Some impressions of complete uniforms

[michelwijnand]

It's been a while since my last post, I had some startup problems after my holiday, as lots of funds had to be pumped into my car that broke down mid-vacation, and some other things too, but now I am back with another Serbian Krajina paramilitary impression, with the following items:

Krajina made Narrow Green Tigerstripe Jacket
2-Color experimental Tigerstripe Pants
Grey Cloth Beret with Serbian Flag Insignia
US PASGT Body Armor that has been modified with M93 Camo Magazine Pouches




I have never seen such 2-color camo before, these pants are made in Belgrade, but as lots of strange patterns turn up in the Krajina, I thought these could be used for that as well

If the mail hurries up, I will have another Russian and Serbian impression waiting too!

Cheers,
Michel

[Ralph P]

Thanks for your latest update. Sorry to read that your car took some money from you.

I find the modified US body armor interesting, thanks for posting it.

[michelwijnand]

Haha yes a rock went straight through the radiator, so we were stuck in the outskirts of Munich for a few days too.

The US vest is quite a fun thing, when it was offered for a very low price I had no choice but to buy it
Someone had quite a bit of work on it, as the pouches are first sewn onto a grey fabric base, and then stitched all the way through the armor, and also the velcro closure of the front has been replaced.

I also have another 2 Soviet Vest I like to post here, the khaki one is a Kora-2, which has almost no armor as is, but requires overlapping steel plates of various forms for any sort resistance.
The grey one is the one I like the most, a fully plated BZh-SN Armor, the markings have been worn off, but I've seen these dated 1991-93, and it has quite a number of steel plates (Last 2 Pics) in addition to some soft armor.
These Armors appear in pictures of Spetsnaz in the 1993 Moscow crisis, as seen on the 2 pics I posted in post 187






Cheers,
Michel

[michelwijnand]

Oh and here's another one I sorta forgot.

Republike Srpska Uniform, with:

Green Tigerstripe Winter Jacket with fur Liner
4-Color Green Tigerstripe Trousers (Normal Tigerstripe is 3-color)
Dark Blue Beret with Serbian Insignia
Paramilitary style M93 Camo Vest
3 colored Strips of Fabric for Friend-Foe Identification, I saw the white one used most in photos, so that one's strapped to the shoulder-loop, these were in a pocket of the vest




Cheers,
Michel

[Ralph P]

Michel - Thanks very much for showing the additional photos of the plates...very interesting to see. It must be weighted.

As for the vest...it appears to be very snug, especially seeing how the ammo pouches are designed.

[panzerwerk]

Some Great stuff !!! What a Collection !!

[michelwijnand]

Thanks, I'm doing my best to make it even bigger still

And about the armor, I thought the same when I saw the pics of the plates from the seller, the complete vest is still 11,5 kilos, nowhere near the Croatian vest that holds the record in my collection, with 22 kilos!
The BZh-SN is also quite comfortable to wear, as the plates slide behind eachother when the vest needs to bend, only the plates in the groin-protection part sometimes bend into an unfortunate direction

And I assume you mean the M93 vest with the snug vest comment?
Its actually quite a big vest, there are 2 elasticised parts under the armpits to keep the vest a bit tighter, and a belt can be worn to make the bottom part tighter, but it doesn't have the waist tightening straps with buckles, that some of my tigerstripe versions have, but it works well over a winter uniform like this!

Cheers,
Michel

[michelwijnand]

Here's a new Russian one again, 2nd (maybe even 1st) Chechen War MVD.
With:

Splav M3 Les Camo Winter Jacket
Splav Utoplonniye Les Camo Winter Trousers
NPO-SM Reed Camo Shtorm-1 Vest
NPO-SM Reed Cap

Funny thing is that the jacket is made of cotton-like material, and the trousers of synthetic material, that seems quite waterproof.

I am not entirely sure if the uniform was already made during the 1st Chechen War, I know the vest and cap were though.
I do have a Les summer set in the mail, which is dated 1996 according to the seller, so Les was made, but I don't know what model jackets and trousers were made.




My reference pic, though he has a Urban Kamysh rain jacket over his winter jacket, the vest and trousers are the exact same as mine:


If the mail hurries up a bit, I will have 2 more Russians, 1 more Bosnian, and maybe yet another Serbian impression coming up

I also bought a very special Russian vest, which I wil also make into an impression sometime, but I will need a few quite hard to find items, like 1st pattern VDV TTsKO summer trousers.
I will post pics of the vest (and many many plates) whenever it arrives from Ukraine.

