The Falklands 1982

[Brandon]

Well, as today marks the 30th Anniversary of the British landings at Port San Carlos, to retake the Falklands Islands, I thought id make a start at putting up my own Falklands Impressions, as a nod to all the lads that were there. This is actually my thing both in terms of airsoft & collecting (though im not a re enactor) & has been for many years now. All of the kit is of the era give or take a few things here & there. So if there's not mud or paint on some things… there never will be, as this stuff is becoming rarer & rarer!

What originally started off as simply a couple of Special Forces impressions (my main interest) developed basically into any regiment impression that I have kit for. Some are missing though, sadly, for the time being. Had I considered doing ‘all’ the land forces a while back Im sure I could have made a decent attempt in time for it. I could easily do them by simply adding insignia & berets with cap badges etc... but im not going there. Im not finished collecting though & they’re by no means definitive, theres still things on ‘the list’ to get. Where & when I can ill update in the future. But if they raise awareness of the war (or even British Cold War kit in general) into today’s Multicam/COD world, then something good has come of it. Failing that, hopefully at the least you’ll enjoy seeing the pictures.

Being really busy these days I simply couldn’t do my usual location shots with all of these pictures & I had wanted to do something a little different to the norm anyway. So I had a mate ‘edit’ the pictures to look something along the lines of an ‘Osprey’ book. The pictures themselves were actually taken in my drive way!

As the Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901 & the volunteers of the Falklands Islands Defence Force were the 1st to face the Argies when they invaded, I thought id start with them.

So here we go.

[Brandon]

Re: The Falklands 1982




Ive used a Norwegian army snow suit as seen in the reference pictures. The boots are Swedish Army ski march boots.

Norwegian Army Snow Gaiters



Firm favourites of the SAS/SBS/RMs/RM M&AWC during this time

[RM_Stu]

Re: The Falklands 1982

cracking stuff, makes me want to go down that route now....

[big smudge]

Re: The Falklands 1982

Very nice indeed, i've got my SLR on route and will be doing something similar, but mine will be just the standard set up

[Brandon]

Re: The Falklands 1982

Cheers lads, glad you like em. ill be posting more soon. The next lot will be SBS...

[WYATT666]

Re: The Falklands 1982

awesome job mate i really need to sort my SLR as its snapped the air nozzle (hens teeth anyone?) tho i need to finish my 148 impression for my group as i fancy having the power to call in some 30 mile sniper shots

[Brandon]

Re: The Falklands 1982

Cheers WYATT, nice youre doing a RM 148 Battery impression too. Very much one of the lesser known units in the conflict & kit-wise very easily gets confused as SAS/SBS.

[Brandon]

Re: The Falklands 1982

[angry pirate]

Re: The Falklands 1982

Very nice mate!

[Brandon]

Re: The Falklands 1982











Inspiration



The 1st time i saw this picture was in a book called 'War in the Falklands: The Campaign in Pictures' by the Sunday Express Magazine Team, which i stumbled across in a charity shop. The book has some cracking pictures in it, although SF fans would be disappointed as theres really only this one. I did a bit of a double take when i 1st saw this picture as the idea of bright blue gaiters whilst cam'ed up in dpm & all the rest of it seemed a bit crazy to me & its one of those things that if there were no reference picture, folk would be like '...yeah right'. You know, the old 'pictures or it didnt happen' thing.

Then i remembered that id been told by an ex SBS lad (who was 'in' at the time) that they had taken a lot of civvy kit down there. As he told me, back then a lot of the emerging civvy mountaineering/hiking companies were offering kit that was far superior than that of the issue stuff. So anyway, i liked the idea of it & had to do a rough impression of it, although i believe the guy in the picture has a gpmg that's been cam'ed white. The lad to the right with the claymore bag is what i loosely based the previous impression pictures on. You can see hes wearing the same Norwegian army snow gaiters as me.

[Brandon]

Re: The Falklands 1982










None of these pictures would be complete if an 80s 'tache didnt appear somewhere





Inspiration

[Curelin]

Re: The Falklands 1982

great work mate!!

[simon]

Re: The Falklands 1982

You need to grow that tash mate.

[big smudge]

Re: The Falklands 1982

very cool indeed keep up the great work

[simon]

Re: The Falklands 1982

Was at elvington, york at the weekend for the military vehicles show. Lots of 80's groups there. My fellow airsofters have there own british 80's ACE mobile group impersonation with landies fully kited up with SLR's, M16, GPMG's, 30cal and 50cal.