Hey all. Been pally with the CMs in my area for a while and finally getting my arse in gear for a build.

I've started work on a custom dropship pilot, Going for a mostly canon Ferro style base that I will build upon slowly but surely with extras and fun bits.

So far I have the USCM Sulaco patch for the flightsuit sleeve, the Victory by wings patch for the suit (And possibly the vest, I'll pick up another if I need to) I've also ordered myself a pair of German Para boots with same treads and general style as shown in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17984&hilit=Boots they were pretty cheap and decent nick and I need some casual boots anyway.

Got my eyes on an RAF Mk 11 flight suit and an IDF M69 Flack vest that I'll pick up soon.

For the helmet a local pal has one that I'm going to try and make a mold of if he's still up for lending me it, I'll then use the raw cast of the original helmet and modify it into the dropship helmet.

Looking forward to getting back into this.

Cheers all.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Nice one! Welcome aboard to the AL!

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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

Welcome buddy.

Patches are in!
Boots are in!

Will learn how to post photos and once I polish my boots up I'll snap some pics.

Knife acquired (a real one, not a night raider, but identical handle, gonna construct a new blade for it and probably make a mold for rubber casting) One of my partners is bringing it back from the US with her next month.

I have my eyes on a vest and Scrapey might have a flight suit for me.

Question for Yall. The MK11 is hard to find for a flight suit, what's the closest flight suit to the MK11 that I can pick up for not a fortune.

Hope everyone hasa good weekend xx.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

*Scapey :p

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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

Hi kit, and welcome

Loving your energy!!

How is your build going?

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Cpl. JK "Hybrid" Knight. A07/TQ0.0.52137E1
XO HMS Valhalla; 13th Regt. 1st Batt. "Freebooters" - USCM Flight School "Bus drivers".
"I'm not saying it was Aliens but...."

I believe the consensus is the MK14 is a decent replacement for the MK11.
Perhaps you've seen this already, but here is a thread showing the differences between the Mk11, and the more common (and fairly inexpensive) Mk14:
viewtopic.php?t=2125

Hey all. Scapey sorry for always mispelling your name, dislexia in full swing as always.

Hybrid Build is going well it's update time below.

TS826 Gonna gun for an MK14 at some point but for now just gonna use whatever I can.


SO! UPDATES!

Boots are mostly comfy, got insoles for them and picked up some Para Aramid semi indestructible laces for them as the eyelets are pretty rough on laces on these boots

IDF M69 aquired, its VERY green, ive so far been unable to wash it to a lighter colour, i think I may just have to deal with it being quite vivid and see what weathering can do for me down the road.

I've added my victory patch to the vest and have made my name tapes but wont be adding them until I fix the padding for the vest.

Aquired a VP70 Casting and modified it a little to be more like the movie version. Made a leather sheath for it which matches the current sheath of my not-night-raider and the belt I wanna use, all non canon but fun details.

I've modelled and printed a new night raider blade with tang, Current plan is to mold this and cast in rubber, then mold the handle and insert rubber blades into the mold to cast resin handles with blades embedded

Picked up a 3D model of a pulsemeter from Paul Elder and printed that off, custom made a strap for it too. I may be working with Paul to offer prop pulse meters in the future alongside the con safe night raiders and name tapes.

Made myself a kit bag from an old leather golf duffel, added my name tape to the front and a spare victory by wings patch to the top.

3D printed a locator tube, Hand welder to come.

Made myself a weapons case to hold my VP70, Night raider, pulsemeter and locator tube. It also has spare storage inside and a small display sextion for patches.

Gonna post up pics as soon as I find out how to.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Wee bit of update. Flack vest and pulse meter are both 90% of the way there.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Photo Dump. As any Marine will know, our gear is very expensive and very dangerous. Storing your gear and uniform in a secure and safe manor should be paramount.

With this in mind here is my Kit Bag and my weapons case.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Photodump: Wearables.

