UK Loadout guide.

[Gadge]

I decided to write this to help airsofters out with brit loadouts, feel free to use for websites or whatever if you like it (but i'd appreciate a credit), i was going to submit it to airsoft magazines but thought sod it i'd just stick it up on here.

 

For reference pics see my loadout pics on this forum section under 'british loadouts'

 

I do apologise if any of this guide seems 'anti american' its not the case i only comment on the parts of American military uniform that the UK armed forces tend to find issue with and where most American airsofters might not notice the difference in approach.

 

 

Wannabe Guide: British Infantry 1995 – present.

 

The British infantryman is the epitome of professionalism and a hard look to

pull of convincingly in airsoft. Getting the look right will require a

little more smartness about ones kit than other loadouts. Here I will look

at each item of kit and the best and most ‘soldierly’ way to wear it.

 

The British army does have its own fashions and ways of wearing kit to look

more ‘Gucci’ as it is known. Aping these ‘fashions’ is the key

to looking more like a Squaddie and not like a first time player in hired

combats!

 

So without further ado we’ll start at the top.

 

 

 

Headgear:

 

Mk 6 Helmet.

 

This cumbersome bit of kit requires little modification. Always wear it

with a cover (either desert, dpm or UN blue), the only time you will see

these worn without a cover is by recruits in training. Avoid any graffiti, the only

markings on your helmet should be your surname on the band at the front and

if desired your blood type (A pos etc) on the rear of the foliage band. You

may wish to attach a broad strip of elastic from the sides of the foliage

loop above the ears to rest across the front of the helmet; this is often

done by soldiers to make wearing the helmet with a respirator and an NBC

suit more feasible and faster to don. Another nbc modification is the

attachment of a pull ring from a spent grenade to the metal fastening ring

on the helmets chinstrap making the chinstrap a looser fit when using this

ring.

 

You may find the Mk6 uncomfortable on the crown of the head, you can

alleviate this with a car washing type sponge under the crown ‘ring’ or

simply putting a soft wool cap between helmet and head (although this can

get very hot)

 

If you decide to camouflage the helmet with local foliage on site then one

should put in enough grass or whatever to tightly fill each foliage loop,

there should be little or no DPM fabric visible on a properly cammed helmet.

A few twigs here and there just looks ridiculous. Helmets are cammed as in

theory only the head should ever be visible if moving tactically and making

best use of cover.

 

If you are attempting a loadout of a senior NCO then you may wish to attach

a pair of ‘cats eyes’ on a band to your helmet, these are generally not

worn by private soldiers.

 

In general I would not recommend one of these for airsofting. Helmets are

heavy, uncomfortable and generally left behind on reconnaissance missions

similar to the scenarios found in airsoft.

 

 

Beret

 

Often the most poorly imitated and worn part of a British impression is the

essential beret.

 

Each regiment has its own peculiarities, colour and cap badge but I shall

deal with the type of beret common to many infantry regiments.

 

If you are lucky to have bought or acquired a shaped beret then you can skip

this part, if on the other hand you have bought a new and unissued beret

then read on.

 

Remove the cap badge (if it has one) from your beret and soak the beret in very hot water,

then quickly plunge it in to cold water and wring off excess water, place it

once again in hot water, squeeze the worst off then place it on your head…

Yes that’s right put it on your head, soaking wet.

 

Place the beret so that the cap badge area is over the left eye, the leather

band at the front should rest about an inch above the eyebrow, the band at

the back should be either straight level or ideally rest on the upper part

of the crown (some regiments such as the paras have a fashion to wear

headgear very low at the front and up at the rear). Pull the fabric of

the beret down on the right hand side, folded over to rest above the right

ear. You may find it useful to place a plastic ‘shaper’

behind the cap badge are to create a more pronounced ridge.

 

Wear the beret until it is dry and has shaped and moulded itself to your

particular head shape, once shaped in this way it will stay like that for

some time.

