Friday, April 1, 2011

High speed, low drag or just lazy?

Today, I'm setting the Wayback Machine to 2008 and digging some photos out of my files. In this case, a couple "bashes" I did of my character, Col. J.D. Wallace, in some variations on a theme. I often tend to go a bit light on the "battle rattle" with my figures, preferring them to not be so piled down with every possible piece of gear. I've never decided if this is because of personal aesthetics or just laziness.

First up, a version I did early in the year with J.D. in desert camo, carrying an SR25 7.62mm sniper rifle.

Next, my first attempt to create a somewhat "standard" uniform for my fictional military unit, Call Sign: Wyvern.

The second version was inspired both by my local Sheriff's Dept. SWAT team and some photos I'd seen of the then-current combat between Georgian and Russian forces. Just my opinion but I feel the USMC has the most effective of the current camouflage uniforms used by US forces, so I bought a number of set of these MARPAT utilities for my guys. The other gear was chosen to distinguish them from real US Marines and suggest a somewhat "foreign" look.

Oddly, I've encountered a bit of grumpiness towards the Wyvern members in their Woodland MARPAT uniforms. I've explained that both police and foreign militaries use a commercial version of this uniform and that, along with its actual effectiveness as a camouflage, was what inspired me. Still, I'll get some grumbling at certain 1/6 scale boards to the effect that they aren't "accurate Marines". Duh! Really?

At this point, I've decided that J.D. and his team will simply wear what uniforms they find appropriate for a particular mission. They wear both MARPAT and older Woodland (BDU) camo, as well as other patterns as needed.