A loadout too far

[Russe11]

The pin would be between the etool handle and the etool shovel bit so no danger.

 

I have also found a Somerset Light Infantry re-enactors group nearby, not sure standing around at an event is for me, but could be useful group to know. I had been considering badging my battledress up as SLI as my Grandad was in it and it tells people where I'm from.

 

BTW if anyone's interested:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-British-Dispatch-Riders-Helmet-/231174155144?pt=UK_Collectables_Militaria_LE&hash=item35d30dab88

again, same shell as airbourne

[Russe11]

Just seen this on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111184458322?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

A period accurate tent is low on my priorities atm though.

[Ian_Gere]

OMGonads! I haven't seen one of them since I was in the Cubs! I refused then as well! Even a nylon nightmare beats one of those buggers in the rain.

[Nickona]

I've been resisting the urge to get a French lizard tent for my SADF recce loadouts

[Russe11]

I wonder how they found a huge supply of them in Holland? Strange, the BSA Para Bikes used to be common there too.

[Russe11]

Saw this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351025256945?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Won't be able to buy it at present but interested to see what it sells for.

The alternative to a Shoot'n'scoot Lee Enfield would be to fit the internals of a sniper into a Lee Enfield body. The guide I read seemed to mess it up by keeping the external barrel and involved shaving the woodwork rather thin to make it fit. Logically you only need an external barrel where the inner comes out of the woodwork.

[Ian_Gere]

Assuming you built some interior structures for the internal barrel to lock against, because that's an important job of a BASR's external barrel: to combat wobble and flex of the inner. There's ne reason why you couldn't substitute a piece of carbon steel tube of the same-ish outside diameter as the No. 4 barrel though and just wrap the inner barrel in tape and paper, or as I read of an L1A1 build, lead sheet. Dunno whether that was flashing for roof sealing or thinner foil type stuff like on champaigne bottles.

[Russe11]

If you look at the Shoot'n'scoot kit form

only the last few inches are inside an outer barrel.

 

Oh and my helmet arrived It's very discoloured so I mixed up some enamel to match the few patches of green left and gave it a lick of paint. It's currently drying in my spare room.

[Russe11]

So helmet paint is dry and my existing helmet net fits. It's not very stable on my head however so I may have to change the liner. It should be possible to replace the liner with a para helmet repro liner and chin strap. This will require drilling 2 holes at the back of the shell. This isn't something I will be doing straight away though as the bits needed will come to about £60.

 

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/leather-para-chincup-product,3183

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/british-para-helmet-bolts-x4-product,11398

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/british-ww2-para-liner-product,10131

[Ian_Gere]

Right, in an attempt to keep my spending focussed and dispense with any lingering yearning to buy a sten and and go all, "Up the action, Bucks!", which can only lead to the growth of a tactical lip warmer, I'm going to make you lot aware of this linky which I've had secretly gnawing at me for longer than I care to admit. Ah, actually that's not going to work out too well or you'll think i'm worse than i actually am - I spotted it when Russ got his helmet together...

 

here

 

somebody buy it ffs!

[Russe11]

Right, in an attempt to keep my spending focussed and dispense with any lingering yearning to buy a sten and and go all, "Up the action, Bucks!", which can only lead to the growth of a tactical lip warmer, I'm going to make you lot aware of this linky which I've had secretly gnawing at me for longer than I care to admit. Ah, actually that's not going to work out too well or you'll think i'm worse than i actually am - I spotted it when Russ got his helmet together...

 

here

 

somebody buy it ffs!

Looks like a 1980's tankers helmet? Shape is right for airbourne.

[Russe11]

So I have now tested my WW2 loadout at the 3 main types of site (woodland, outdoor CQBish and indoor CQB). The 2 main issues are the weight and heat. The gear is a lot heavier than normal gear and the Sten is not a lightweight gun. The smock does get rather hot but is excellent in light rain. The webbing and clothing gives you a vast amount of carrying capacity. If I filled every part of a molle vest with pouches even over the back and then added a belt rig and drop leg's I might be able to carry almost as much.

The Sten: The range is decent but not exceptional, in woodland I wished I had a nice Lee Enfield to get some longer range shots in but it was doing better than some other AEG's. The Sten is noisy, the gearbox is fairly quiet but the piston seems to make one hell of a lot of noise so it's not a stealthy weapon. Outdoors the Sten excels at supressing enemies, the high rate of fire combined with the noise provides the shock and awe needed to stop a group of enemies and make then dive for cover. Equally if you want to cover someone then it draws attention away from team mates. Anytime you need to fire from a prone position, the Sten works well, the side mounted mag is excellent for this. In CQB it's not as good as my MP5 but I would rather have the Sten than an M4 or AK as the iron sights are really very good. Only the ability to have a torch or red dot sight would make M4's or AK's better. The Sten is sometimes impaired by the magazine position in CQB but equally the magazine position sometimes works in it's favour.

The Sten gun sling is a pain, especially in CQB and takes a lot of getting used to. I find that letting the sling slip down to my right elbow works. It's then possible to shoulder the gun quickly and easily and even switch hands.

