Steve's Uniform Pages
Home 
Steves Uniform Pages 
Infantry Officer Ranks 
Infantry Officer 1857 
RE Officers 
Inf Officer Zulu War 
24th Foot ORs 
Infantry Soldier 1902 
17th Lancer Officer 
KRRC 
Hussars 
Dragoon Sudan 1890 
Royal Artillery 
1850 Peeler 
For Sale 
Steves Uniform Museum 
Cigarette Cards 
modern uniforms 
Films 

 

 How to make a Lance cap (Chapzka, Tchapska etc)

in easy steps

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

1. Take one old style horse riding helmet. Remove the covering and cut away the peak.

 

2. Recover the helmet with leather or PVC imitation leather (this stretches nicely and gives the desired effect). Note reproduction chin chain bosses drilled and bolted to helmet. these help to keep the new cover in place.

3. Mortar board top made from cork floor tile with cardboard tube central reinforcing. This has been covered with two layers of white felt with machine stitched pattern to all sides.

 

Side view of completed top.

4. Plume holder boss made from layers of cork tile with cut out notches. Glue gold cord approximately 5mm diameter to each. Seven disks are required. the last two slightly smaller.

 

Brass screws are used to attach to the Mortar board top. Note recess for metal plume holder attachment.

5. Plume holder attachment made from piece of copper pipe shaped squashed and drilled to suit screws on boss.

 

Ready to be attached to Mortar board.

6. Boss attached to Mortar board

 

View of nut. Superglue nut in place so that it does not work loose in the future.

7. Mortar board glued to helmet with hard as nails type glue.

 

Note position. Slightly to the front and tipped forward.

8. Gold cords and lace glued in place. Joins in lace at front as these will be obscured by the cap plate.

 

9. Peak from modern army peaked cap glued to inside front of helmet. Make sure that it is glued directly to the helmet core and not any cloth lining.

10. Hat line attachment made from brass curtain hook, bobble and brass ring, bolted through helmet.

 

11. Close up of finished boss with embroidered VR cypher.

12. Plume added. Sorry, I forgot to take step by step pictures of this stage.

 

 

13. Swan feathers collected from down by the river bank after the swans had finished preening themselves.

 

 

 

 14. Cap plate made by making a mould of an original plate, then casting a copy using car bodywork repair filler (two part type epoxy resin).

 

 15. Close up of cap plate sprayed brass/ gold with the officer type detail painted in silver. Originally the officers would have had a brass plate with the details being applied in silver.

 

Please note: On completion of this project the construction of the mortar board type top makes the weight quite considerable. Consider making it out of something like polystyrene or stiff plastic card.

 

  Chapzka

Tchapska

Chzapka

Chzapska



Copyright(c) 2010 The Victorian Strollers. All rights reserved.