would like to welcome to the blog: Sniper1102. He’s a good friend of mine and we’ve chatted for a long time online now. Talking to him for a couple of months via Instagram showed me that he’s very meticulous on how to do a proper impression.
We talked about the unit he’s impersonating and how he learned from the choices he made. Also, he was very open about the kit he was running, so for other people diving into the Spanish MOE unit, please read to the end for some amazing knowledge bombs.
Hello Sniper1102, thanks for taking the time to have a chat with me for the blog. With all interviews I start of with: could you tell us some about who you are in real life?
Thanks for having me on the blog, it’s a true honour! I’m just a regular 21-year-old dude. With a regular life and hobbies. Apart from reenactment I enjoy spending time with friends and go to the gym to them weights, practice K1 and some boxing here and there.
What could you tell us about the unit you’re reenacting?
The unit I reenact is the MOE (Mando de Operaciones Especiales) from Spain. It’s part of the Spanish land forces / army. Beneath in the hierarchy there are GOE’s (Grupos de Operaciones Especiales), which would be ‘Special Operations Groups’. There used to be 4 in total, but now it’s only 3 units. You have:
GOE III Valencia
GOE IV Tercio del Ampurdan
GOE/BOEL XIX Maderal Oleaga
GOE II Granada (which is now disbanded, and operators got transferred to the other 3)
These groups can be compared to the US Army Special Forces Groups and MOE would be with its current status the Spanish Equivalent of the USASOC.
To be part of MOE you need to undergo a gruelling selection process, which I would say Is the toughest in the Spanish army. They’re divided into 3 phases: selection, basic training course and advanced training course. When you’ve successfully completed these 3 courses, you’ll be part of an EO (Equipo Operativo), or operational team. Which is comparable to a US Army ODA team. Each of these teams have their own expertise, from mobility, mountain warfare, marine warfare to reconnaissance. The men that have successfully completed the full training can call themselves Operators of MOE. They’re also called ‘guerrilleros’ as in history, MOE was created to be experts in guerrilla warfare.
Within MOE there is a special unit. The unit, known as UOE2 (Unidad de Operaciones Especiales 2), which are the Tier 1 unit from the Spanish military or Spanish equivalent of Delta Force in the US Army. They’re the ones that get all the cool stuff first. They’ll test it to see if it’s good enough for the other GOE units within MOE. To be part of UOE2, you’ll have to go through another selection process, but it’s still unknown to many what this selection process beholds, with good reasons.
which are the Tier 1 unit from the Spanish military or Spanish equivalent of Delta Force in the US Army.
Where did your impression journey start?
For me, it started in 2012 when I purchased my first piece of kit. It was an OTV in UCP that had some mag pouches and a filled IFAK. At the time I didn’t knew anything about it, but as a little kid it was so cool to have it. The guy that sold it to me was also part of a reenactment group and he invited me to join for a game. They did some awesome 17th century Spanish Army Tercios impression at the time.
After my first taste of impressions and what would be possible, my interests shifted towards the Vietnam era. The head of the reenactment group – same guy that sold me the OTV – was attending a weekly reenactment event in the city of Toledo. So, I went there with my dad and instead of giving me money for the event, he gave me tons of ‘Nam gear. (I’m forever grateful to my dad for this).
He got me a USMC M55 flak vest, an ARVN backpack and lots of smaller items like webbing, uniforms and field gear.
Before I started with my current impression, which is MOE, I continued my US Army impression, but at the time I didn’t really decided which unit I wanted to work on. Later, I saw the movie / documentary Restrepo and fell in love with their setups and story in the documentary. For that reason, I decided that it would be a logical step to base my US Army impression on the guys from Restrepo.
Although I haven’t finished US Army kit (yet). I will finish my MOE kit first and then switchback to the US Army kit. I haven’t sold any gear I collected of the years, it’s just on the backburner for now.
How did you start and progress through your current MOE impression?
MOE started for me in 2013, when the Spanish MoD published a video of the exercise “Machete 2013”. It was a very cool and interesting video and started my interest in the unit. So, I did some research on their history, but didn’t start the impression until February 2016. I bought a Jing Gong G36K to start doing a Spanish Army kit. But due to Spanish law restrictions on having bulletproof gear that’s used by active Spanish forces, I was forced to quit that idea.