My Sten chrono's at 335-338fps (10 shots semi auto) very consistent. Unfortunately that's technically to hot for the 328fps limit for the indoor site I use but they let me get away with it as long as I didn't do any head shots.

[Nickona]

The 2 main issues are the weight and heat. The gear is a lot heavier than normal gear and the Sten is not a lightweight gun.

 

And welcome to historical gear! The older the heavier

My incomplete SADF Patt 70 webbing weighs an absolute ton compared to my M83 battle vest, and thats only a 10 year difference in production

[Ian_Gere]

I've got a set of 58 Pattern webbing doing an impersonation of stuff that will get used in the bottom of 1 of my wardrobes... strikes me as a little odd cos I can clearly remember meeting a number of squaddies in the 70's who must have been fair pie-snafflers. Still, in them days men were men... and sheep were scared

[Russe11]

I know I still have a few bits to get but I think I just found my next loadout:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Spearhead-Militaria/WW2-AUSTRALIA-/_i.html?_fsub=3411260012&_sid=146084432&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

Aussie uniform looks cool and would give an excuse to set up a BBQ at the camp site at WW2 games

 

Maybe after I get a Lee Enfield though.

[Russe11]

The more I look into Aussie WW2 gear the more I want it.

The hat, Jacket and Trousers from Spearhead look awesome.

I then did a bit of digging (geddit: research into Diggers uniform ) to find out what else differed in the Aussie uniform. The boots are brown with no toe cap. Have you ever seen brown hobnailed combat boots with no toe cap? Eventually I gave up looking for something similar and started looking for a reproduction of the actual thing.

It seems Aussie boots are the least 'combat' looking combat boots ever. These are boots that say 'Tobruk looks like a good place for a Barbie on the beach'

The only problem is the boots would have to be shipped from Australia. Oh and the Aussies used the SMLE which Shoot and Scoot have discontinued which only leaves the Matrix/Iron airsoft one which is gas powered and has a bad rep for quality control

[CaptainSwoop]

Jungle loadout with a Thompson or Shotgun then.

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

You can Fashion a BAR-10 Chassis into an old no.4 stock. Requires a fair amount of woodwork but nothing too daunting,and the outer barre for the Visser needs to be cut.

There's a nice build thread on this blog

http://crapworks.blogspot.ie/2013/04/converting-airsoft-vsr-to-lee-enfield.html

[Russe11]

You can Fashion a BAR-10 Chassis into an old no.4 stock. Requires a fair amount of woodwork but nothing too daunting,and the outer barre for the Visser needs to be cut.

There's a nice build thread on this blog

http://crapworks.blogspot.ie/2013/04/converting-airsoft-vsr-to-lee-enfield.html

Yup looked into that and it works out at about the same cost as buying the Shoot and Scoot No.4. Aussies never changed to the No.4, they stuck with the No.III (SMLE). The great thing about the SMLE is that the previous version of the Lee Enfield was 5 inches longer. When designing a bayonet they didn't want to reduce the standoff distace. As a result the SMLE bayonet is almost a sword

Shoot and Scoot make a rubber version of the bayonet.

[CaptainSwoop]

Oz had plenty of Smle to go round.

Britain needed a load more and the SMLE was expensive and time consuming to make compared the the simplified and more efficient Mk4

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

The problem with the shoot and scoot enfield is that It,for some stupid reason is based on the JG/ASG Zastava M70 which is an off spec VSR hybrid thing. Of all the base rifles to choose...If they could not have access to a JG BAR 10 fair enough,the TM Pro would be too expensive too. But at least maybe a WELL MB03? It's a POS but It's more or less VSR compatible.

[Russe11]

Apparently Shoot and Scoot are planning new models of Mk4 and SMLE based on a VSR11. Evike however have the Iron Airsoft SMLE for $220 (£115).

I also discovered that Shoot and Scoot are working on an M1 Carbine AEG. The great thing is that although the British didn't use the M1 Carbine, the Aussies were working closely with American units and often switched to American weapons to reduce the supply issues

[Russe11]

So, I have ordered an Aussie Jacket and hat. This will look awesome

I sooo have to get an SMLE now. I may have to modify a digeridoo to fire 40mm grenades at some point just for laughs, either as a bazooka or maybe use it as a mortar to launch something.

 

5 days til my 1st WW2 game, hopefully I can get a look at some of the other WW2 guns people have. I also found out that Combat South has a WW2 game coming up (21st june I believe). It's based on Normandy so not really suited to an Aussie loadout but if anyone wanted to come and needed to borrow some kit I could use it as an excuse

[Russe11]

My hat and Jacket have been dispatched, delayed by the fact that Paypal are dicks and won't allow me to use my card so I have to use the direct debit method. After a lot of searching I have found a possible contender for easier to source Aussie boots:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121138205596?var=420153311515&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

They are a bit pale but at this price they will do. If I use darker polish they will darken up a bit. Then I can just add leather laces.

 

My 1st WW2 game was epic. I was surprised to learn that the weapon that Jerry fears the most is the Sten. Apparently it outperforms anything they have in terms of range, accuracy and rate of fire. I do want a rifle though so may take a gamble on an Ironairsoft/Matrix SMLE.

[Ian_Gere]

Dylon leather dye is good stuff, Russ.