Following Coronavirus lockdown and most of us being scattered, isolated and out of contact for months now I figured I'd check in and see where everyone is.

For the AUCM I know many are in Melbourne and Sydney. I'm in Perth; unsure of numbers or battalion status here. Kit 90% done without body armor.

Following on from my last post about this four years ago, here's everything I've gotten to date with it based on Private Tim Crowe and Corporal Dwayne Hicks with some personal choice flair:
* M41A Pulse Rifle from Hollywood Collectable Group ("Brown Bess" standard edition, #383 of 1000)
* M240 Incinerator courtesy of Marco from GERCM (convention safe prop version)
* M1911A pistol with wooden grip from Denix
* Canadian Browning Hi-Power pistol from Denix
* Yang Kai Rifle Shotgun (airsoft/gelblaster) with custom-made leather shoulder holster
* US Army hip holster, belt and two-magazine pouch (Vietnam war era, bought it from a retired soldier; using it for the M1911A)
* US Army helicopter pilot shoulder holster (Vietnam war era, bought it from a retired soldier; even had field repairs; using it for the Browning Hi-Power)
* USCM Military patches (official, from Aliens: Colonial Marines)
* Official US Army helmet, Vietnam era with correct forest camouflage style
* Headset built to mimic a Racal Amplivox Minilites (impossible to get genuine article from 1980s) that has USB connector for linking to a Rasberry Pi when I'm ready for live stream/webcast
* Common t-shirt of correct dark green color
* US army pants, correct forest camouflage style (army surplus)
* Panasonic WiFi digital video camera with night vision to fit into the "Pentax" camera cover so I have a working video I can live stream/webcast
* Two GoPro cameras to eventually put on the armor
* Motion Tracker from Hollywood Collectable Group released last year
* Motion Tracker software to use on a portable device for live stream/web cast fun

Work in progress stands at:
* Life monitor overlay software to use with my Panasonic WiFi digital video camera (experimenting with an LG Lifeband Touch; may change sync device) for the live stream/webcast
* Obtaining correct army boots (easy enough to get on surplus)

And still to obtain:
* Pentax helmet camera cover (need to build it due to Panasonic custom job I'm going to try; can buy on eBay when ready)
* USCM armor (need to build or outsource; I want it to be armor-grade and am prepared to pay for it)
* Shoulder lamp (need to build)

And I've opted to skip grenades and a torch-welder for now.

To explain choices, for the pistols I had to compromise on staying true to the movie because getting a Smith & Wesson 39 (Vasquez's pistol from Aliens of course) here is impossible unless I get my gun permits. So Denix pistols for now.

For the shotgun the Yang Kai Rifle Shotgun is the closest "convention safe" match I've found to the Ithaca 37 that Hicks used, but you've got to cut down the barrel length to be more accurate. With my "Brown Bess" not being "convention safe" and having trouble getting a Aliens Stunt Pulse Rifle from HCG through the customs, getting the M240 Incinerator courtesy of Marco from GERCM that is completely convention safe was the only alternative. Now I'm flamethrower/shotgun for conventions and pulse rifle/shotgun for everything else and can lead my flamethrower to others with no weaponry.

My aim is still to go for the most accurate USCM kit in the southern hemisphere.

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.

Hey buddy, good work to date by the sounds of it - This thread needs PICS

Excellent goal to aim for too btw - "most accurate USCM kit in the southern hemisphere", but boy, you've got some stiff competition in Oz already (and maybe here in NZ too - greeting from Wellington, NZ ).

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

I’ll get those photos!

Newest hassle I have is the gel blaster ban in Western Australia: it might force me to surrender my Yang Kai Rifle Shotgun to the police.

And I’ve gotten prototype USCM armour with shoulder lamp from Neil with the GERCM crew, but I’m too tall to fit in it. So the mission continues.

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.

Nice dude, you shouldn't have any issues re-selling that armour.

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

No chance! It's very awesome, was very expensive and one of my mates who's 5'6" fits it perfectly. High chance I'll just cough up for Terry English's metal armour before he officially retires instead.

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.

Members are here. We just actively chose not to participate in the rollcall/elections as we run our own show. K

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=<Kitty>=

STRAYA!

Rocko, can you give some more details on this please "Panasonic WiFi digital video camera"? My Google-fu has failed to find anything useful.

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

Welcome. Post up pics of your progress

What show is that and is it east coast only?

Curious to catch up sometime.




I’ll get that information for you.




Will do!

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.

Starting to get the photos sorted out. More will come after Supanova Perth 2022.








All credit to my mate who is the correct height of 5'5 to 5'6 to wear the USCM armor. I'm just too damn tall at 6' so when I go to Supanova Perth I'll be wearing my base kit only without armor, since I have nothing yet for my size except the helmet and hip holster.

He gets to wear the USCM armor.

More photos later of the rest.

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.

It's a Panasonic HX-A1M. I have the black version.

https://www.panasonic.com/au/support/pr ... hx-a1.html

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.

Excellent collection Rocko! Loving the pauldron graffiti. Is that flamer the one with the metal front nozzle?

Also, cheers for the info on the cam
I was hoping it was a DVR unit, but this just records to SD card, yeah?

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

1. The flamer is made of plastics and wood with a metal core. The front is wood.
2. The Panasonic saves to an internal SD memory card and video is streamed to a controlling smartphone or PC. DVR is possible with it, but not easily with the Panasonic HX-A1M proprietary software. It is one of the things I am still software “programming fu” with.

And all of the graffiti on the armour was done by GERCM Neil Storey to customise it to his preference past the base camouflage plant.

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The phrase "crazy enough to work" is my daily modus operandi.