Pouch Painting

If you've ever bought gear from more than one manufacturer, you've most likely been there: Colours don't match. Olive drab especially seems to be a complete no man's land when it comes to colour coordination. They're all supposedly the same colour, but when you place them next to each other, you will certainly notice they're not.

You can always go out in your non-matched set, or grab a can of spray paint and go to work. Here's a quick primer (yes I went there) on how to get your garb to match.

The picture above shows quite clearly just how different the concept of olive drab can be. The RRV replica underneath is from Miltec, and the various pouches are from Pantac, TMC, Condor and from an unbranded Chinese manufacturer.

Painting nylon is fairly straightforward, just apply several thin layers as you would do with any other spray paint project. The de facto brand that people enjoy using is Krylon for its consistency but I went with a camo colour series from my local car parts etc. retailer, Motonet.

Here's a great example of "do as I say, not as I do". I went a bit overboard with the spraying on this TMC radio pouch, and you can see the otherwise matte paint is starting to glisten on the lip of the pouch. Otherwise the result is pretty good. You can clearly see the difference between the painted part and the so far unpainted fastener on the top right. Do note that the paint interferes with velcro to some extent, so try to avoid spraying large quantities over such surfaces if you want to retain the stickiness.

Some parts, such as the crease on the pouch above can be a bit problematic if you want an even coat. You can, however, always spray and then rub the paint in with your fingers, for example.

You can also use gloves while doing it. Assuming you're not too dumb and/or excited to remember such things, of course.

Really getting there after only a short while. I'm sure the father-in-law doesn't mind spray paint on his lawn.

The end result after three(ish) light coats. The AK pouches were left unpainted to be used as reference. I left the paint to cure overnight before using the pouches.

Do you have experiences in painting your gear (or guns)? Let me know in the comments!

Battle Group Parola Milsim Event Picture Post

The second to last weekend of July played host to the biggest milsim event Finland has seen so far. Over 600 participants split into five factions spent around 27 hours in actual Finnish army training grounds and surrounding woodland trying to gain the upper hand, or simply to survive.

As mentioned the area comprised of real, actively used military training grounds

The backstory revolved around a civil war, where a monarchy supporting faction (red team) attempted to take over Finland from the democratic loyalists (yellow team). Also present were the UN, civilians from two nearby villages, and a team of mysterious operators from a foreign nation (blue team).

You don't see traffic signs like these every day!

The training grounds are adjacent to the Parola Armoured Brigade, which coincidentally is also where I received my year long military training, and the plot of the game revolved around a locked and boobytrapped underground tank hangar. Both belligerents were trying to get inside the hangar without activating the self destruct which would blow up these strategic resources. Rumours told of a former hangar foreman who had set up the explosives and thus also held the secret of disarming them.

Both sides were thus scouring the area for the foreman while also securing key crossroads and assets, trying to figure out who the blue nation were, interacting with the UN and the villagers and naturally battling each other.

My personal role in the game was sadly rather minimal, as my injured leg prevented me from taking to the field. While the rest of my team, BFN Airsoft were out in full force, I got a job at my side's HQ as a situation officer. Rest of the HQ were unknown to me beforehand, but team mates with each other, and they had the job so well in hand that I mostly tried to remain out of the way. However, it was definitely a valuable learning experience to see how an HQ is run, how they would interact with the organisers before and during the event and what the challenges are when you're in charge of five platoons with unique missions around the clock.

The view from the HQ tent. My team's tent is visible in the middle.

In addition to foot patrols, teams got around using in game vehicles such as four-by-fours, trucks, ATVs, and the organisers had even managed to bring in a real life IFV, a BMP-1!

Here's another sight you don't see every day!

In the end the red commander tried to enter the hangar, only to blow up the charges, destroying all the vehicles inside. It turned out the aim of the foreign operatives was to ensure neither side could get their hands on this strategic resource, and thus played both sides to the best of their ability.

I enjoyed my time even though I never got to see action. The closest I got was when the BMP-1 made a rush for our HQ, and we had no antitank weapons at hand. They basically ran over all our defences, and we at the HQ decided to opt for a self destruct so the enemy would get no intel. To our amazement they then proceeded to just mill around for a while, never even took a look inside the HQ tent, and then proceeded to leave us completely alone!

Good times, and I can't say I wasn't at least a bit wistful seeing my old stomping grounds 14 years later.

In order to not have a blog post that has nothing to do with teching, I present to you a fantastic field repair job I did on my Kalash/CYMA AKMS.

The L-shaped hop up retention piece had gone missing, and I noticed because of that you could accidentally remove the magazine by rocking it backwards. This was in no way ideal, and lacking proper materials I made do with what I had on hand. This worked well enough, so mission accomplished!

I'm so very much looking forward to returning to the field, so wish me luck on my recovery. I already have a new E&L AK stashed away for just that moment. I'll be doing some work on it in the near future, so stay tuned and play safe!