Raider armor

Raider Armor is a name that refers to various types of armor worn by raiders, usually consisting of rough leather panels held together with wire and string.

Fallout 3
Each variant of Raider Armor in Fallout 3 can be repaired using any of the other Raider Armors. The helmets can only be repaired with other copies of the same model; they cannot be used to repair each other.

Raider Badlands Armor
A bandolier is draped across the front of the apparently leather overshirt (vaguely resembling a tank top), and on the left knee there appears to be some sort of colander being used as a knee pad. The outfit also includes shorts made from either leather or some variety of canvas-like material. A screwdriver is secured near one boot, presumably to be used as a makeshift boot knife, despite the fact its only function is for aesthetic value. It's also feasible that it is the screwdriver used by the player when picking a lock.

Raider Blastmaster Armor
It appears to employ a tire of some kind as the shoulder pad and has a pair of roman sandals as footwear. Around the waist appears to be a mattress or quilt for a bed, and the back of it is a bit burnt. If you look on the right forearm there is the Arclight Helmet nailed into the leathery sleeve, perhaps used as guard, and the shins are possibly the remainder of baseball shin guards.

This armor bears a similarity towards the Predator's armor in the Predator film series.

Raider Painspike Armor
If you pay close attention to an opponent using melee or unarmed attacks, their health will go down slightly with every hit, implying that the spikes on the armor hurt them when they attack despite not being in a suitable position to damage an attacker.

On the male version, the torso part seems to be a radiator of some kind from a car or bike. The female torso consists of two sieves which form a bra. The left shin guard bears some resemblance to Enclave shin guards and the right leg cosists of a bandage.

Raider Sadist Armor
Two severed hands are on the waist of the armor. It appears to be made out of stiff leather, and lacks any sort of shirt.

Raider Arclight Helmet
The Raider Arclight Helmet resembles a welding mask. Interestingly, this item does flatten the character's hair as if they were wearing a normal helmet.

Raider Blastmaster Helmet
The Raider Blastmaster Helmet is the headwear component of Raider Blastmaster Armor.

Comprised of a Fireman's Helmet worn on top of a Gas Mask and possibly a fire-retardant covering, the Blastmaster Helmet confers a small (+5) bonus to your Big Guns and Explosives Skills. Judging by its appearance, it was probably the helmet used by pre-war firefighters.

The Torcher's Mask has the same bonuses as this helmet, but has the appearance of a Raider Arclight Helmet and a damage resistance of 2.

Raider Psycho-Tic Helmet
The Raider Psycho-Tic Helmet could be described as a leather skull cap with goggles and handlebars jutting out of the sides of the head.

Raider Wastehound Helmet
The Raider Wastehound Helmet appears to be constructed of several pieces of heavy burlap crudely stitched together. It also includes eye protection and tufts of hair.

There is some visual differences between gender versions of the item, as the female version's hair patches go in a straight line down the middle of the skull, similar to a Mohawk, whereas the male version consists of three tufts; two on the sides and one on top.

Cut content
The three cut versions of Raider Armor in the game files have a lower DR than regular Raider Armor (by one point) and can only be obtained through the console.

They are:
 * Hand-Me-Down Raider Armor (visually identical with Raider Sadist Armor)
 * Highway Scar Armor (visually identical with Raider Blastmaster Armor)
 * Sharp-Dressed Raider's Armor (visually identical with Raider Painspike Armor)

There are also two cut Raider Helmets:
 * The Devil's Pigtails (identical with Raider Psycho-Tic Helmet)
 * Pyro Helmet (identical with Raider Blastmaster Helmet save for the missing bonuses)

Fallout Tactics
This armor is worn by lower raiders, a superior version of this is the Vandal Armor.

Special: Damage Resistance +20%

Locations

 * This armor is generally not available to Player Characters, although is supposedly can occasionally be looted from raider's corpses. Even if you somehow manage to obtain it, it is pretty much useless, as it is even worse than the starting Leather Armor.

Behind the scenes
In the movie Mad Max 3, Max is hired by Auntie Entity (played by Tina Turner) to "take care of" the sub-chief Masterblaster. As an obvious nod, these armors strongly resemble that worn by various "less scrupulous" characters in the Mad Max trilogy.