The knee and boot protectors should be made from Kevlar fabric (14-35 layers depending on thick or thin Kevlar)

Requirement: Damascus FX1 – Flexforce (riot gear to provide blunt trauma protection and a base/fundament for applying these parts)

Difficulty level to create: EASY (it is suggested that you create these as they are not possible to acquire on the open market. Please see my prototype blueprints).

Coverage area: includes upper leg protector, knee protector, shin protector (lower leg) and boot protector.

There are currently no available Ballistic Leg Protectors on the market, neither for military personnel nor for civilian use. As a result, I have designed blueprints for make-it-yourself modular Ballistic Leg Protectors covering the upper leg, knee, shin and boot.

What you should do is to buy a complete riot suit, preferably the Damascus FX-1 FlexForce and use some of the pieces as a body armour (anti- blunt trauma) base. You then basically do one of two things:

Alternative 1: Buy flexible ballistic panels (level IIIA), readily available at certain suppliers and cut pieces out of the panels the same size as the hard plastic on the riot suits. You can either apply/glue hook/loop material on the plastic hard shells and simply apply the flexible panels on to these shells.

Alternative 2: You can sew pouches the same size as the plastic hard shells and apply the pouches with either hook/loop/Velcro material and/or nylon straps with hook/loop/Velcro material. You insert interior pouches into these outer pouches containing Kevlar inserts (consisting of 34 (15) layers of ballistic Kevlar fabric).

Follow the same principle on all the modular pieces (1: upper leg, 2: knee and shin, 3: boot). I decided to use the flexible ballistic panels for the upper leg and shin, while using Kevlar on the knee pad and boot.

Aproximate cost for all modular pieces: 700-1700 Euro (a large flexible ballistic panel, level IIIA costs 700 USD, 1 yard of ballistic Kevlar fabric costs 35 USD (1050 for 30 layers x 1 yard, although you get considerable rebates when buying that much, and an even bigger discount if you purchase a full roll of ballistic Kevlar fabric). I chose to buy fabric from a US company instead of a European or Chinese one btw. A Damascus FX-1 FlexForce riot gear costs 500 USD. See my suppliers for more info.

Hours of labour required: 10-15 (not including time it takes to order Kevlar fabric and other material)