 

Finally using hot water and a normal shaving razor shave the surface of the

beret to remove any stray fibres and ‘bobbling’, then, using a cocktail

stick or similar push the ends of the ties emerging from the leather band

into the opposing sleeves of the band itself, do not leave these dangling

loosely in a ‘European’ style.

 

Cap badge should be darkened or removed for field use, some soldiers

(particualry snipers) acquire a second beret onto which is sewn a subdued

cloth version of their regimental insignia. Similarly officers may wear

cloth beret insignia.

 

Patrol Cap or ‘###### hat’

You could wear this as issued but it looks a bit ‘recruit’ and very

eighties, best worn with pull down ear flap cut out and card removed from

brim, can make wearing a MK6 more comfortable if worn below it. The ######

hat is issued to the parachute regiment before they are awarded their red

berets, hence the slightly desultory name and its unpopular status as

headwear.

 

 

 

Bush Hat

 

The issue bush hat is often seen worn with the brim cut down to be either

small or non existent, to me this defeats the object of having a bush hat.

 

The brim can be cut down to reduce the chance of a soaking wet bush hat brim

falling in ones eyes and obstructing vision, but when weighed against the

advantages of having a brim that protects you from sun and rain (as

designed) then it seems slightly pointless. Best worn as it is with little

or no modification.

 

Headover.

A cloth ‘headover’ is simply a fabric tube of elasticated material; this is

put on the head like a soft cap. To be worn smartly you should fold the top

over and tuck it into the hat by rolling the brim up above the eyebrow, the

headover then forms a ridge across the top.

 

Wool cap rolled up balaclava

 

If you need advice on how to wear this then you really do need more

specialist help than I can offer…

 

Combat Clothing and Accessories;

 

Smock.

 

There are many variations of the DPM smock, the main ones you will see will

be the early 90s pattern ‘smock temperate’, soldier 95 rip stop combat

jacket and the SAS smock.

 

All of these should be worn with button all fastened up, unfastened buttons

look sloppy and can result in important kit being lost when moving fast or

crawling. If the smock is an older type such as the SAS smock or temperate

you may wish to place small squares of either electrical tape or green

fabric tape over the button holes and thread on each button. This reduces

the chance of buttons coming off as a result of snagged or worn thread.

 

If you have a sleeve pocket with pen holding loops on your smock do not

place pens or pencils in these, should you fall or rapidly swing the arm

then you may run the risk of stabbing or piercing your arm.

 

Smocks can further be modified with the addition of sewing in woollen cuffs

to the sleeves (which comes as standard on the para smock), additionally the

pull ring from a smoke grenade can be attached to any zip fasteners on the

front of the smock to make it easier to do up with cold or gloved hands.

 

Many soldiers ‘blouse ‘the underside of the smock to make if sit higher

around the thighs and snag less. To do this simply fold the smock underneath

itself so that the draw cords at the bottom can be tied around the waist

like a belt. This should half the length of the smocks skirts, this will

make the lower pockets unusable but as these are often covered up by webbing

this is generally not an issue. A bloused smock in this way allows you to

rapidly put spent magazines down the front of your smock rather than having

to struggle to replace it in a pouch during a firefight , this is sometimes

referred to as the ‘Brecon pocket’

 

 

If the smock has a hood this should be left down, even in wet weather is

patrolling or skirmishing, wearing a hood drastically reduces your hearing

and peripheral vision, instead let you headgear protect you from rain. If

you have an SAS smock soldiers often roll the hood in and secure it by tying

the pull cords though the fabric loop at the top of the neck (see picture).

Doing this prevents the hood flapping about in bad weather or filling up

with detritus.