Got my flack vest finished and working on some fitment of my holsters and such. Modified the belt crossdraw holster I made to also work as a shoulder holster. The photo here doesnt show the final product, the sling I'm using here is a stand in for now until I decide what the final one will be. I'm also loving these boots, really need to fight myself not to wear them every day especially with these new heavy duty laces keeping them tight and solid.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

And finally the really fun bit, weapons loadout.

Not pictured is the other side of the gun as I cant get that one particular photo to upload for some reason. As part of the modifications to this casting I also sculpted the thumb contour of the screen used VPs, Decided against trying to add the finger grooves to the front as I wasnt convinved I could do that without carving into the casting a little and honestly I couldnt be bothered.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Bonus content: The pulsemeter that I tried to add to my first photo post but didnt succeed in doing so and the lower level of my weapons case which has a few vaguely appropriate accessories, Maglite 3D cell as it fits with the era Aliens was made in, A zippo and a flat multitool inspired by the savana bronica and a P38 can opener.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Great build progress!

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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

Awesome!

awesome, what brand and model are those boots?

Not much in the way of progressing the build, I've made myself a shoulder holster sling for the VP-70 holster I made.

I'm also soon going to be the owner of an Explorer MMIV and a Savanna Bronica. Which I'll be adding to my kit in some capacity once they arrive and I can do some casting stuff.

Seven: I don't know the brand, they're German army surplus I picked up on ebay they don't have much in the way of markings or labels.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Some photos from my 2nd drop (sadly didnt get enough at my first)

Wasnt wearing my full kit by this point so had tied off my flight suit at the waist as it was WARM

Very happy with the suit so far and until I start on my helmet I'm calling my pilot DONE

In other news. I got my Bronica from Dan in the UKCM and he also had James Forder send me up one of his wonderful pouches.

Got another post coming soon about my replicas of the bronica which I'll be offering for sale and also my full marine helmet build that I undertook this last month. Stay tuned.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Finally got working on my helmet this last month

Full list of credits
The austrian army for their knock off M1 helmets
James Forder for the helmet camera, ear cup, microphone parts and for donating his old lobster plates.
Neil Storey for the ear flap
Doug Mac McCarthy for all the painting advice.
Corey 'Prev' Fanselow for graffiti inspo and good company
Final list of customisation:
Grey helmet band
Tiny hex driver tucked behind the helmet cam (the same as the mounting bolts for the helmet cam)
Bronica lighter cast between the bump plate and ear flap
British bombadier pin over ear flap
Dinnae Fash on bump plate
Bonk on the big dent
NOAA and Navy Aviation RFs on the ear flap.

This was a lot of work but great fun. Took me about a month of scattered work with a few breaks while I waited for things to arrive in the post. the only thing left to do is add my name to the rear. I constructed the bump plate from scratch out of PVC foam board and did all the painting, weathering and finishing myself. I have thoroughly decided that I hate Manganise Steel as it's awful to cut through and even worse to attempt to drill or grind a hole through.

One of my favourite features is that the helmet can be completely dissasembled if need be, The bump plate, lobster plates and ear flap are all held on with chicago screws, the ear cup and flap are connected with bolts, the mic is friction fit in place as is the insert for the ear cup with the pad on it. If I need to I can strip the entire thing down to fix or replace anything. This will be extra useful as I someday hope to replace the plastic bump and lobster plates with Aluminium, and I'd like to be able to replace the ear cup or mic with more accurate pieces if the opportunity ever arises. The only glue applications on the entire thing are inside the helmet camera where I installed an aluminium connector for the Pentax that came with mine, the construction of the insert for the ear cup which I scratch built out of ABS, and the small cut off of the tool casting on the bronica that's glued to the lighter casting to make it look like theres a tool in there. Even the mic tip is attached to the boom with tiny screws and is removable if I ever need it to be.

