Greetings all, I'm new around here. Some may know me other probably don't from other boards and costume places.

I've run into a brick wall almost for DragonCon 2007. I was planning on going with the OD FLAK vest, yet eBay has seen so far to not allow that. Long story there on the one I actually had managed to get I'll not go into it here.

So, I was wondering if their would be anything against my going with a LT uniform. I don't really want to do this, but of what I've got access to and what I can afford to do for this year, it is looking to be my best option.

I do have on the way to me the lower leg and neck armor from SPAT. That I was planning to wear with the FLAK vest.

Any input and suggestions are welcome.

I like the "just woke up from Hypersleep" plus, you have your towel...

Hey, every passel 'a grunts has to have an officer to blame when everything goes wrong, right? ^_^

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

Where do you think this pic came from:

http://forum.alienslegacy.com/viewtopic.php?p=22025#22025

What size Flak Vest do you need?

http://www.armynavy.us. Click Surplus at the top, then the Kevlar link. The M1969s are at the bottom of the page. The size choices are kinda limited, but the one I got from them was in excellent condition and you can't beat the price.

Hope this helps!

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

Just to answer your initial question-

I considered doing a Gorman impression myself at one time.

Nothing wrong with that at all and would add some variety to the group!

I chose not to go for it as it just looked too plain- too 60s era regular army like.

However the quickest easiest costume to do is a quick and dirty Dropship pilot- OD green flight suit (A British RAF Mk 11 is the correct one but any will do), and OD green older style SPH-4 helecopter helmet (or something that looks close).



Add the Dropship "Victory by Wings" patch, American flag, Sulaco and Colonial Marines rocker patches and you are good to go!

Hope this helps and best of success!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Anything can happen before DCon!

I put together both a USCM outfit and a Batsuit 3 1/2 weeks before DCon6! (course, 98% of the Marine gear has been upgraded!)

And, Ripstick built a set of Aluminum body armor in about 4 hours before the Con!


You Can Do It!!


-Rex

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USCM- The Colonial Marines- A Brotherhood of Bad Asses!

Ripstick's ability to make things from scratch is amazing. That reminds me, I need to see if he wouldn't mind letting me use his measurements for that unbelievable cardboard Smartgunner chestplate he made. I doubt I'm going to have time to make an aluminum one before the con, hehe

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

Anyone know of other sites that have OD flak vests or their shells?

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I see them on eBay all the time, but the prices are usually pretty ridiculous - had one guy in particular tell me he wanted $500 USD for his. The link I posted above is the most reliable source I've been able to find.

It took me a while to get mine... best of luck to you :/

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

I got a good Brit vest myself for pretty much a steal compared to the other prices.

Profiler just can't find one... OD, brit, nam, etc that stays in a decent range on eBay.

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I second the pilot emotion. That's what Ang does when she Marines it up.

I've suggested pilot many times...

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Thank you for the input all. I might try that sight I'm just worried about the size they have. Best they have is a Med and I probably need a Large. Since I've worn AdonisSniper's vest and its a Med but a bit small on me.

Dropship is another option I'm looking at as well. I'm just trying to not spend money at the momment I don't have due to other projects. I also want to use the armor parts I'm getting from SPAT as well. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I've got about five weeks to go.

Profiler,
How small was the Med. I might be convinced to let my XL go for a decent price to help out a marine. Let me know if you are interested.

WG

Another idea you could try - android. I have yet to see one on this board, should be pretty easy if you can get a navy blue jumpsuit and the patches.

But if you do get a flak vest, for heavens sake, take out the flak insert! Those vests with insert weigh a ton and will kill you after a few hours at D con. I should know, I found out the hard way.

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"Awww, someone tell me that's a boot!

It's a boot!"

III drops

Haha, no joke! My vest is currently gutted on the floor of my bedroom, waiting for me to get paid again so I can go get something to fill it with. I'm thinking 3/4" closed-cell foam, or something of that nature.

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

Where do you get 3/4th foam?

I tried Joann's and Michael's and Wal-Mart type stores... only found 1 inch thick and found it too thick and oddly bulky looking.

So yeah, went with a better liner.

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If worse case senerio buy the 1" and cut it with a table saw. It works well but makes quite the mess. Or you could use a hot knife to cut it, make sure to buy the kind thats made without CFCs, and do it in a well ventilated area cause that makes one hell of a stink.

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If you accept pocket lint as a currency well I'll take it all!

Hey Profiler --

Much like your current situation, I definitely did my very first DragonCon on the quick and dirty -- and relatively cheap too.

Here's the cardboard smartgunner chestplate I did (which Outcry27 referenced above) for a quick and cheap smartgunner outfit in 2005:


It originally started out as the dry-run template from which I was going to build my sheet aluminum one from -- but I ran out of time and was forced to actually build the template and paint it to wear.

Here's my "poor man's" smartgunner load out...


All in all everything took about 7 days to build -- mostly due to the smartgun. Rather plain, but good enough to hang with the boys! I didn't even have a correct set of BDU pants. You can just barely see my $7.99 off-the-shelf headset and thriftstore shoulder lamp build-up in the above photo. I think the freehand smartgun alone was more than a sufficient attention grabber.

Before:


After:


And here's what I used for the shoulder lamp...


...and the final product:


I had purchased nearly everything needed to build the Steadicam arm assembly... but again, ran out of time. If I had started a week earlier it would have definitely been done in time.

And contrary to Rex's flattering embellishment of my aluminum armour build in 2006, it took about 2 days (not 4 hours) from start to finish once I had all the materials:

Start...


...to finish:


That build wasn't entirely cheap though. I'm thinking it cost between $100 and $150 in materials including all of the webbing, helmet, resin/fiberglass bits, and misc.

You have almost exactly a month before DragonCon, you have plenty of time as long as you begin your material shopping now and finish within a week or so.

I personally cheated a little this year for DragonCon and picked up a full set of fiberglass armour -- but it needs a complete build and paint job. Thankfully I already have everything else I need to complete it.

The Dropship pilot would definitely be another great alternative, with really only the helmet being the wildcard. I've seen them sell on eBay with extreme regularity for as cheap as $90, but I also happen to have a somewhat local military surplus store that has sold them in the past for $125. Military jumpsuits are easy to find, and usually run about $30.

I still love Joe's "just woke up from Hypersleep" look -- and hella cheap too!

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Rick "Ripstick"
A03/TQ3.0.12142E1

Oh yeah...

And for Outcry27 and all others interested, here are the dimensions of the template I used for the smartgunner chestplate:


Click on the image above to view a larger image (1.8Mb).

Jesse gave me these dimensions which I believe came from his chestplate -- although I thought they translated a little on the small side. Unfortunately Jesse couldn't make it to DragonCon last year so I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison.

One final note... I had used double-corrugated cardboard from an old HP computer monitor shipping box.

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Rick "Ripstick"
A03/TQ3.0.12142E1

Mmm, Brandi....

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Gormans Officer impression was something of a modified modern "Class C" dress uniform. In todays modern Marine Corps the enlisted have the same uniform, except a different cover (hat.) So with this in mind the Enlisted of the "Aliens" universe probably have a uniform very much the same as Gormans. So with your senerio, if you want, remove the LT bars, run down to your local army surplus and buy some enlisted army (stay away from PFC) cheverons (needs to be black) and put em on the uniform in a USCM manner. Boom enlisted Marine.......

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If you accept pocket lint as a currency well I'll take it all!

Since he's out of town right now...

Profiler wasn't talking about doing the Charlies, but rather Gorman's grand OD combat bdus as he cowered in the APC.

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oops

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If you accept pocket lint as a currency well I'll take it all!