 

Any badges on the smock should be kept to an absolute minimum, generally,

national insignia and rank if anything. The British army is a small

professional army, all members of a regiment know each other and have no

need to display a multitude of ‘qualifications’ and proficiency badges on

their kit, believing instead in their own ability to do the job. Badges and

insignia build up an intelligence picture whenever they are spotted by and

enemy, to this end the more secretive, elite or specialist a unit you might

be attempting to portray the less badges you will see on these uniforms.

 

For example SAS soldiers rarely if ever have any distinguishing badges or

markings on their kit.

 

Anything ‘individual’ about you or your kit helps distinguish which unit is

in which theatre to the enemy, obviously this has no practical application

to airsoft but if you’re going for a convincing British forces look , one

should bear this in mind.

 

Shirts, Scarves and Scrim.

 

Scarves

 

Around your neck you may want some sort of scarf in cold weather the most

‘squaddie’ type of scarf you could go for is a shemagh (an Arabic square of

warm woven cloth) in green (or sand) and black ‘houndstooth’ pattern.

Wearing the shemagh is simple. With a smock open quite loosely at the neck,

form the shemagh into a triangle with the long point hanging down your body,

wrap the end around your neck and tie under this ‘bib’ fasten up your smock.

 

Resist the urge to use or wear ‘scrim’ this is a very 1970s British Army

affectation and hardly ever used now as it has a tendency to entangle and

snag.

 

A headover can also be worn as a form of scarf.

 

 

 

Shirts.

 

A simple green t-shirt should be worn under the smock.

 

You may wish to wear a soldier 95 or similar type shirt; I would always

recommend that you iron the sleeves to have creases on these (as well as

your trousers and possibly your smock) to have a more soldierly appearance.

 

A soldier 95 shirt worn with the sleeves rolled up should have the sleeves

neatly folded over and over until the folded section is four finger widths

above the elbow. If you play a lot in summer/hot climates, you may want to

cut off the bottom of the sleeve of a spare 95 shirt to reduce the amount of

folded cloths when the sleeves are rolled up.

 

Norwegian shirts and similar.

 

Great for the safe zone but in general too hot for skirmishing

 

Trousers.

 

Trousers should be clean and free from rips or tears with a central ironed

crease down the front and back of the leg. Wear these baggy fasten high on

the waist and bloused low over the boots. Use either trouser twisters or the

integral draw cords to blouse up the trousers. You can wear trousers bloused

high at the boot top but this doesn’t help you avoid getting your laces

snagged and looks very ‘American’

 

Don’t wear knee pads outside your trousers for the same reasons, very few

units would be allowed to get away with doing this, instead wear them

underneath your combat trousers; the baggy cut should make them virtually

unnoticeable.

 

A few years back it was very ‘fashionable’ to use the tropical pattern

trousers (distinguishable by their more prominent reds in the colours) as

these would dry out much quicker than the old issue temperate trousers due

to the high amount of plastic fibre in tropical kit. Now with the

prevalence of soldier 95 this is hardly an issue and tropicals are generally

only worn by older soldiers as a habit or affectation.

 

It has also become fashionable to wear desert trousers with a temperate

smock, this s does have the advantage of further breaking up your outline

and providing better camouflage in arid areas or dry autumn woodland but

again, very few regular units would be allowed to dress this way.

 

 

Waterproof jacket and trousers:

 

The old ‘crisp packet’ type nylon waterproofs are nearly never ever seen

nowadays. Most units now have Gore-Tex jacket and trousers. Should it be wet

enough in the field you would ideally wear the Gore-Tex jacket *underneath *

your smock to reduce the ‘rustling’ from it. If you were on a recconaisance

or fighting patrol then you would in most likely hood leave it behind, get

wet and deal with it. The comfort of being a little drier compared to the

risk of being heard is not worth it. I have rarely if ever seen the

Gore-Tex trousers worn in the field and never in the sort of attacks that we

simulate in airsoft.

 

 

Boots:

 

Issue assault boots are most common, however you will see soldiers in

extremely wet or cold climate wearing the issue pro boot. Black Jungle

boots or tan desert boots are issued in hot climates and most RSM s will

turn a blind eye to these being worn in temperate climates or on exercise.