Cheers,
Michel

[michelwijnand]

More 2nd Chechen War, OMON/MVD, I think more OMON, with:

Splav Delta Winter Jacket in Gorod Camo, which is in this case mirrored Urban SMK Camo
Splav Utoplonniye Winter Pants in Gorod Camo (same as above)
NPO-SM Reed Camo Kaskad-2 Vest
NPO-SM Urban Light SMK Cap




Inspirational Pic, though the uniform is from a different brand, and the vest is the slightly different Shadow-U Vest:


Anyone here needs an Urban SMK cap like the one I posted a while back? I have 1 left over, with a slight cut due to customs opening the package wrong...

Cheers,
Michel

[michelwijnand]

Serbian Chetnik type impression, with:

Green JNA Officer Uniform
Woodland M65 Style Jacket with Serbian Emblem
Chetnik Sajkaca Cap with Serbian Embroidery
US Style Belt
Modified M70 Magazine Pouch
Leather Double Grenade Pouch
Small Bottle in a Tigerstripe Pouch (For alcohol or whatever?)




The insignia on the Sajkaca are a bit weird, there are only 3 C's instead of the usual 4, both on the front and the top, anyone have an idea about why that would be?



Oh and that Bosnian vest is a prelude for an impression I hope to have finished soon

Cheers,
Michel

[michelwijnand]

Russian MVD Spetsnaz, could be either 1st or 2nd Chechen war era, as all these items are from 1996 or earlier.
The Les uniform is dated 1996, with a military stamp, instead of standard Splav stamps.
The tactical vest is probably a very early version (or trial vest) of the Armocom SK-SA-P, and on a paper guide that was with the vest it says: Zhilet Boevoj SV KRAG.305218.001, maybe the name is in there somewhere.
The vest camouflage is a very dark green version of SMK camouflage, with the dark colors now being the light colors, and the other way around.

With:
M21 (M88) Les Camo Uniform
Dark Green SMK Camo Tactical Vest
BZh-SN Body Armor
TTsKO Beret (Probably soldier made)




Partial reference:



Cheers,
Michel

[Ralph P]

Michel - Sorry for being absentee from your thread, out of town the last few days.

Your last post about the Armocom SK-SA-P vest is very interesting to see and I want to say thanks for posting it. I have not seen this one before.

[michelwijnand]

Haha no problem, everybody posts in their own time right? I have now been absent for a while too :P

I really lucked out with the unknown model vest, it was advertised as Bulgarian, but it somehow felt Russian to me, I really hope to find that SK-SA-P sometime too, as it's quite an awesome thing, I've only seen it worn in 2 photos yet.

And here is another new impression, though I'm not 100% sure if it should be called a MorPeh, or MVD impression, but I'm hanging a bit more towards MVD, because of the Kora-2 armor and Urban Reed vest.

Gear:
M88 summer TTsKO Uniform (Made in Savin 1993, arm pockets close with 1 button instead of velcro)
Khaki Kora-2 Body Armor
Urban Reed Shadow Vest made by NPO-SM
TTsKO M88 Cap (Size 56, it hurts my cranium...)
RPG Bag for 2 Rockets, to help out his mates using RPG




Here I see both TTsKO and an Urban Reed Shadow vest, though he is wearing a winter uniform, and I have the summer one:


I also have the shoulder pads that can be added to the vest, but since I almost never see those used, I took them off as well.
I used to call these vests Kaskad-1, but some evidence on Red Alliance forum showed that was a wrong name, and these vests with armor in the shoulders are actually precursors of a Reed vest called Shadow-U, oh well, many more to learn in this field

Cheers,
Michel

[michelwijnand]

Yesterday I was at the fair at Ciney in Belgium, and I found a lot of nice stuff again, including a nice armor, and also a very rare trial helmet, so I thought I'd show them here again.

The armor is a Modul-5M, made by NPO-SM, in the same light urban SMK camouflage as the "Shadow" vest a page back, this vest weighs about 11 kilos


I also took a pic of the plates, which were a pain in the butt to get back in the vest, the plates are covered in SVMT fabric (same stuff as the soft armor used 6B series vests, and many others)
The biggest ones are 6mm steel plates, the small square side plates are 2,5mm steel or titanium plates, and the medium sized square plates are like armor sandwhiches, as they have a 2,5mm steel or titanium plate on the front and back, with padding or softarmor in between, and the white stuff is padding material


And here is a quite early type of kevlar helmet called the P7-2, a 6B7 prototype, with very modified US style liner



On the pic is also a VOG rifle grenade pouch, in dark green SMK, which is part of the Armokom vest system I posted a while back, I was damn lucky to find this, now I need to find the shovel pouch

Oh and the 2 VSR pouches are a sort of trial thing too, from early 6Sh style vests, they have rubber dots pebbled all over them for some reason.

I hope to have some pics of a very nice 1970/80's Soviet impression tomorrow, the hint is 'black death"!

Cheers,
Michel

[Ralph P]

Michel - Very interesting vest and thanks for showing the plates even though a pain getting it back into the vest.

I also find it interesting in the colors of the latests vest you posted.