Face Protection - just can't get it right

[Sleighton]

I'm really struggling with my face protection. Tried a few different combinations but i'm moving away from the neoprene solutions after seeing close to my worst fear coming true and someone taking a shotgun in the face from a yard away when they stuck their head around a corner - i quite like my teeth ! So far i've tried:

 

Neoprene mask + Mesh goggles/Bolle Tracker/Revision - Hot !! Want to move away from neoprene for safety reasons as well

Mesh Mask + Bolle Tracker goggles - Massive fogging even with Anti fog solution

Mesh Mask + Revision Bullet Ant - Not a great fit - ended up with nosepiece over the goggles putting pressure on the goggles.

 

Mainly playing indoors CQB at the mall in reading including evening games where its pitch black throughout the whole site so the mesh goggles just make things a little too dark for my liking, especially when i've used the revisions and seen the difference in field of view.

 

I tried the tin snips to cut a cheap chinese mesh mask into the correct shape for the revisions but it didn't go well.

 

So two questions

 

1. Is there something that will play well with the revision goggles, protective of the lower mouth and that is still comfy and not too cumbersome?

 

2. Is there a solution outside of a full face mask which will work or a "set" which will go well together ?

[Lozart]

I use a Black Bear Raider mask http://www.military1st.co.uk/bbav2g3blk-black-bear-airsoft-raider-mask-gen-3-black.html with ESS V12 Advancer goggles. Unfortunately nothing that isn't mesh will ever be totally fog resistant but taking the filter foam off the eyepieces and opening them fully for best venting works well enough. The fit nicely enough with the mask too:

I'm on the right by the way. Just for reference - that's the lift room at The Malls!

[BrightCandle]

Getting a mesh mask to fit under the goggles takes a bit of effort. I used a dremel, some wire cutters and a hot glue gun. I followed these instructions:

 

I see a lot of people with mesh masks that don't fit under their goggles very well, the picture above being a great example with the big gaps under the eyes. With the big goggles Revision Desert Locusts the nose doesn't get covered and with small goggles the face under the eyes doesn't. I also think in a lot of cases the mesh mask is too long for peoples faces, it should just come to the chin and no further, but based on the way the headband pulls you often have to cut from the top and not the bottom so it naturally sits in the right place.

 

You just need to spend some time with the right tools. I ended up cutting my mesh mask 3 times. The first time got the right shape but I had it sometimes interfering with the goggles at the sides, it could fit just not most of the time and it depended too much on where the goggles were on the face and it wasn't the ideal place. The second time I fixed that but then what would happened is the mesh would have a tendency to push the goggles up a little. I fixed that by trimming off the top and reducing the overall length and now its just 1cm past the chin. So its going to take a little while to get it right and its going to take a few attempts at cutting before you have it working as you want.

 

But don't do what most people do and just live with it. Its easy enough to fix with some glue and some wirecutters, just make sure you can pull the glue off to modify it again in the future because you'll almost certainly want to tweak it.

[Sleighton]

Thats similar if not the same mesh mask i used last night (on loan) but it just didn't fit right with the revision bullet ants.

 

Fogging isn't so much of an issue as i've taken the foam inserts out of the bullet ants already but it just felt heavy lugging it around and like i said because of the goggles it had to go on top and put more pressure on them.

[Lozart]

Thats similar if not the same mesh mask i used last night (on loan) but it just didn't fit right with the revision bullet ants.

 

Fogging isn't so much of an issue as i've taken the foam inserts out of the bullet ants already but it just felt heavy lugging it around and like i said because of the goggles it had to go on top and put more pressure on them.

 

Sounds like you need to get a mesh mask and mod it as per Brightcandles suggestion. Having tried the smaller lower face only type masks and then getting shot IN the ear, I'd certainly recommend sticking with the bigger masks like the Raider style if you can!

[Sleighton]

Getting a mesh mask to fit under the goggles takes a bit of effort. I used a dremel, some wire cutters and a hot glue gun. I followed these instructions:

 

I see a lot of people with mesh masks that don't fit under their goggles very well, the picture above being a great example with the big gaps under the eyes. With the big goggles Revision Desert Locusts the nose doesn't get covered and with small goggles the face under the eyes doesn't. I also think in a lot of cases the mesh mask is too long for peoples faces, it should just come to the chin and no further, but based on the way the headband pulls you often have to cut from the top and not the bottom so it naturally sits in the right place.

 

You just need to spend some time with the right tools. I ended up cutting my mesh mask 3 times. The first time got the right shape but I had it sometimes interfering with the goggles at the sides, it could fit just not most of the time and it depended too much on where the goggles were on the face and it wasn't the ideal place. The second time I fixed that but then what would happened is the mesh would have a tendency to push the goggles up a little. I fixed that by trimming off the top and reducing the overall length and now its just 1cm past the chin. So its going to take a little while to get it right and its going to take a few attempts at cutting before you have it working as you want.

 

But don't do what most people do and just live with it. Its easy enough to fix with some glue and some wirecutters, just make sure you can pull the glue off to modify it again in the future because you'll almost certainly want to tweak it.

 

This is what i tried to do to the cheap chinese mask using the same video - admittedly without a dremel and just a pair of tin snips and wire cutters. Perhaps i just didn't have the touch but it was a mess by the time i had finished with it. Had to go straight in the bin

[Lozart]

Try the good people of Heroshark http://www.heroshark.co.uk/

If you specify the type of goggles you wear he'll custom cut the mask to the right shape for you!

[BrightCandle]

 

This is what i tried to do to the cheap chinese mask using the same video - admittedly without a dremel and just a pair of tin snips and wire cutters. Perhaps i just didn't have the touch but it was a mess by the time i had finished with it. Had to go straight in the bin

 

Then maybe heroshark is the way to go. It took me a lot of hours to get this right and multiple goes, but in the end I got it into a reasonable state. Part of the reason it didn't fit perfectly the first time is I didn't want to cut too much off (you can always take more off but never put more on) and because with the elastic off its hard to measure perfectly I kept on that caution side.

 

On the dremel I used two tools. The cutter wheel for the main cuts and the sander parts for taking away the sharp edges and smoothing it out. That sanding wheel really helped a lot to clean up the cuts where the wire cutters especially left spikes.