Boots should always be clean and polished (boots being checked and cleaned

*every* day)

 

Privately purchased boots are very common as to the infantryman care of the

feet is a paramount concern, popular brands of boots are Lowa, and Altberg.

 

 

Gloves:

 

The issue NI gloves are great but a little fiddly to operate switches and

catches with, the lighter ‘gloves contact’ are superb for dexterity but do

not insulate very well at all. Many soldiers privately purchase the gloves

they feel suit them best, I personally wear Barbour shooting gloves or RAF

thin green leather pilots gloves. The old pattern Northern Ireland gloves with back of hand protective pads were once very popular but have become increasingly hard to find.

 

Webbing:

 

I was luckily enough to have a Major who gave us the directive ‘if it’s

green you can wear it but don’t take the p*ss’ with regards to kit for field

use. However most units will insist on particular types and ways of wearing

your webbing.

 

A units Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will usually require each

soldier to keep food, ammo, first aid etc in the same pouches on their

webbing so if an emergency happens your comrades are not reduced to

rummaging though your kit for that much needed hand grenade! If you are

intending to replicate a squad or section remember this.

 

Webbing:

Webbing such as PLCE should fit snugly and not move about all over the

place, Soldiers often thread a green bungee rope threaded through their

pouches to keep their webbing tightly fastened together. Your respirator

haversack should be carried separately on its shoulder strap (your nbc kit

should never leave you side and there will be times when your webbing is

off, however some units do wear the ressie bag on the belt). If like me you

have a fairly small waist then you will struggle to get all the pouches

including a ressie bag on the belt. You can alleviate this with a hip pad or

‘tab belt’ that will not only cushion your hips but add a couple of inches

to your waist size.

 

My personal webbing loadout was two ammo pouches to the front, two utility

pouches (containing essential survival, cleaning kit and some food) a water

bottle pouch used as a third utility pouch and a spade carrying pouch used

to carry a water bottle (a common variation across the army) , the spade

itself I kept in the bergan.

 

As with smock and trouser pouches all webbing should be fastened up securely

to avoid kit falling out. Some soldiers will sew elastic strips around

their webbing to aid in placing local camouflage.

 

The bayonet sleeve (or ‘frog’) can be worn either vertically of the belt or

taped horizontally across the yoke straps on the back of the webbing.

 

 

Chest rigs:

Chest rigs are often issued to soldiers engaged in helicopter and vehicle

patrols as they are much easier to sit in vehicle seats or benches with.

Many soldiers dispense with the rear cross strap entirely on their chest rig

and simply tape it up to aid speed of donning and removal.

 

Assault vests:

 

The issue assault vest (and similar copies) is fairly self explanatory,

again make sure all pouches are securely fastened and straps done up tightly

with loose ends of adjustment straps rolled up and taped together.

 

 

Belts:

 

It was at one time considered a ‘Gucci’ to use an old ‘ pattern 58 belt on

your combat trousers, possibly as this suggested you’d been about for a

while and were something of an old hand. You may occasionally see stable

belts in regimental colours on 95 trousers but this is rare in the field as

they are not that durable and in many units bright and not very 'tactical'.

All in all, no ones going to see your belt so I wouldn’t worry too much

about it…

 

Slings;

 

The issue SA80 sling works for most weapons, for an MP5 you may have to

attach an Enfield clip to the front sling section (see pic)

 

Personal cam

 

Cam cream should be applied to the face, neck, ears, hands (even if wearing

gloves) and lower forearms (in case your smock rides up while crawling)

 

To apply place some mid brown cam in your hand and spit upon it, rub this

together and then over exposed skin. This takes off the shine from the

skins natural oils and flattens the skin to a less noticeable base colour,

then with the darker brown or green cream place random streaks across the

face, making sure to apply to the ears, behind the jaw and back of the neck.

