In this article we will be talking with Dra Er from RealGearSurplus on Facebook. He’s come to my attention via a teammate of mine. who really recommended RealGearSurplus (RGS) as a super good seller with even better prices.
I have chatted with Dra Er beforeregarding gear purchases and eventually we began to talk about Airsoft, his gear collection and impression journey.
Therefore, he seemed like the perfect candidate for The Reenactment Paper (TRP).
We will be talking about his kit, his adventures in the milsim world and talking about the local milsim / reenactment level in his area. I hope you all enjoy reading the article, and check Dra Er out on Facebook and RealGearSurplus (links below).
Let’s kick off with a small introduction.
My name is Erik, but on the field and during milsims I am known under the nickname “Joker” or as Real Gear. I’m a 29-year-old dude living in Slovakia (not Slovenia as most people are mixing those 2 up). My current profession is an automation programmer and compliance specialist engineer.
I have a few hobbies I would like to put time and energy in;
Military collecting, Airsoft, Realsteel shooting, Miniature modeling and the latest addition is stamp collecting!
Regarding military collecting I mainly forcus on the Iraq war era, like OIF and OEF. And I narrow it down to USMC forces during that time. Collecting as much as possible from plate carriers, clothing, helmets and everything that goes with it.
Unfortunately, due to the situation in the world and Europe as of now, I am not able to exercise my Airsoft hobby. So, I dive into military simulators like ARMA III, with a lot of extra mods included like ACE and much more. Just take airsoft and milsim back to the digital world. I play with some colleagues in a 32 vs 32 PVP simulation. This is currently also my training tool to keep my skills up to date and improve them along the way. Skills like navigation, working with comms, formations and a whole lot more that is now impossible due to COVID.
Also, I gave my character in ARMA III the same setup as I have with my own reenactment kit for Marine Force Recon (MFR). So, we could say I have a virtual twin of me in the game, haha.
Impressions, lets talk about it some more.
It is quite funny how it all started. I did not choose the impression lifestile with knowledge or research beforehand. But I based it on the first camo uniform I bought. It was a Helikon Woodland MARPAT MCCUU set and an A.C.M. (Any Chinese Manufacturer) MARPAT AAV vest with Olive Green Pouches. I tried to make it a convincing United States Marine Corps (USMC) loadout. But it was more like Georgian militia.
Then I started to dig a little deeper in the USMC units and I came across that they used CIRAS vests. I looked online and found a Chinese produced replica in the correct color. So, I bought that one, put a shit ton of pouches on it and started playing. Later on, I met some guys and eventually we started a team together. We tried to pursue the impression game and maintain a high level of correctness in the team. Later on, we upgraded the Chinese plate carriers for Flyye carriers that – albeit, still Chinese – where a higher level of quality. But I found myself needing to keep an eye on team members to make sure they worked in the line of impression / reenactment correctness. So, the right camos and the right gear, helmets, carriers and so on, so forth.
Eventually I also left the team due to some personal issues. For three years I’m a solo player and that suits me a lot better. It is a shame when you don’t have a team you can rely on, during CQB actions or search tasks for example.
But it gives me a lot of freedom and now I can do the stuff that I want to do, and I’m not limited by a group of people that don’t want to go the same route I want to go. No more pushing people or arguing about stuff anymore.
But that aside, when I started to look online for more of the real deal stuff to phase out the Chinese produced pouches, I was frustrated that the pouches where quite hard to find in the EU. If you found the real pouches in the EU, they were expensive, and it just did not fit my budget as a student at the time. Thus, I wrote an awful lot of emails to a whole lot of people in the online world and eventually I met a guy who could get me a ton of pouches, gear and clothing that I was looking for. And for a very reasonable price. He could supply me with everything that my heart desired at the time and even more. And so, I started to purchase the first real deal stuff and progressed my impression to the next level.
I started with a vest, pouches and a helmet cover. And eventually I bought occasionally more and more stuff. That is where the collecting started. Eventually I came across an Eagle Industries FSBE kit list and now I focus only on USMC units (some exceptions apply though).
My current focus is the MOS 0321 unit, some people might have heard about them, but for the newcomers that number is referring to Reconnaissance Marines. I will be directly focusing on the 2009-2011 era.
As I am now collecting the FSBE kit list, there are certain configurations which are used by different units. Therefore, I have multiple projects at once, but they’re all part of the USMC.
