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 Post subject: USCM Camouflage Clothing (BDUs)
PostPosted: Thu Sep 04, 2003 8:51 am 
Armourer said on 11/24/00:

On the issue of the Marine cammies.... the USCM uniforms appear to be styled on the United States Marine Corp issue Class 2 utilities, which predate the BDU (Battle Dress Uniform). The Class 2‘s were issued from the 1970's to early 1980's.

The USCM camouflage pattern itself, is a compressed pattern based on part of the M65 Engineering Research Laboratories & Development camouflage motif, commonly known as ERDL or Leaf pattern.

The Class 2 fatigues, they utilised the basic M65 camouflage pattern motif but used the darker Woodland colours. These uniforms were made of poplin and were issued until the early 1980’s when they were replaced with the M81 BDU in 1981.

The M65 camouflage pattern motif is 1.6 times smaller than the current issue M81 camouflage pattern motif, as utilised on the BDU Woodland and Urban camouflage patterns.

The Aliens USCM uniform retains much of the style of the 70’s issue Class 2’s, but has a few major differences. Firstly the USCM fatigues are made of 100% cotton. The USCM shirt has only the two upper shirt square pockets compared to the four that feature on the original. The USCM shirt pockets fasten with Velcro tabs, as opposed to the standard button closure on the poplin shirt. The USCM shirtsleeve cuffs also utilise Velcro fastenings for any adjustment and closure as opposed to the buttons on the poplin shirt. The mandarin collar on the USCM shirt is smaller than the collar present on the poplin shirt, which is itself smaller than the collar on the current issue BDU shirt.

In my honest opinion, if you want to produce the most accurate facsimile of Colonial Marine fatigues, then I would say your best bet is to obtain a mid 1970’s issue USMC Class 2 poplin uniform. Now comes the hard part! You will have to paint it with fabric paints, which best match the following 4 Humbrol enamel colours which were used on the original costumes.

Regards - Armourer

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Tailgunner said on 11/25/00:

A few more things I've noticed that Armourer didn't mention:

The older uniform shirts dont have elbow patches, and they have a seam across the back at shoulderblade level. The USCM uniform shirts follow this pattern as well.

On the USCM uniform pants, one of the cargo pockets (right leg I believe) is rotated around to the front. The other is in the normal position on the side.

For those interested, Brigade Quartermasters recently found a good quantity of the old ERDL "frog and leaf" pattern poplin fabric. They promptly sent it off to one of the BDU manufacturing plants, and had new style uniforms made from it. The colors are wrong for USCM uniforms, but the pattern is right and they do look better than woodland camo for a alternative USCM uniform.

Butch...
Edited by: [url=http://pub217.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=williegoldman>Willie Goldman[/url] at: 4/11/04 10:57 pm


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 Post subject: Re: Camouflage Clothing
PostPosted: Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:13 am 
TychoD wrote on /31/01 :

I remember reading in the old BDU's thread something Steve Radler wrote about the BDU dying process, but it also included something about modifying the collar to a "mandarin" or "chinese" type collar. Steve, could you post some information on how to do this?
Gunnery Sgt. Tycho D. McCallavre

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Biker Scott wrote on 1/31/01 :

Just fold the points of the collar in toward your neck, and roll the collar inside so it's about an inch high. You want it to stand up. And sew....

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Sgt Draino wrote on 1/31/01:

There are a number of ways you can do this, with varying degrees of accuracy, difficulty, and cost.

Prolly the EASIEST way, is to print out a picture of what it should look like, and take your BDUs to a seamstress/fitting shop, and have them alter the collar. Will cost some money, but won't kill you. At a guess, $10?

One way of doing it yourself, is to carefully remove the collar you have (rip the seams out, don't muss the fabric), turn it upside-down (so it's wider on the bottom than on top), and sew it back on. You'll still need to make some minor mods to get it to fit right, though. You also really need access to a sewing machine to do it right.

Alternatively, you could use Biker Scott's method. It's definitely the easiest way to do it by hand yourself, though probably not the most accurate.

It all depends on how much effort or money you want to put into it.

Sgt. Draino

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HEAD HUNTER USCM wrote on 2/1/01:

Actually the way scott just said looks the best to me.
i looked at the ones in the movie and i think the square edges look better than the round ones. i also sewed my collar square and also moved the right leg pocket to the front of my bdu pants leg. now all i need is to fade them out and get the reg color patches and i am done.


When you are out of Pulse Rifles, you are out of Weapons!


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