There is school of personal cam that advocates light colours to be placed in

areas of shadow (eyes etc) and dark colours to be places on prominent

exposed areas (nose, forehead etc). Personally I find a simple base with

broad streaks of a darker colour works fine. Personal cam needs to be

reapplied several times during an exercise or operation as it wears and

sweats off, a US style masterpiece of face painting is simply not practical,

you need to be able to apply it in seconds and preferably without a mirror.

In reality your ‘oppo’ (the rifleman you are buddied up with) would apply

your cam for you.

 

Under no circumstance attempt the fully painted green head US army SF look, it

takes too long, looks very un-British and shines unless you have the right sort of cam cream . Any self respecting British soldier

would be laughed out of his section to be honest, its simply not done.

 

 

 

 

Miscellaneous do and don’ts

 

 

• The beret should not be worn unless fully dressed in smock boots and

trousers, *never* wear your beret with a t-shirt only. Similarly don’t wear

a beret over a bandanna, most soldiers are immensely proud of their

regimental headgear, remember this and wear it well.

 

• Although not essential, clean and ironed kit makes you look more like a

convincing British squaddie, cleanliness is drilled into every British

soldier; wear your airsofting kit in the same way to look the part. Combats

used for exercise and operation will often have been previously ‘best’ ones

for wearing around section lines and barracks, as a result they will have

creases ironed indelibly into them, and these will not come out in a hurry

even in the field and may even have been sewn in!

 

 

• As previously mentioned tropical kit was once quite ‘fashionable’ in the

field due to its superior drying qualities, with the advent of the

lightweight and quick drying soldier 95 kit this is largely obsolete. As a

rule tropical kit was not authorised for Northern Ireland or urban

engagements where firebombs were a risk as its high plastic content would

cause it to quickly melt to casualties.

 

• In general make sure your kit is tidy and squared away, avoid random

accessories strapped to you or attached to kit, in particular never hang

grenades or the like from webbing in the style seen in war films.

[Guardsman]

very good,

 

although with the bush hat, sort of fold the top to the front.

[Kousnik]

Not bad at all!

 

There are some minor details that you've missed but its more than sutible as a basic guide.

[Lipto]

Very nice guide mate!

 

Thanks alot for the advice with making the kevlar comfyer . That little knot was killing my head

[Treadhead]

you need to get a harder head!

 

good work Gadge... good to see you're keeping up your gear guru status over there too!

[Cyber Soldier]

Also don't get the headband of your beret wet otherwise it will shring and barely fit around your wrist. (happened to a friend of mine)

[maccrage]

Excellent guide. I've been looking for something like this for quite a while. I tried looking through the SNAFU DPM thread, but its hard to find specific things in there.

[Kousnik]

Just to mention a few things I was talking about...

 

Shirts untucked when sleeved roled up

Failed to mention body armour

Not much in the way of desert camouflage varients

 

There were a couple other things but, yeah, not bad.

[ColDaz]

Minor niggle: It's no longer called NBC but rather CBRN now, R being Radiological.

 

Also, nothing should be worn under the helmet (such as woolies or caps as you mention).

 

Nice one, anyway.

[1st Commando]

ahh Gadge strikes out with his superb essential guide

 

nice to see you visit over here too

[Gadge]

Just to mention a few things I was talking about...

 

Shirts untucked when sleeved roled up

Failed to mention body armour

Not much in the way of desert camouflage varients

 

There were a couple other things but, yeah, not bad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Depends when you're wearing 95, i've worn the shirt tucked in with rolled sleeves before around lines.

 

Body armour isnt mentioned a CBA is worn under the smock or shirt and above he t-shirt level.

 

Doing so prevents having the contents of your smock punched though you should you get hit *and* means you can access pockets.

 

Desert stuff isnt mentioned as i've neither trained for desert warfare nor served in a desert theatre so i'd be talking out my bum to advise people on the way to wear it, all my knowledge is second hand from colleagues who've been over there.

