Did he wear a flak jacket under the Steadicam vest?

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

Yes!

Eek another museum piece. Looks like about a 100 for the piece. What have others used for more easily obtained equivalents?

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

https://www.amazon.com/Mil-Tec-Ranger-V ... 548&sr=8-8

This looks really close.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... 1937184278

It appears the lower armor piece was some sort of m53 short flak proetective cover. The torso protector did not appear on the m69 flak vest.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

But the bottom part looks like this:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... -m-53-usmc

But it is like it was covered in a protective wrapping or cover due to the arm + gun design.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

This is what I have...

https://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/m69-flak- ... plica.html

Apparently, the current Israeli army flack vest is very similar.

And actually effective I would venture to say. The issue with the M69 was that although it did not stop weapons fire, it was good at stopping shrapnel and fragments from blasts. Its predecessor the M53 used in WWII was just about in the same boat and the M69 was an improvement based upon the original design.

As far as I can tell the top was M69 and the lower torso portion was M53 with some sort of protective covering or wrapping.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

The lower portions of the 3A steadicam were bulked up with extra padding and, as Jeanette has stated in video interviews, they were basically "duct taped into them". The extra 'duct tape wrapped padding' is visible in many images.

Fitting Polaroid with unaltered 3A Steadicam vest (notice bare right hip. left side/hip may have un-covered padding attached?)


Continuity Polaroid with extra padding (covered in black duct tape)


Another image where the duct tape wrapped additional padding is visible (more so on Vaz, but the bottom hanging out on drake).


Never forget how 'screen accurate' black duct tape is!

Definitely looks like duct tape wrapped m53 torso lower armor pieces. That said, easily replicated with foam and lots of duct tape. Now to find dimensions...

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

As a side note - Even modern flak vests won't stop incoming rounds. Flak vests are designed to stop flak. Bullet-proof vests are designed to stop (certain calibres of) bullets. Same for the fragmentation helmets currently issued, especially since the original CONARC spec for 5.56mm included the requirement that it punches through a US steel helmet at 500yds.

Correct. Level 4 armor and blast proof armor is currently used to stop high caliber rounds. Lesser level ratings are used based upon need and expectations of the environment and ability to hide/fit underneath clothing.

I remember coworkers in the late 90s recounting tests on spiderweb based armor that could deflect 50 caliber rounds, only leaving a scorch mark. I think the issue with such an armor setup would be cost and ability to mass produce and that would probably be why we have not heard about it as of yet. That and the fact the trauma from impact would be just as likely to kill or severely wound.

The kicker right now is that Russian FPS showed a DU core .22LR round that could punch through 3 inch steel without issue. And there are kevlar tipped bullets. So armor is not an end all, it just lessens risk some. Such high end rounds are restricted to the military and police with few expceptions when folks can get paper work approved to own such things.

In the mechwarrior universe they had ablative laser armor. As far as what the future holds it is really hard to tell. I would say once laser weapons start becoming a thing the whole armor approach will change.

Regardless the armor in Aliens is very much an iconic thing. And also it was a unique creature of its time that has inspired so many things over the years. Speculating on the armor origins helps when you are trying to recreate an iconic item.

And thank you for the information as it is a very valid point to make here.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

Well, most militaries issued frag/flak armour (sometimes with optional bullet proof ceramic plates and the like) because, statistically, shrapnel-spewing artillery has always been the biggest killer on a battlefield and thus the more demanding threat. Even today, in various sandy theatres, the biggest concern is not bullets but IEDs and the like.
If it's all about stopping bullets, there will always be another more powerful armour-piercing round available (or made available) to defeat the body armour. But while your enemy could always equip his guys with .950 JDJ rounds, there's a physical limit to how much body armour you can actually wear... and wearing flak diapers like the M53 is always horrid!