But, since MOE has a lot of commercially available items, it was easier, and legal, to do to an impression of that unit. I already had the MSA ACH for my US Army kit, so that would be my starting point for the MOE impression. A short while later I bought a TMC CIRAS in Multicam and those were the first few big items to go nuts with it. Slowly but surely, more stuff came in. I made some good decisions and of course some bad ones. But I learned from those. My first kit was a real mess. Lots of replica stuff and I relied heavily on Chinese shops to supply the stuff to fit my budget. Don’t get me wrong, replica stuff is perfectly OK. But make sure it’s 100% faithful and accurate. Don’t buy stuff that ‘kind of’ looks like it. Instead, buy the good replicas. At the beginning, I fell for this many times. Investing in bad look-a-likes or repro pouches that were such a dealbreaker for the realism.
So in 2017 I slowly started phasing out the replica stuff for the real deal. The TMC CIRAS got replaced by a Tasmanian Tiger Mk2 chest rig with back panel. Which made its appearance in 2014 in MOE. I started to setup the G36 correctly and truer to the real ones. And I bought my first real steel piece of gear. The 5.11 Brokos VTAC Belt, also being issued around 2014.
Later I bought Salomon shoes, which are in my opinion the best there is. More stuff came in and I started to think I would be finished soon (how naïve of me, haha).
The Tasmanian Tiger vest became less comfortable to me and that became an annoyance. Thus, I went looking at the reference photos and came across the Warrior Assault Systems DCS plate carrier. Thus, in late 2017 I bought that one with some pouches, and the difference was huge in comfort and quality between WAS and TT.
From there on, I decided I wanted my kit to become 100% accurate and real. I wanted the best MOE impression in the world, considering I only knew the existence of a group in the US doing a MOE impression, a group in Japan and one dude in Ukraine, that was it. So, I started to check all my gear and replacing every repro with the real deal. Or, in places where I didn’t have the budget. The bad replicas for the best replicas. Example given: the ZTAC Comtacs got replaced by TCA Comtacs.
I bought some real things for my G36 replica, the railed carrying handle for example. The biggest item for my gun was the proper Elcan, which a few months later come out. So, I immediately snagged that one and with that, the look of the rifle improved so much.
Later in 2018 I decided to fix the era and stick with it. Hence, I would focus on the 2018 era and would try to finish the kit. Although, I still stay very up to date with what the units does even in 2021 and onward. I keep a detailed library of pictures and info of the unit and add new stuff over time or when new imagery comes out. So, I still know what they’re wearing even today. But I needed to limit myself, as I just couldn’t keep up with the continues new updates on items and stuff.
What’s also very interesting about MOE, is that they use a high amount of privately purchased items. The stuff they get from the DoD is kind of, bad or basic you would say. Not the things you would see in American Tier 1 units for example. So, a lot of MOE soldiers buy and upgrade their own stuff with privately purchased materials. Often brands that are commercially available, like WAS, Tasmanian Tiger, Templars Gear and Direction Action. All brands that are based in Europe and are cheap and easily accessible. There are some ‘higher tier brands’ like HSGI, BFG and even First Spear Strandhöggs have been spotted on rare occasions. But this makes doing the impression not extremely difficult in comparison with some units that have custom gear or extremely expensive gear.
There is even a funny thing, that a lot of operators purchased TMC shooters belt (the version with the multicam body and khaki webbing). How did this happen? Well in early 2018 when these belts were still sold by TMC. A military shop near the MOE base in Alicante offered a ridiculous discount on these belts to active military members. Some MOE guys bought them, liked them a lot and recommended them to other teammates, which on the course of time, made the belts popular in the unit. These are of course not rated for PRL or climbing, but it shows how MOE gets their gear.
So, a lot of MOE soldiers buy and upgrade their own stuff with privately purchased materials.
So, what are items you’re proud of owning for your MOE impression?
My favourite item, without a doubt, is the helmet cover. It’s such a rare item that I found on accident. It’s an item that’s used by a lot of MOE soldiers. But not something you see often online to purchase as a civilian. I’m also very happy with my blaster setup, to my knowledge it’s the only, fully correct MOE G36 out there. I say this, because there are some very small details that you won’t see unless you search for it. But for me, these things standout.
What would you see as a dealbreaker for a MOE kit?
For me, the excessive use of US gear is a dealbreaker for MOE. As explained, the MOE operators don’t get a huge budget from the DoD and must buy a lot of stuff themselves. Even some of the ballistic helmets are privately purchased. If you compare this to other nations, Spanish SOF get trash issued. As a result, they mostly opt for their own stuff. Luckily, this is changing slowly, they now get Opscore helmets in February 2021.
But a lot of US and expensive gear won’t look right on a MOE kit.
