Quartermasters Stores - Your kit queries here.

As regards price (in case anybody's interested), it works out about £20 more expensive than SoF - but I believe it is better quality.

More a CPR post than a necropost

More importantly it seems pantherstore BD is the right cut. SOF BD always was cut badly/wrong but they may have changed it.

MY sof blouse is less than ideal compared to my warhorse one that looks like an original.

I've just tried my TM Thompson mags in the bandolier and they actually fit better than the Sten mags!

Promising.

Further question, where is the best place to get said bandolier. I've only seen SoF's £50 offering.

You can get cheaper Indian made ones from "All Made Ups" which look okay-ish, deffinatly not re-enator quality in my eyes. These can vary in price from £50 down to £18, depending on where you buy it from.

Warren sells 'em too: http://www.shootnscoot.co.uk/sten-gun-bandoleer-reproduction

And so do Fabricators: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Sten-Seven-Pocket-Magazine-Bandoleer-Reproduction-/110613069847?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c10d8017

And so do Fabricators: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Sten-Seven-Pocket-Magazine-Bandoleer-Reproduction-/110613069847?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c10d8017

When I got mine from there I got stung for tax and handling charges which bumped the price up considerably

Has anyone ever seen one of these blanco'd? Or done it themselves?

They shouldn't be blancoed.

I've never seen a blancoed one.

Sten bandoliers came from company stores, they were issued out for a task and taken back in again afterwards. They were not an item of personal issue.

Stores items *should* never have been blancoed, only your personal kit issued to you.

Some is and crops up but who knows why? Mayber the previous owner was a re-enactor who didnt know better, mayber some over zealous CSM ordered all stores items blancoed.

But as rule, blancoing is a pain in the bum exercise designed to take up soldiers time, nobody would blanco something they didnt have to (and equally risk being on a charge for wrecking kings property).... so sten bandoliers, like bren ancillary pouches, bren valises, rifle slings and all that stay raw.

The only reason to blanco this bandolier would be for camouflage. It is a big lump of beige other wise. There is at least one poss two that are blancoed in the Pegasus Memorial Museum, memory fails on the number
It strikes me as foolish to blanco all webbing, black the face and hands then hang 2 foot square of bright yellow around your neck.

As foolish perhaps of doing all the above camouflage and then wearing consipcuous maroon berets.... something of a tradition of airborne forces.

Not really done in the assault phase of a mission?
Certainly not done on Pegasus bridge coup de main, helmets and camo were the order of the day.
If you are pulling a spare or replacement out of a drop canister, I would wholly expect that to be un-blancoed.
If you are a section commander or 2ic issued a Mk5, I think you would improve your chances with a spot of blanco.
You dont see them in use very much. Six mags in the basic pouch is more common.

There seems annecdotal evidenc of the beret being worn specifically in the assault actually and the steel helmet being worn primarlyly in the defenisve.

Partly due to esprit de corp and partly due to sound theory that in an assault you're signifacantly less likely to take mortar/arty fire (the enemy is generally reticent to shell its own position) and a steel helmet is as good as a beret versues 7.92.

If you watch 'theirs is the glory' there is a fair mix of helmets and berets in various circumstances of the battle 're-enactment', given its a very gung ho propaganda film to a degree but we are talking about *veterans* here re-enacting their own experiences. There are one or two guys in assaults with face veils wrapped bandanna style over their maroon berets but most dont bother. If it were *purely* PR i'd expect them to have not even bothered with this detail

In the falklands 2 para conduct some assaults in berets to aid FVF recognition at night so its not an incredible action.

While it defies logic *not* to blacno a 2foot by 1 foot patch of sand webbing across ones chest... ten years of reading/watching/listening to accounts of 1st airbornes exploits would make me firmly believe that most chaps *didnt* blanco it.

Essentially it was a disposable piece of assault equipment designed to allow you to drop and meet the FUP with an additional 6 mags.

Logic Vs the British Army ... no contest the Army wins every time.

So I have a large piece of hessian, possible to make a helmet cover out of it? Just cut a circle big enough of it and stick it under my helmet net?

Yes completely possible to make a helmet cover in that way.

That is exactly what I've done for Crete, except it is the hessian helmet cover off my postwar Mark V (also held in place with a helmet net). It is a big big but I've just tucked the ends up around the liner.

Cheers
Martin

Mark V or Mark VII (not the lightweight) gas mask bag for a commando-kit with a sten?

To be honest I don't often think of commandos and gas masks together at all.

But really it depends on the when and where... As commandos, almost anything is possible.

I also tend to think of Commandos with Thompson not Stens.

As Yith say, anything is possible, but it partly depends if you are thinking of raids or more lengthy operations like D-Day or Walcheren Island.

Cheers
Martin

I also tend to think of Commandos with Thompson not Stens.

They used both. Initially Toms, later increasingly switching to Stens as production wound up.

The guys with Stens in that photo are Airborne I think. They look like Mk.V and airborne helmets.
Nice example of a blanched sten bandolier.