British Officers Straps

If they didn't have pouches, then the only way of attaching them to the front of the belt, is with an extension piece like this:

You will then not need "extra long" straps.

Yep called 'brace extenders' and in reality rarely worn by airborne officers or any officer inthe field who actually had to carry stuff as a basic pouch can carry you binos but your bino pouch can carry binos and little else if you get me....

Somewhat common to see a 'half and half' set up when a pistol was desired using one extender and one basic pouch (its also a great set up for airsoft and one i prefer if doing an impression where it's feasable)

G

It's also about how 'historical' you want to be.

An officer certainly would have them as would some other roles where the capacity to carry bren ammo (which is *basically* the entire purpose of the basic pouches.. to keep the LMG fed).. senior NCOs could obtain them but the chances of your average Tom 1) getting a set and 2) getting past the RSM with them are close to non existant.

An interesting use of them was by French and Belgian SAS units, if you put them on your belt upside down you can suspend a pistol holster off them and make it 'drop leg'.

Personally unless I'm going the whole hog on a full officers set of webbing I won use them as if you've just got a pistol on your belt you may as well just have belt kit. My SAS belt kit it a pistol, mp40 pouch and a drivers MT pouch for extra bits of kit. Thats works well but you need to make sure it doesnt unclip itself!

If i've got all this on I need em

It all works like this, they are a pig to fix on at times thoug

But tbh, for airsoft, given that I pretty much *never* have a need for binos, a compass or spare revolvr ammo... this is more practical

Second from the right the 'half and half' approach

Or even more useful given that basic pouches are frankly *rubbish* for sten and thompson mags and a pig to close one handed....

Thanks chaps,i know that movies are not always the best place to look how a kit goes but Sean Connery looked the part as he always does

I usually skirmish with 2 MKIIIs and a holster, like this:-- attachment is not available --

I've seen two or three photos of that set up but it's nearly always bren gunners deployed in urban areas(Rome and Arnhem are two that spring to mind and the third pic i can recall is Oxf and Bucks training for Pegasus Bridge)

Being a bit more "prosperous" than most squaddies, It's easier for me to reach behind the right pouch, than around the left.

I usually skirmish with 2 MKIIIs and a holster, like this:

Nice kit btw but desperately in need of blancoing! I just redid my officers set with shoot and scoots liquid blanco (watered down with about 1/5 ish water) and its a good result - especially as I've seen some chancing trader asking £30 a puck for original blanco (means I'll be keeping the mint puck as is for a while and keeping the half a puck in a tin in my 'cleaning kit' unused as well!)

Used to be a fiver not long ago..

Nice kit btw but desperately in need of blancoing!

Thanks. Indeed. It's on my "tuit list" - I have a bottle of the SnS blanco, and some brushes. Is the thinning needed for unblancoed?

You can put the stuff on new webbing 'undiluted' but i personally think its far too thick.

I used to do real blanco on new and old webbing by breaking it into its component parts and removing all brasses that could be removed and then soaking it in warm water... then i'd use the jack knife to shave off blanco as powder loosely over the webbing... then with an old toothbrush or tint brush work it into a 'paint' and into the weave.

The constistancy it used togo was 'full cream milk' if that makes sense whereas warrens stuff out the bottle is closer to cream and i found it doesnt go into the weave well.

Normally you see you can brush excess blanco off with a clothes brush but the S&S stuff stays firmly on so if you put too much on you're shagged... better to start off weak and if its no good make the mix thicker IMO

After that if you're going to sort you brasses out I'd advise using brasso wadding rather than the liquid as brasso really messes up blanco (the genuine stuff) and to a much lesser degree it messes up warrens stuff too... any brasso you get on the blanco causes it to go white! You could *not* clean your brasses but they do look odd green.

The good news is that i found warrens stuff can be painted over the 'white' spots and it covers then up whereas real blanco take forever to cover up mistakes.

If you have one use a button stick where you can and with buckles you cant remove that have web in the middle get some grease proof paper and weave it between the buckle to protect the blancoed stuff.

This is a set done with original KG3 blanco, the set i've just done is pretty much exactly the same with warrens liquid

I usually skirmish with 2 MKIIIs and a holster, like this:

Nice kit btw but desperately in need of blancoing! I just redid my officers set with shoot and scoots liquid blanco (watered down with about 1/5 ish water) and its a good result - especially as I've seen some chancing trader asking £30 a puck for original blanco (means I'll be keeping the mint puck as is for a while and keeping the half a puck in a tin in my 'cleaning kit' unused as well!)

Used to be a fiver not long ago..

Sorry but just to be clear is that 1 part blanco with 5parts water or visa versa?

Cheers
Cad

Just add a little water - Warren's stuff is very economical but it would be the bargain of the century if it could be extended to five times its volume!

Here is my test on Warren's stuff (I have his latest version under test at the moment). If you don't dilute it (and I didn't) then make sure it is worked out well into the weave to avoid caking (just as with any post-war paste or liquid type 'blanco') - Gadge's dilution trick makes caking less likely but you may find a second application is needed. Better that than trying to remove the stuff though.
http://www.blancoandbull.com/repro-blanco/shoot-scoot-kg3-repro/

By the way, Warren's own recommendation is to apply the product as-is to damp webbing to aid even coverage. Not a bad idea, especially as you should wash your webbing to remove dirt and grease prior to Blanco application - 'unissued' webbing might look clean but it has spent 40-70 years in storage somewhere. Easy to do, lob in the whole kit into the washing machine on a cotton wash at 40 or 60 degrees and fastest spin dry. Its a bit noisy so you might want to wait until the washing machine owner has popped out to the shops. Don't tumble dry it though - let it dry out a bit, perhaps packing pouches out with newspaper to 'set' a good shape, and when just damp apply liquid blanco.

Good stuff CW

Now all the site needs is a solution to the 'whitening' effect of brasso!

Agreed, sound advice C-W.
Real blanco goes on wetted webbing much better than dry. It takes less effort which always pleases me.

Thank you CW

Cad

Good stuff CW
Now all the site needs is a solution to the 'whitening' effect of brasso!

Funny you should say that - I am planning a side-by-side test on brass cleaning products. It will cover not only the efficacy and ease of removing tarnish but longevity of shine and interaction with blanco.

It's long overdue - get cracking, lad!

Just saw this photo cheers chaps

Good stuff CW

Now all the site needs is a solution to the 'whitening' effect of brasso!

I've usually found that just a little bit of spittle rubbed into the white gets it off.

But the real trick is to ensure that no brasso gets on in the first place, for that I use a button stick AND a cloth wrapped around the brasses to ensure that all the blancoed webbing is covered up before applying the brasso and rubbing it off.