9th Kit

[Lex]

Manius, I was only wondering about the M56 pouches, since I already have a full set of webbing, but with the STANAG mag pouches. It was me, the Lt. and the Commissar that skirmished in our kit at Gunman. Here's one of the posed pics we came out with in case you didn't see it the first time:

[Lt Gebra]

Looking good Stamper! (btw, was it you that was spotted Guarding it up in Combat South... a wee while ago? A bloke in Electrowerkz was describing a Guardsman he saw down there after we got chatting about my Necromunda loadout... Definitely one of ours...)

Actually I'm loving the M56 pouches on there, I think I prefer them to the short ALICE ones I've been using... Must look out for a pair... Must also do some stencils on mine...
The E-Tool looks good on there, always liked the German style one... Any chance of finding a canvas holder for it which would be more in keeping with the general look of the web set?

[aitch]

Hey LT.
Yeah, that would have been me at Combat South. Technically I wasn't really 'guarding' that day, as I was wearing a mish-mash of kit (Multicam trousers and a WW2 Denison para smock), but it was an opportunity to take the Lasgun for a test drive. I'll say this for the Lasguns, they certainly provoke a bit of interest and that's probably a good thing for the 'awareness' of the group. Certainly one guy who was fondling the lasgun said 'oh, you're with the Scarovar mob then', so I guess we're known about to a certain extent.

E-tool wise, I was looking at the WW2 US 'T-Handled Shovel', which has a canvas cover to dye black and looks a bit like a 970 Guard issue tool. Found repros at epic militaria:

www.epicmilitaria.co.uk/product.php/1020/american-m1910-shovel-and-cover

Might work a bit better. What do you think?

H/Stamper

[Gor/Strauss]

Master crafted bolt pistol anyone

[Manius]

Aitch - I'm just wary of comfort on it. Its mounted between the shoulder blades isn't it?

Gor - Mastercrafted PIMP gun more like! Actually, its very likely a MC weapon would look similar.

[aitch]

The US shovel uses the old M1910 metal 'hangers'. It can be slung from the metal grommits on the belt or worn on the back of the M1910 pack. I'm told there were two variations of the shovel, one with a long and one with a short handle. The issue with back mounting would be that we'd have to be using the US field packs (early or late war M45 packs both had grommits for mounting the shovels).

H

[Manius]

Ultimately, its up to you on this but it might be uncomfortable when moving about prone or rolling etc.

Good bit of kit to look at though so worthwhile.

[Lt Gebra]

Jun 9, 2008 7:54:46 GMT aitch said:

I'll say this for the Lasguns, they certainly provoke a bit of interest and that's probably a good thing for the 'awareness' of the group.

Aye, I've noticed that too... Can only be a good thing! I've actually had people say that they were so busy marvelling at the Imperial Guardsmen storming their position that they forgot to shoot at me!

The US E tool would seem to be a good'un simply due to it's canvas cover...

[aitch]

Manius - It's a fair point about the E-Tool. Having worn the German one which hangs on the belt it is a bit of a pain. The British went in to WW2 with the same type of shovel, but as it interfered with sitting in vehicles and going prone they ditched it in favour of the old WW1 'mattock' style.
Still, I kind of like the shape of it. I might pick one up out of curiosity and do a couple of experiments of different types and stick photos up to show what they look like.

I guess the only real requirements are that they're easily available to all members and fairly cheap. (Up until those repro US ones turned up, you couldn't get a US shovel for under 50 quid).

H/Stamper

[Lt Gebra]

Right, here the latest iteration of my webbing...








you can see I haven't managed to dye the canteen cover yet and that some of the dyeing didn't take, but I reckon this all adds to the hodgepodge look of the kit. It looks rather lived in don't you think? What I do need to do is stencil and Aquilla on everything...

What we have (from the left):

US M56 Suspenders
LC2 Belt
M56 Field dressing pouch
ALICE M16 short mag pouch
Repro Tornado thigh holster (note the homemade addition to keep dirt out of the barrel - found out the need for this the hard way!)
M56 Buttpack
British 58 pattern poncho (need to find a better way to secure this - it's currently tied up in the buttpack straps)
US Arctic canteen
Repro Tornado thigh holster
ALICE M16 short mag pouch
US WW2 first aid pouch (perfect for two kampfpistol rounds!)

[aitch]

Niiice... (Got enough sidearms sir?).

I had a pain dying my web gear too. I suspect the cotton canvas is inpregnated with some chemical which messes with the dye a bit. In the end I had to supplement the dye with black fabric paint.

And I know it's sad but I look at that webbing and say 'Nooooo, don't dye those M67 MLCE ammo pouches black! They're getting rare and you'll damage the resale price!' Sorry, I'm a very Sad ex-vietnam re-enactor...
But they'll look cool in black.

H

[Lt Gebra]

Heh... issue laspistol and a single shot boltpistol (mini mossie kampfpistol) - a campaign souvenir!

I can't actually dye those ammo pouches as they're nylon... you can get an acid based dye which will impregnate nylon, but it involves boiling the thing in a tub of acid for hours... not for me I think! It seems black krylon doesn't stick either... Not that I particularly care about resale... They're for the here and now!

[john]

the other ways of dying nylon use very high temps that you can't manage in a washing machine.

[Gor/Strauss]

We really are just gonna blow everyone away without ever having to fire a shot

[Lt Gebra]

That is the idea, yes...