 

I tried to stick to stuff i know about or had personally done

 

Edit: i also didnt mention NBC/CNBR as i think you'd have to be mental to *want* to wear it and wasnt going to advise anyone to go down with heat exhaustion by doing so.)

[Gadge]

Minor niggle: It's no longer called NBC but rather CBRN now, R being Radiological.

 

Also, nothing should be worn under the helmet (such as woolies or caps as you mention).

 

Nice one, anyway. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yeah i'd heard that but nobody ever stopped us doing it. I reckon it all depends on your unit.

 

I know some mates have got away with murder (not literally), colleague of mine wore a czech special forces vest for most of his Bos' tour and nobody said a word as he wasnt stupid enough to wear it around the *wrong* people.

[ColDaz]

Gotta love the mile and a half runs in full CBRN and kit.

 

Something else just occured to me; green or black softies have always been allowed in harbour areas and the like for us, but wouldn't be much use in airsoft unless you were in the safezone and really wanted to go hardcore.

[Lance Jackass]

I've allways thought that british loadouts are let down by having to wear eye protection. It just looks badly out of place, unless doing a desert loadout with V12s on the helmet and 2.4s worn.

[Gadge]

Aye a fair point.

 

Although i wear bolle glasses that are pretty much invisible unless you're really close.

[Belladonna]

Goodwork Gadge as always

might i suggest tho,

the bayonet frog is BEST on the yoke at the rear, drawing is easier than fishing between pouches

a rolled up sandbag on the rear of the webbing, ducttaped on, for bagging prisoners (Commonly seen)

and isnt it the c*** cap?

grenade rings on zip pockets on the smock, your cooler if thier from grenades youve thrown

when camming up, dont forget your big white ears (or black ones)

and not being racial, but those with darker skin still need to loose the shine, so still apply the brown cam cream,

avoid excess kit

also

cut up camping mat ziptied onto the webbing belt gives a good squaddiemod look instead of gucci hip pad. ( i did mine in the field cos my webbing hurt ><)

just a few points

[stubbornbugger]

and isnt it the c*** cap?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I was told it was cr@p hat but cap/hat, who cares?

[Belladonna]

told in cadets by any chance?

the regs and ta use the naughty word for ladybits....

[Rogue845]

Indeed we do. And if they say they don't like it - we say some more! ;-)

[Belladonna]

men in the army have 'colourful' language

ive heard squaddies converse in sentances made entirely of swearwords...

[Gadge]

Its cr@p hat.

 

Least it was last time i was at ATR lichfield where the paras were.

 

Its also a main term /insult that paras and bootys use to refer to non para or booty infantry.

[Belladonna]

Doh yes it is, c*nt cap is a police term for ther firearms caps ><

[Lance Jackass]

Aye, i've known it as cr@p hat. The other C word i've heard used for those old style patrol caps, or daft head gear.

 

We also used to have "cheg hats" as a word for the patrol hat thing as well. Cheg was the ACF term for a newbie, n00b, rookie, crow.

[Gadge]

C**p hats were pretty in vogue inthe 80s but as the paras use them for recuits who havnt earned their berets. (i've seen para recruit plattoon on parade in said caps, so im not making it up) it beacme a bit of a para insult. I'm not sure but i think its the same with Royals.

 

It basically universally fell out of service in the 90s with a few peopel stil lwearing em. I wore one but mine was cut and stitched beyond recongnition...

 

Here see...

 

Bit more 'ally' that way... ear flaps cut off, brim pulled out, folded down and stiched.

[Kipper]

the bayonet frog is BEST on the yoke at the rear, drawing is easier than fishing between pouches

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Please god youre not suggesting that it be placed sideways across the top of the rear pouches/ in the small of your back?

 

You might as well throw the blade down a grid cause youll lose it just as fast