Ancient Chinese Mountain Armor

This is a model of ancient Chinese Mountain Armor. More info here: https://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2015/08/myth-of-shan-wen-kia.html?m=1

Although there are many depictions of this armor in literature, paintings and sculptures, no surviving examples have ever been found. As such, many people have proposed different interpretations of what this armor might be. This is just my stab at it.

UPDATE:

Finally gotten around to designing a reasonably 3d printable version. The main goal was to be able to print it in an orientation where the layer lines are strong enough. The way I thought to do this is to essentially print it as a flat shape, the tradeoff is that you'll have to fold it and glue it into shape.

What to download:

I uploaded 3 models. Two of them are really just for reference and not intended to be 3d printed. The printable one is called ArmorLinkPrintablePLA. The ArmorLinkModel.stl could conceivably be printed as a model, but since all the links are 90° to each other, I don't think it's possible to print it in an orientation that strong enough to be useful.

Assembly:

Here's what ArmorLinkPLA looks like printed out, there's a 0.4mm tab on one of the corners (red circle), do not cut this off, you'll use it to glue onto the other side. The connection seams are also 0.4mm, they should be pliable enough to fold so you should not cut them either.

A single piece is only around 4g of PLA, so it shouldn't take long to print. (Please ignore my under extrusion issues 😅)

Once you've printed it out, use a pair of snips to open up the two links (the line in the red circle). Then put a line of superglue on each connection seam and a dab on the little tab on the corner, and use a clip on the tab to hold it into place. It should be strong enough to assemble in 30mins or so.

Here's what the pattern looks like. It takes a while to figure out how to manipulate the rings to get them to interlock. But after you figure it out it isn't too hard to assemble. It's almost like a little puzzle. From the orientation I'm showing in the next picture, it seems easiest to start assembly from the bottom and go up, with the closed link always facing up.

In this design, the links will remain open, I didn't want to over complicate the first version. It should still be strong enough to hold itself together when assembled into a reasonable sized piece though.