Anyway Hope Yall like it. I'm excited to start on my armour soon. Planning to scratch build it out of Foamex board (expanded PVC Foam board/sinage board/sintra) using the pepakura templates. I also updated my carry box and have some better pics of the bronica casts below too.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Nice kit!

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DON’T call me eighty-five.

Assistant Superintendent Leach,
Fiorina 161
"Serenity Through Confinement"

Fun news today too. I'm finally getting an accurate knife!

It's my birthday this coming thursday and I decided to put some money my family gave me towards a "Parker Brothers Smoky Mountain Survivor" Which is basically a Scalemead Survival with different brand info. I'm hoping it will arrive before xmas as it's had the VAT paid already so customs shouldnt be an issue.

I also spent a few hours the last two days painstakingly making a CAD drawing of the tool for the savanna bronica which I have sent to a friend of mine to make on his CNC out of aluminium and brass. I'm extremely proud of my cast bronicas and their tools, but sadly a casting of the tool on my stainless steel bronica doesnt quite look right and the steel tool is getting sent back to my friend Dan for his own bronica (Part of the deal for him organising the buying and shipping to the UK of my bronica). Another reason I don't want a plastic tool on my bronica is that I've recently taken up smoking cigars and I use my bronica to light them, due to this I'd rather not have the plastic tool by the flame.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Very cool!
Any thoughts on offering the aluminium [?] tool to others, as in a limited run of these? I'd be VERY keen on a couple without the Savanna Bronica logo (as I'd love to get these engraved locally with either the US &/or the NZ Delta.

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Cpl Aron "septic" Williams
A10/TQ0.0.82146E1

I've sent off the files to my friend and He'll be doing the engraving. I've also offered for him to sell them in his store if he so wishes but he's got a lot on his plate right now so won't know about that for a while most likely as there isnt even a test engraving to see how viable it is on his machine yet but will know before too long I'm sure. In the event that he does decide to offer them I will send you his sales info, it won't be difficult at all to run one or two (or more) of these with no logo at all. It may also be possible to have your logos done on his end depending on how up to it he is in the event that he offers them.

Reguardless I'll keep you posted, if you see me posting about my tool and I havent reached out shoot me a wee PM to remind me xx

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

Latest marine update.

Picked up an SPH-3 for cheap on ebay. Not the right base helmet but close enough that it'll take minimal modification to make an sph-4 base for the dropship pilot helmet.

Swapped out the nape strap with the leather surround for the ear cup for an entirely canvas one, the leather one is on my U-wing pilot helmet now and looks much more at home there, freeing up the accurate one for this build.

Added the missing screws to the bottom of the ears, moved the mount location for the boom and planned out what holes to fill, and where to cut out the ears for the greeblies.

Planning on sending James Forder the single visor guide that came with this helmet so he can 3D model and print a new pair for me to use. Need to source other bits too, have a lead on a genuine visor and a casting of the visor cover, but may also have the cover 3D printed it all depends on price.

Making a proper Ferro-style helmet will be a lot of work so I've actually planned a tiered approach for my build.

Tier 1, mod this into a passable sph-4 and paint brown. I this will make it good enough for trooping my pilot while I prep for the next step.

Tier 2, cut out the ear holes and make the pannels for the inside, construct some makeshift greeblies for the ears as a stand in and paint them and the newly modded bit of the helmet. This can be executed at the same time as Tier 1 if I'm feeling bold and wanna do lots at once. This again gives me a usable helmet while i save up for Tier 3

Tier 3, I purchase the 3D models for the accurate ear greeblies, finish those up and install in the helmet after removing the temp greeblies, again paint up.

Tier 4, add all the other details to the helmet, the camera trigger wires along the side, the mounts etc.

This should mean I have a mostly usable helmet between all stages of the build and I can slowly work up to a mostly screen accurate build.

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Gunnery Sergeant Holland of the UKCM Hadrien's Wall

very nice build! welcome!

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PFC Mike Rizzuto MVM
USS Blackhawk
3rd Batt 12th Regt