Airsoft Action 04 - Xmas 2011 | Page 82

Shirt’ although (privately purchased) hiking shirts and ‘Norgie’ Norwegian army shirts were also popular at the time. Our soldier’s headdress marks him out as a member of a light infantry or rifles unit as he wears the Rifle Green beret (with the fictional Royal Union Rifles cap badge). Such berets are typical of the post-WWII British Army. Other headwear suitable for soldiering (and also for skirmishing) includes the DPM ‘crap hat’ patrol cap, green or black wool caps and the aforementioned MKV steel helmet. The helmet was a final version of the MKIII ‘turtle’ helmet worn by D-Day assault troops – but by the 1980s it had evolved to include a far more comfortable liner. Typically (as on last month’s front cover) the helmet would be covered with a sand bag (to reduce shine) and then a camouflage net, liberally topped with strips of material to break up the distinctive head and shoulders shape. The boots and puttees are also of WWII design. The Direct Molded Sole (or DMS) boot was still very poor by 1980s standards, despite having a rubber sole instead of the previous hobnailed leather. The DMS boot didn’t allow water to drain from it – the result was that many soldiers received incapacitating foot injuries. There was even instances of trench foot in the Falklands – the problem was so dire that many men bought their own boots. The puttees are designed to prevent debris entering the boot tops and provide ankle support, but this antiquated WWI idea was entirely unsuited to modern warfare as it took far too long to put them on properly! Carrying our model’s skirmishing kit is the 1958 pattern webbing. This is a fairly solid and workable design, although it KIT LIST Hat: Rifle Green beret, around £5 (most surplus stores) Jacket: SAS windproof smock, around £30-£100 (regular 68 pattern smocks are around £10 at most surplus stores) Trousers: 68 pattern DPM trousers, £7 (Jay Jays Surplus, Sheffield) Shirt: Olive green GS shirt, £3 (Anchor Surplus, Nottingham) Webbing: 58 pattern webbing, £30 (various sources but mostly Sabre Sales, Portsmouth and Anchor Surplus, Notts) Boots: DMS ammo boots, around £10-£20 (most surplus stores) Rifle: STAR L1A1 SLR, around £350 082 Xmas 2011 became heavy and pouches shrunk when wet. Made of heavy duty woven canvas, the basic set carried all a soldier’s food, water and ammo for 24 hours. Attached to this set are a respirator bag (great for keeping pistol gas or using as a dump pouch) and the rare 58 pattern pistol holster – few soldiers carried this on their webbing for real, but for airsofting it is a sensible and fitting addition. Lastly, we come to the classic SLR rifle. The SLR was a powerful variant of the FN FAL rifle, used by nearly every other NATO army as the standard western small arm. Capable of shooting at great ranges, the British Army had its rifles modified to fire on semiautomatic only, putting greater emphasis on marksmanship and fire discipline than on wild automatic fire – a sound decision given the FN FAL near-uncontrollability when firing the ’s hefty 7 .62mm round on full-auto! For the airsoft BAOR Infantry of the 80s look the SLR is the best bet, but unfortunately airsoft versions are becoming harder to find at sensible prices. Other small arms of the BAOR available as airsoft replicas include the Browning 9mm pistol, the GPMG machine gun and the L4 LMG(a modified WWII Bren). At the present moment the classic Sterling SMG used by the British Army is unavailable as an airsoft model, but you’ll find that many players use the excellent and easy to source WWII Sten as a subst itute. Next month: The East German Nationale Volksarmee – the last Prussian Army. ■