Looking good! That was the first set of armor I did with green buckles and straps. I may have to continue that....

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-Spat

chevyh0tr0d, here's the buckles I was talking about. On most MOLLE gear, and some ALICE gear, they come with thier own elastic bands for securing loose straps.


But when you don't have those, you're to tie up the loose straps with electrical tape as so:


You can see this tape job on gear as early as M56 gear (Vietnam era), both in vintage photos, and by picking equipment up surplus and finding it with the loose strapped already taped up.




Oh, I get it. But you've got me all wrong. My experience in the military has only been two years. The vast majority of my knowledge and experience comes from 12 years of reenacting, collecting, restoring old military vehicles, and manufacturing military firearms. For most of my military training, I knew more then most of my instructors and senior Marines. Some of them have appreciated it and used me to help teach others, and the rest have been all over my backside for it.

BTW, I've been reenacting ragtag, indisciplined troops of the Vietnam war for about 12 years now.

The Marines in Aliens were strongly based on, what was 25 years ago, the USMC of the day.

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BANNED USER

Thanks for the great Pictures Aaron I will try this next time I gear up, see if I can not keep my PR and MT slings from choking me when I move around and remove them.

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Sorry, got to disagree with you there.
I believe Camerons vision and inspiration for the USCM was all about an analogy for the troops in Vietnam.
The gung-ho, cocky, over confident attitude of the troops.
With state of the art, superior fire power facing, what they think of as, an inferior enemy.
Then getting their asses totally kicked by a largely unseen and determined enemy.


Just out of interest, were the USMC of the eighties allowed to paint/draw graffiti/slogans and accessorise their uniforms, or is that more or less a Vietnam thing too?
Asking because I don't really know the answer to that, but from films etc. it does seem just a Vietnam thing.

Your own personalised Marine character can be an EU, by the book, clean and tidy, 4 finger rolls, no graffitti/accessories one.
But I think most on here want to get the bad ass, ragtag, untidy 1, 2 or 3 finger rolled sleeved Marine look from the actual film.

Sorry for busting your balls and also been all over your backside over this, as I know, in your own way, you are only trying to be helpful but you do push your ideals a bit much.

Martin

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Martin 'Victim' Victory
A86/TQ3.4.49421E3
UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters


you can't take the PUNK outa Spunkmeyer

Fold the excess over itself and then tape to to itself. It helps a lot and looks way better.

Here's a couple of quick pictures of my armor, sorry for the low quality camera phone.

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"Screen what? I wouldn't know screen accurate if it were driving a bus and ran me over during the parade."

LCpl. Av "Spectre" Taylor
Long Range Infantry Support

Hey even with those pics I can see exactly what you mean. They do look better

Thanks for clearing that up Spectre

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In refference to Vietnam; That was totally, as we say "unit specific". Many units could get away with that, and some units couldn't. It depended where you were (the deeper in the field you were, the more it was seen), who was in charge, and who you were with (or "attached to").
If I wrote "BORN TO KILL" on my helmet today, oh that wouldn't fly at all.

Even in reenacting the Vietnam war, we sometimes do the neat and tidy "squared away" Marines, where the graffiti wasn't allowed. Which ends up meaning we need to have two helmet covers in our collection, depending who we're reenacting that weekend.

For my personal costume or "impression" I'm going to try to keep it "sterile" (not unit specific), and squared away as I can. But that's just me. I'm sure that somewhere in the 'Aliens' universe, there's Colonial Marines that joined for service and patriotism. Not just beer and poon.

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BANNED USER

looks good man and i see ur in so cal what part?

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SGT Chris Kraemer "BIRD"
S/N: A07/TQ0.0.82154G1 Sgt Kraemer

Ban them I say!

Ta for the taping up tips Aaron.

When I first got my Sparmor I cut off the excess length of webbing from my ab pad waist belt, then put on a bit of weight and found that the end of the webbing would often slip out of the buckle as I pulled it tight.

Lost a lot of weight since then, so it's less of a problem now.

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Steve
Corporal in 69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homer’s Heroes.

"I'd like to die at the age of 80 in my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a girl's mouth around my c**k."

Looks good!
Thanks for sharing some insights to AaronHorrocks and Pug50.
IMHO the Marines in the Aliens movie are more individuals then uniform/homogeneous Soldiers.

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Sgt. Frank Peters 'reload' Smartgun Operator
A03/TQ3.0.12136E1 "It will be no picknick!"
AL Colonial Admin. - Sergeant at Arms (SgtA) -- 2020-2022
GERCM - Executive Officer (XO)
UKCM Foreign Legion: The Deviant Dragoons

Chev y, I have to call you on your shoulder lamp bracket... It's FAR too big!

I mean, really! Look at it!

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MSgt, UKCM 42nd Reg., 1st Batt. : Hadrian's Wall. UKCM

Wasteland Workshop
Props, cosplay pieces, upcycled ornamentation, and miscellanea;
For the discerning survivor of the apocalypse.
Steve Fletcher : Maker, Scavenger, and Junksmith.
linktr.ee/wastelandworkshop

Lol Scapey I'd have to agree there.

Gav

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Cpl.
Smith,G 'Nogarth'

UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters
H.M.S. Valhalla

You so Funny Scapey BUT it`s NOT a Lamp Bracket. He`s trying out Spat`s new creation for the TECKNO VIKING. Shoulder mounted SMART GUN :p

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What ya gonna do when I TECKNO HUG Youuuuu!!



Pvt.
STEAD,J "TECKNO VIKING"
A06/TQ1.0.22140E1

Skype: ulthur1

More fodder for Dave Xeno!!! hhssssss!!!

Looking sharp marine!! Nice armour dude!!

Cheers

Bri

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In Space No One Can Hear You Scream ...
Dave Xeno - missed but never forgotten......

As a re-enactor myself (thus understanding the need to be stupidly anal about accuracy) and former serviceman, I have to say that smartening up can look amazing, but it's YOUR OWN CHOICE if you do or not. If you prefer to go scruffy, then equally it's YOUR OWN CHOICE.

Unlike re-enacting, where you do it to honour the veterans, for patriotic reasons, etc etc, this, whatever the USCM Costuming is based on, it still *IS* just dressing up as not-real people, for fun. That is the only reason to do it.

However, since we're picking holes - Your BDU shirt is supposed to be tucked in too, *if* you want to be all smart and Screen Accurate
Personally, I always preferred mine out, but that was partly to hide the fact that they were rather close-fitting in certain places...

As for what the USCM is based on - I like to believe that, with the various advances in tech and culture, humans no longer need a military force we we currently know it.
Frost simply calls it a job, not regarding it a way of life as many servicemen do. I always likened them to a kind of corporate security - in this case, interstellar colonial security. They are hired guards out in the ass-end of space, which IMO accounts for a lot of their rather unmilitary ways.


Ultimately, this is what YOU want to make of it and no-one has the right to TELL you how you should/must choose to do it.

Here, Here!!!

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Sgt C. Kee-McParlin
A05/TQ1.0.02160E1

13th Regt. 1st Batt. 'Freebooters'

Bingo. That's historically accurate too. The United States Marine Corps has been "protecting American interests overseas" (protecting American trading and companies/corporations) in the ass-end of the planet since they were founded. Even most Marines today don't understand the historical use of the vary branch they were in.

That's why it's not much of a stretch to think that Marines would be protecting colonies from bugs and bebops in the future.

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BANNED USER