Different units like: Marine Force Reconnaissance Companies, Reconnaissance Battalions, Special Operations Training Groups, Radio Operators, Marine Security Force Battalions (FAST), Marine Expeditionary Units and I have a M9 TSSi bag for a Medic, therefore I could also do a corpsman in the future.
I have a wide variety of units I can display, starting with MEU and finishing with RRT.
But the FSBE is not the main thing I focus on, I have an Eagle Industries MBAV for a basic Raider setup and a SPC vest for a Company B. 1st Recoinnassaince Bn.
As you can see I just have a big variety of things I collect, that results in a big variety of thing I can reenact.
Currently I’ve bought a CryeFire G3 MARPAT set and I want to focus on a new (long term) project. Reenacting 2nd MSOB from 2015 (7th Annual Warrior Competition Event). But this is a long-term side project, as I don’t really have the time to pursue it properly.
Slovakia’s scene
Eric is from Slovakia and we talked a bit about the scene there, events and groups of people and impression / reenactment in that part of the EU.
In Slovakia, Milsim and Reenactment are getting more popular. There is still a low(er) quantity of people doing actual correct impressions and reenactment kits. For example, impressions that are combined with military simulations and / or training are low. But there are the teams that are hard into the training aspect. They’re like on a completely new level regarding being Airsoft operators and having all the right tactics and training all thought out. But they are not impression teams. In Slovakia, the level of impressionism and reenactment must grow to get on the same level as in the Czech Republic or Italy. Impression teams are starting to pop up more, faster than milsim events for example. They will either start hosting their own events or join events in neighboring countries. That also makes things interesting to follow these teams on social media and see what they are up to. It broadens your knowledge of teams and events that are interesting to attend or contact.
Regarding events that I would like to attend in Slovakia are Blue Valley and Extreme Fight Lest. Blue valley is cool due to the fact it was more a simulation event with different factions and villages. There was NATO, three – four villages with their own armed guards. Taliban forces and PMC’s. The whole event was also kind of sandbox based. So, everyone had their freedoms and things were not scripted at all. Every person had their own purposes and needed to do stuff to progress in the event. This could mean that a civilian need to get cash to proceed or ‘upgrade’ his lifestyle. Therefore, he could sell information to NATO or be a (drug)courier.
After you got some money, you could start your own shop and sell stuff for more money, and so on so forth. There was also the option to go for a ‘bad’ route. You could become a ‘villain’ in the game and give NATO a hard time, it is all up to you.
A cool story of the event was that me and friends went as civilians to an event and made we a goat (grass filled sandbags) and went to the NATO base at 22:00 and start making goat noises to keep the NATO soldiers up. Asking them for help finding the goat that was lost in the NATO base area. It was funny because people got really irritated as we kept them awake. We quickly got a reputation from then on.
Extreme Fight Lest is also cool due to its location. It is a military training center for the Slovakian Army. The event was less focused on LARP and roleplay but accomplishing missions. But the area has like catacombs, Afghan styled village, a train station, car wrecks, helicopter crash site, busses and much more. It was so varied and that made it super interesting. And, they had blank firing weapons and military simulation vests during the event. That gave it a real interesting extra dimension to the whole event.
If I could highlight an event that people should attend here in the Slovakian area. I would advice to go to Blue Valley Events. Many events are labeled as Milsim / LARP actions events. But they are just classic skirmish games.
Future events?
I’m a very milsim and impression minded person. Events that I would like to attend are Milsim West in the US or Stirling in the UK. But who knows when? We currently have the whole COVID situation going on and Milsim West is kind of a big stretch due to it being in the US and it will be a lot of hassle and paperwork to get all the stuff over there for an event. But maybe I can combine it with work? Who knows!
Gucci gear and collectors items
What is the coolest / most rare stuff you own?
Haha, I think this is different for all kinds of people. Some things I find rare or cool will be viewed by others entirely different. But most of the stuff I own would be rare, as I get the stuff from one military guy in the states. He used to serve in a real USMC recon unit, and all the stuff I get is therefore real and used by actual soldiers. Thus, it got the character that I am after. And makes the things for me have a rarer status.
But from my point of view: The E&R from Eagle Industries in CB is quite rare. Or the SEA MK Bottle or Diamond Cut MICH helmet cover and all the FSBE2 Green Tag pouches are things I really value having in my collection. These things are quite hard to find, and they have all been used in action during deployments. Which, as I said earlier, gives a lot more character to it. Especially the items I got from the Recon guy himself. That’s really cool to know in the back of my mind.