Something that would make the kit is the correct balance between commonly used and not so commonly used items. Because a lot of operators buy their own stuff, they make their own choices of what’d they like to have. For example, WAS is extremely common and to make things more interesting and less cookie cutter, add some fewer common items like BFG.
Making a kit – and this applies in general – that’s completely decked out with the most common items, will be weirder and less realistic than a good balance between the two. Don’t go the other way though and have a mentality that’s: “Just because they buy their own gear, I can use whatever I want, even if I don’t have a reference”. That’s totally inaccurate and wrong.
So, make a balance between issued, non-issued but commonly seen stuff and of course a small bit of non-issued and not commonly stuff. But beware with the last one, cause that’s a thing that can go south real fast.
I would say the kit is financially somewhat cheap, comparing it to like CAG or DEVGRU. But as a normal person with a regular income, yeah, it will be expensive to do in one go. I don’t really think you can do it under 1000, - EUR. Some items are cheap, and others are more pricey. Most of my kit is real steel, but that’s not a necessity to make the kit. I have some placeholders for the Safariland holster and use a Glock instead of a USP. But this will be fixed later, hence, they’re placeholders.
So, make a balance between issued, non-issued but commonly seen stuff and of course a small bit of non-issued and not commonly stuff.
If I can give some tips to new people in the impression’s scene. Take your time and research online. Check reference photos, read articles and analyse it thoroughly. Make sure that if you’re going to buy an item, that’s the correct item. Hence, you don’t waste money on things that are not usable or correct. Also, save the money you want to spend on a replica sometimes for a real item. After all, the difference is noticeable. Both aesthetically and quality wise.
Would you want to give a shoutout to?
I want to shoutout a couple of people, starting with:
@hk_rules201,
he’s an awesome dude with an awesome kit. He has some very good knowledge on Spanish NAVY SOF unit FGNE and he’s got a killer FGNE kit.
@Muddyjzealot from the US of A, who has A LOT of kits from around the world.
@MOE.Chile
down in Chile are in the works of making awesome MOE kits, follow them for some varied SOF kits around the globe.
@pagan_warrios
for awesome Danish SOF kits and knowledge about them
@ash.jaqen
for being a humble guy with an awesome (if not the best) L119A2 build. Which features a monolithic upper just the real thing.
@whopper.gungnir
has a wonderful US Army Ranger kit and you would be surprised about how much he knows about the structure of the Rangers and how they work.
@kaz.6mm // TRP
for giving me the opportunity for this interview. I’m really flattered, and I can’t thank you enough!
Head:
MSA ACH helmet
Ops Core H nape
Team Wendy 3/4 pads
Francisco Orero ACH helmet cover (only issued to MOE)
Norotos 1 hole shroud and rhino arm
Clawgear IR glint tapes
FMA MS2000 strobe
TCA Peltor comtac III with the microphone changed for a real peltor “civilian/european” microphone to replicate the Peltor comtac XP
ESS crossbow glasses
Black balaclava
2nd line:
WAS DCS multicam
3x HSGI taco mag pouch multicam
WAS double fast mag pouch multicam
Tasmanian Tiger tourniquet pouch multicam with a CAT tourniquet
Medical sheers
TCA Peltor ptt
Spanish flag IR green
Condor blood type patch
ITW grimlock
Flyye MBITR pouch multicam with fastex clip changed (to replicate the V1 eagle MBITR pouch)
For the radio I will have a baofeng uv5r radio, the radio the usually use is the harris RF7850s but it is unobtainable and the baofeng they sometimes use it for trainings so I will go for that one, although in mid 2020 they started to use the PRC 152
WAS cargo pack multicam
WAS double 40mm grenade pouch multicam with 2 dummy mk13 stun grenades
Source 3L hydration bag
ASP trifold red
Travailfitness 4.5kg training plates
1st line:
5.11 brokos VTAC belt sand
5.11 maverick riggers belt sand
HSGI pistol taco multicam holding a multitool
Eagle industries double 9mm FB multicam pouch
WAS rip off IFAK pouch multicam
Flyye horizontal utility multicam (replicating an eagle industries V1 utility pouch)
Chinese SLS Safariland holding a Glock 19 from KJW, this is a place holder until I get an USP which is the standard issue handgun of the Spanish army, along a Safariland 6377 ALS holster with an UBL mid ride and QLS system
Apparel:
Spanish army uniform both arid and woodland pixelated patterns (arido y boscoso pixelado)
Spanish army combat shirts both in arid and pixelated patterns
Salomon x ultra mid 3 GTX
Mechanix gloves: originals in black and fast fit in multicam
Casio G-shock watch
Riggers belt
Spanish flag patch IR green
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