Sierra Leone Journalist Fighter

[Finius]

Below is my latest idea for what me and my friends call a "challenge loadout". The idea seems very LARP-ish, but that doesn't really translate into anything except laying out the restrictions for the kit.

Basically the idea is you pick out some sort of potential scenario and work around the limitations, the idea being you've got to carry X, Y and Z redundant items, for some reason, and anything you use to fight and survive has to work round it. This works very well for loadouts where a civvy has been caught up in fighting and forced to pick up a gun for their own survival etc.

I'm drawing my inspiration for this one off of Blood Diamond (the film with Leo Di Caprio). It's a journalist, who was travelling to an airfield in Freetown when the convoy he's travelling in is attacked by the RUF, the film crew are dead, yadda yadda. Pinched an AK off a dead rebel, and now I've got to get myself to Freetown.

I was only carrying/only managed to save one laptop bag, and unfortunately, due to something important I discovered, I can't get rid of my laptop, my phone, my notebook or any of my other journalistic junk (obviously it's all gonna be broken stuff I can get donated to my cause). The AK I picked up and any magazines I have for it must fit in along with my other stuff.

HERE is the laptop bag I'm using. And here's the list of what goes in there:

-Laptop

-Something that looks like a satelite phone

-Camera

-Notepad with sheets added for maps, essential phrases etc

-Torch

-Something akin to a "survival-tin"

-Water bottle (possibly attached to a belt instead)

The things I'm planning to fit round all this are:

-4x AK Midcaps

-Gaffa Tape

-2 Smoke grenades (resembling flares)

-Para Cord

-Rubber Knife

The weapon I'll be using is an AK Beta Spetz, with wood grips (until I can afford something more rebel-ish); no RIS (I got it off a rebel fighter, the only extras I can have on it are the ones that can be attached using Gaffa Tape).

Clothing is going to be khaki Pants, a grey t-shirt and a brown shirt over that, with a standard black leather belt and good walking boots. If I really really can't work something out, I may attach a single AK mag pouch to the belt.

Once that's done I'd hope to somehow jam a pistol with two magazines in there somewhere.

Pictures will be up as and when stuff arrives (though due to limited funds, VERY limited, this could take some time to complete).

Oh and as a final. I know this idea may seem disrespectful given that several prominent photojournalists died last week, that is not my intention. I have an awful lot of respect for these people who go and risk their lives in order to document conflict in a truthful way that we cannot rely on mainstream media to present, please don't accuse me of being a terrible human being!

Comments, suggestions, criticism welcome, whether about the loadout itself, or the idea of "challenge loadouts".

 

[Mitchell Gee]

sounds fun... i like the idea, although not very practical for airsoft, but thats beside the point...

maybe for your next challenge (even if u dont buy it urself, just come up with what you would carry)

I will portray it as a story type thing...

You have heard news on the radio about a zombie infection spreading across the world, it is due to arrive at your location with 2 hours, you have no money, just a small handgun and a small car, you need money for fuel, but as shop owners have seized there opportunity to up there fuel prices, you need several hundred just to fill up your small 1.5l tank, you decide to rob a store, it all goes well, you get the money you need, but you are unaware that an onlooker called the police, as you are getting out of the store armed police arrive with MP5's you manage to shoot one and take his gun, you run from the rest, now you have your car, the small handgun, a backpack filled with money and the MP5, you fill up your car, and now you have £300 left, you decide to drive to a local country town, they have a hunting store there, u purchase a small single barreled 4-10 shotgun and 50 rounds, you get back in your car you have £50 left, you get out a map and you see there is a route you can take to get to safety, there is a petrol station on the way... you follow the route and use your remaining money on topping up the fuel, then, the infection hits...

 

[sarni307]

That the plot for the new resident evil?

 

[Finius]

sounds fun... i like the idea, although not very practical for airsoft, but thats beside the point...
...then, the infection hits...

Click to shrink...

Totally impractical But that's the best way; I'm permanently working to a fairly tight budget, so theming loadouts and moving them round a challenge makes life a bit cheaper, especially since you can invent a million and one scenarios where you're a civvy, meaning you don't need to bother with Molle, or Multicam and you can stick with fairly low-cost weapons (guns available to civvies, police weaponry, aks etc).

I like the zombie apocalypse idea, particularly how you've mentioned a total lack of any baggage I'll have a think and let you know what I'd use. I was also thinking of doing one based on a redneck survivalist (you know those crazy yanks who live in bunkers and buy thousands of poundsworth of tinned spam incase Russia nukes us all?) in a homefront (the game) sort of situation.

Glad you like the idea As for Resi. Evil plots - no idea

 

[Mitchell Gee]

thanks... if i had the money i would do similar thing to what ur doing... if u actually do one of these load outs it would be cool to see em... post a pic up here if u do

 

[Finius]

I started making a move on the actual outfit and props for my Journo loadout today; got a faulty Samsung N100 and a buddy is stripping a broken laptop for parts then sending it to me

Also bought my khakis, t-shirt and shirt (all hail primark, our lord and master) and made some roughed-up looking pages ripped out of a sketchbook look like burnt mud-stained scraps of various documents

Picked up a torch and first-aid kit from Wilkos (I know I said survival tin, but this looks the same and I'd rather carry first aid supplies than water purifying tablets for the purposes of airsoft).

I picked up some glowsticks which I'm going to sub in, in place of smoke grenades; seems equally pheasable and much cheaper.

I may also be forgoing the woodgrips; they're £40 for chinese made and they look really really bad; might just rough up my black grips.

Meaning I now need;

-broken camera

-water bottle solution (starting to think just a bottle jammed in my kit - simples)

-the laptop bag

-midcaps

-gaffa tape

-para cord

-rubber knife

 

[Mitchell Gee]

Heres a couple of rubber knifes u could use:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blitz-Sport-Standa...4022&sr=8-2 - i use this one, cheaper than chips and great fun...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blitz-Sport-Combat...4022&sr=8-1 - more combat/army looking if you know what i mean, still cheap too

as for the water bottle, either just a plain water bottle (evian or whatever), a thermos or this http://www.actionhobbies.co.uk/Water-Bottl...rier_A5U2O.aspx

Instead of a broken camera i suppose u could just use a disposable camera if it comes to it

Thanks,

Mitchell

 

[Finius]

Cheers BatHat; I went for the top one; it'll serve a dual purpose for my "proper" loadout as well as this one.

Also ordered my midcaps from china, got my gaffa tape and I've decided to just go for a bottle of whatever water is cheapest at the corner shop on my way to the train station when I go skirmishing...

Camera, laptop bag and paracord now (I've seen a better bag which is a bit cheaper on a UK site, but I need to see how funds play out after this weekend, found some paracord for £2 on the same website).

Edit: just found a camera on ebay for a fiver, needs the battery cover gluing shut, but it'll do the job.

 

[Nickona]

Souns like great fun! If you had a big enough area you could actually make it so you had to walk for .... miles, camp overnight ect. so it would be full on realistic!!

 

[Jacob Wright]

Nice loadout! I went for the simple Danny Archer look, so no laptop bag for me; just an M4, a USP and a perfected south african accent! Your idea sounds good though, I never thought about anything of that type.

OneOneBravo

 

[Finius]

This loadout has come and gone - my AK died a death and an amount of the props had to go to my local site for the summer, but I got it together and it worked pretty well. I sourced a bag which had two external pockets, each would fit two AK mags, the rest of my stuff was jammed in, but was mostly accessible.

I'm designing another one now; Government sanctioned emergency zom-response agent; inspired by the writing on this bag: HERE.