The item that would have the most value when I would sell it would be a prototype Interceptor Body Armor Vest, which is believed to be the Point Blank prototype. It has the right stitching, the materials look like old FSBE2 Green Tag pouches and the plastic parts have National Molding Markings. There is no tag inside the vest, only a small tag, but it is unreadable. I later did a lot of research and with the help from some guys we found out it is one of the first prototypes of the IBA OTV vests. Maybe from Point Blank or Allied Industries, due to the similarity of fabrics used in their other products. It came from a valued member in the USMC community. But I will not mention him here. But I am really glad to call him a good friend of mine. But yeah, the vest came in a lot of IBA vests I bought from a military sale directly from the army itself.
Also, an interesting part of my collection is a book from the Iraq war era. Which is believed to be in one of the Saddams Ba’ath party offices. Which was captured with other leaflets during OIF by Marine units.
But I am proud of owning these items due to part of (military) history that is connected to them. For me, the collecting is much more than (old school) Gucci gear and saying that you own a prototype of a certain cool piece of kit or telling people: it’s worth X amount of $$. It is part of history, like the same way you have people collecting military helmets from the First World War.
Basic USMC MFR kit list
Lots of people think you can do a MFR impression with cheap gear. Which would be available in the EU, that is not true. Although the MFR setup is quite simple and there is a lot of old stuff still being used in training or sometimes in action nowadays. It is a little more complicated to get a proper and correct impression going on. Especially as a European. But there are some work arounds
Propper Ind. MCCUU set, these are quite easy to find in the EU for good prices.
MBSS or CIRAS vest, these are quite cheap in the EU too.
2x2 mag pouch, 1x medic pouch, 1x radio pouch, the basic pouches you should start with!
Helmet replica if the budget is small with a real cover. Which will hide that you have a replica helmet #bigbrain
Boots, these can vary. MFR uses quite a lot of different boots during training and deployment as they can private purchase their own.
M4 replica with the RIS handguard. An ACOG 4x or a Aimpoint birdwatcher would be the ideal optic.
Eye protection, these are really important! Don’t ever save money on those!
This is like the most basic kit list I can give you with stuff that is easier to find in the EU. This is also more a kit list for older MFR units rather than modern. This is what they used on deployments as well, if you want to look into that. But if you want to do more modern impression(s), this could be used for USMC Recon during training. As they use a lot of old gear when they train (varies from time to time). But some of the other gear they use during training would be IBA vests, LBV vest of CIRAS vests.
Which tips would you like to give to new people?
When you are starting with an impression, start with the research first! Read a lot of books, forums, articles, check on social media, in Facebook groups, on Instagram pages, everywhere! Analyse documentaries or videos is you find online. Or even the imagery from other well known (and accurate) impressionists online. Research is something people really ignore, but an impression could be viewed as making a paper for school / uni.
Also, contact people, do not be afraid to ask questions. But always google the questions yourself before you start asking them in Facebook groups for example. Do your own research and have people check and correct your research. That way people will see that you have done and effort instead of trying to get info easy.
Another kill factor to a good impression is that the impression needs to fit your budget. If you cannot afford an original piece, save the money and buy it later, be cautious with buying cheap stuff from China as sometimes it will just a waste of money due to it being so off-putting that it is obviously fake. There are exceptions here and there. But buy once, cry once is a rule of thumb here.
Less is more, DO NOT FALL into the trap. If you have more stuff on you, that does not mean you will look better at all. Two pouches that are correct are always better than 10 pouches that are not correct. Do not rush your impression but take your time and do it good from the get-go. Success is not something that comes overnight. You need to be patient and take your time.
People I think would deserve a shoutout are these people:
https://www.facebook.com/MarineForceReconItaly/
https://www.facebook.com/1streconbn
https://www.facebook.com/2ndBattalion5thMarinesReenactment
https://www.facebook.com/msoc19
https://www.facebook.com/Lord_sex-154333258005818/
https://www.facebook.com/22warlordsPraha/
https://www.facebook.com/TaskForceLynx
https://www.facebook.com/TFViking
https://www.facebook.com/martinez.gcr
But the list can go on and on. So, I have limited to these people. My apologies to everyone that I forgot.
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