Those 'exceptional' photos we all dread.....

Dunno if reenactors have the RIGHT to moan! Have you seen the new SOF catalogue cover? What a shower of s**t!

It all goes back to the fact that squaddies will always try to get their hands on gucci kit, are inveterate souvenir hunters AND will wear their kit in combat pretty much any way they want.

No Pete the coverof the catalogue is *exactly why* i posed this question.

One of the guys has his chinstrap fastened on top of his helmet like 'ginger' Tierney of the borders regiments mortar platoon did at oosterbeck.

Thing is I remember reading that the reason hes the only guy in any of the photos doing this is because he had a huge boil on his chin and couldnt fasten it up.

So my assumption is that this guy has copied his 'look' from the photo of tierney without knowing why it was done that way.

I've not seen anyone else wear their chinstrap in that fashion.

Well the re-enactor fabs that result from pictures or from unscrupled companies selling fake items are what get my goat.

M1944 Goggles.....No they did not appear in the ETO until very late. Earliest pictures of these things in combat I have seen are on a Chaffee Tank Crew in Italy, March 1945.

Shoulderpocket on M42 Jumpsuits....there's too many of them running around.

M1942 Camouflage HBT caps as sold by SOF and a few others. These were rigger-made items. And there are only 3 or so pictures of these in use by one unit in the Philippines! STAY AWAY! ATF makes them but warns you that they are FARB.

M1942 Camouflage Jump Suit...extremely rare item I fear they'll be popping up all over the place now that they are being offered. Features on the cover of a uniform magazine as posted in another topic.

US toolbags/toiletbags. Thick khaki material handbag with bright brass zippers.....no such thing to be found in any TO&E.

Khaki T-shirts, printed with 1943 on the chest...
ffs wear a sleeveless summer shirt if you have to.

White PT-shirts worn combat in the ETO. Hahahaha.

I'd rather stick to the norm then the exception

Of course, going around pointing out the mistakes in others turns you into a stitch-nazi....

Pointing out these mistakes also makes newbies like me think twice about joining the ww2 scene, lots of people are on tight budgets and try to get the best they can, we are not all in the position to ''get the original kit'' this doesn't seem to me what CIA is all about, I wish I had money to spend but I will do my best and hope I pass Muster when I play, like everything it all takes time.
Remember we all started somewhere

I think you're missing the point... which is, to create impressions that follow these exceptional photos actually takes MORE money and time than to do it right...

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick here Taffy. Gadge is talking about re-enactors as opposed to airsofters. Mention to a re-enactor that you play WWII airsoft and you will often get a sly smile and a load of remarks about toy guns, farby kit, letting women play (!), etc. etc. In fact many of them generally consider themselves really rather special. The previous posts aren't meant to knock that standards of anyone's kit here - as you rightly point out, this is not what CIA is about - instead it's just having some fun stitch counting the stitch counters (personally I've got absolutley no idea what they're on about half the time )

Pointing out these mistakes also makes newbies like me think twice about joining the ww2 scene, lots of people are on tight budgets and try to get the best they can, we are not all in the position to ''get the original kit'' this doesn't seem to me what CIA is all about, I wish I had money to spend but I will do my best and hope I pass Muster when I play, like everything it all takes time.
Remember we all started somewhere

Maybe this kind of discussion should have it's own sub-forum? So those of us who want to post about this and the right/wrong impression looks, don't scare off new members that are just starting out, deciding what they want to buy and so on?

I suspect for someone totally new and trying to digest the information on this forum/minimum kit/weapons list and the kit guides may get confused.

It is personal choice to move away from CiA minimum kit/weapons list and venture forward in creating a character/impression of their own.The additional kit guides have been produced to suggest a path someone may want to go down and which suppliers are recommended.

I would hate to be in a situation that the enthusiasm of players pushes away new or potential players thinking they have to re-mortgage their homes to be included in play.

Sometimes certain threads can be read that way even if that's not the case

Thank god I got it wrong being new to this sort of game it is a bit daunting to say the least as there is so much to learn, I always try and do as best I can at everything and being a site owner makes you try a lot harder So I can wear my American SoF stuff and pink too-too and not get laughed at to much

Back to the pictures....shame I can't post'm from work.

A group of men being evacuated back to england. One is wearing a helmet cover cut from camouflaged parachute material.

A caption under a photo in a French book about the Normandy Landings wrongly identifies a MG-crew as men from the 82nd Airborne. They are wearing camouflage HBTs. More likely they are men from the 82nd Recon Battalion from the 2nd Armored Division and this got lost in translation. Good thing I haven't seen any 82nd AB guys in Camos yet

What is it with me and camouflage?

So I can wear my American SoF stuff and pink too-too and not get laughed at to much

If you do the research you can't go far wrong.
Though I have yet to see the Pink too-too regiment in action.

funnly enough I've found this picture in a book...-- attachment is not available --

funnly enough I've found this picture in a book...

Thank god I got it wrong being new to this sort of game it is a bit daunting to say the least as there is so much to learn,

Like everyone's said, you can turn up at a CiA game in an appropriate coloured boilersuit, armed with an AK if that's all you've got, and you'll be enthusiastically and happily recieved into the ww2 fold!

This thread is really nothing to do with that, like Del said, it's more aimed at some of us that have more money than sense and want to take it to the next level of, um, accuracy, i suppose, though that's not really the right word i'm looking for.

undoubtedly wearing a drop-leg with a luger *is* accurate, as there's a real photo of someone wearing it. However, when you get half a dozen people all doing it because of the one photo, it's innacurate, as the photo was undoubtedly taken because it was so extra-ordinary. No doubt the photographer chose to ignore the other couple of dozen soldiers dressed identically that passed in front of him before Capt Killick passed, precisely *because* they all looked the same, and that's really the impression that as groups we should be aiming for, the usual, rather than the maverick, or extra-ordinary set of kit.

A quick example: Monty wore 2 cap badges, yet no-one else did, it was purely a unique affectation. However, If we only went on photos alone without the back-story, we'd all be wearing 2 badges!

and a tu-tu, though that might only be Gadge...

funnly enough I've found this picture in a book...

Just goes to prove Gadge's point - a photo of one paratrooper wearing a tutu doesn't mean the the entire division wore them. Well, the 101st did obviously, but not all the PIRs.

Glad the point of the thread is established now.

Yeah its not about being a stitch nazi its about how difficult the occasional very popular photo of exceptional stuff can make finding out what was really used was.

Most photos are staged in WWII, they are there to show smart cool kit and organised looking troops.

Take the windproof suit for example, *everyone* in the 52nd lowland div got one but i can think of perhaps three photos off hand showing troops wearing it.

A few photos show SAS troopers wearing them so post war they have become 'sas smocks' which just isnt the case.

Troops in BD with an array of national insignia make much better PR shots.

As i've discussed on the re-enacting boards as a kid i thought *this*:

Was how USMC looked in the pacific as it was the illustration in a school library WWII book.

Now not only is he wearing the ultra rare camo para uniform but hes got 'vietnam' style face paint that i;'ve *never* seen done in WWII other than on this picture.

I thought my tutu was an original but that fella beat me to it

Just found this one and never seen this pic before.

Apart from the guy with the snipers sling anyone else notice the unusual kit on them ?

US Jump boots and US torches also looks like the guy on the right has his etool and cover on the inside of his small pack ?

Top marks, i didnt even notice the e-tool in the pack.

God that *is* unusual.