The one in the osprey book could be metal splints embedded in the padding. The miniature is just a miniature.
I know my sources are not perfect, but it's the only one I can find. There must be others, but I have not the time to make intensives reaserches.
There is another picture in this Opsrey book which shows a mercenary wearing "
an early form of scaled-linen, canvas-covered jacque" over mail (I can't find any picture of it, and I don't know if I can scan it, beacause of copyright). It definitely
don't look like a brigandine or something like this ; it's clearly light and without metal.
"
Jacque" is a french word for "
gambeson/aketon/padded jacket".
In another Opsrey book (Henry V and the conquest of France :
http://books.google.fr/books?id=niJRz9EhwxoC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false), I find a another picture of a soldier wearing a kind of padded jacque over mail. The author says : "
he wears a loose garment which may simply serve to protect the armour from the weather". I can't show you the picture, so you'll have to believe me, but the "
loose garment" looks exactly like the aketon (if it's an aketon) of the first picture of Tovi (except it's blue).
The utilization makes sense to me : a mail is quite expensive and it must be quite hard to maintain without rust during a campaign. It's seems useless in combat, but it must be a good protection against the rain.
I'm sorry if I made some mistakes, or if I'm not very clear, my english is not very good.
