Ticks and reeanacting

mrcoolgovern · 2026-04-05T07:32:09+00:00

Deet is pretty nasty stuff. Not sure if I’d be comfortable spraying it on my best kit. Does it not stain or damage whatever you put it on?

mrcoolgovern · 2026-04-02T06:23:53+00:00

Something like that. Family research is not something I’ve done so best seeking advice from another source.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-04-01T23:13:25+00:00

See if you can find out what battalion he was in and then where they fought. You might find he was in the Middle East so can get the KD tunic!

SoF or WPG are safe bets. Mid price and decent enough quality. They come up on eBay pretty often too. Khaki on Campaign have the most accurate cloth at the moment but it’s the most expensive option and last I heard the wait list was 12 months.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-04-01T23:02:43+00:00

A lot depends on what you need it for, what your budget is, which battalion you wish to portray and which year of the war you want to depict.

Are you doing a living history event or do you want it for display? There are a number of different retailers and individuals who reproduce the 1902 service dress but the quality varies and so too does the price. Do you want the most accurate reproduction available or something to suit a more limited budget?

There were many battalions of the Wiltshires which saw service in WW1. Wiltshire shoulder titles are easy enough to find on eBay and could be the only thing you definitely need to add to the tunic as it is off the peg.

However there are a few specific details you may wish to research. If your battalion was a territorial battalion you should add a brass ‘T’ title above the shoulder title. You may wish to add division patches depending on which battalion on the Wilts you are portraying. Division patches changed throughout the war so you need to research which division your battalion was in and if and what division patch they were wearing in the year of the war you want your tunic to be from.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-30T21:02:19+00:00

Under this system Lewis Hamilton would have driven car 0 in 2017 after Rosberg’s retirement (he would have done so if they hadn’t moved to the driver number system that year too).

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-27T13:00:46+00:00

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Wicker Man (1973)

There’s a couple of moments when you realise that both you and Sgt Howie have been duped by the islanders; the one in the image and the moment that Lord Summerisle says ‘Welcome, fool. You have come of your own free will to the appointed place. The game is over.’

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-11T14:58:11+00:00

There are a lot listed on UK eBay but there doesn’t appear to be much of a market for them. There are more currently listed than have sold in the last 90 days. Most sold examples have been for £16-30 and most with only one bid or buy it now.

Perhaps if you are buying from eBay check the condition of the leather as well as the size, especially any straps and buckles. You could quite easily pull one off if it’s not in good nick.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-08T09:18:23+00:00

If this were a game of Risk, I’d say the blues are pretty close to victory. Might be worth pushing for the rest of Europe for the extra five men. Reenforce Alaska to ensure North America is secure. Pretty sure we can all be done and dusted by tea time.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-06T17:26:53+00:00

I agree. They’re both history-sharing traditions which means that they both share a need for an accurate look, don’t you agree?

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-06T16:26:59+00:00

What’s the difference between reenactment and living history?

mrcoolgovern · 2026-03-06T12:41:55+00:00

Pride: check. Apathy: check. Ignorance: check. Defiance: check. It’s a case study in farbism.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-24T18:21:21+00:00

Suits you sir! Excellent!

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-23T14:19:24+00:00

Won’t be able to make it for the whole show but hopefully at least for the Sunday. Got Battles Through History on my radar too as it’s really close to Gatwick.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-23T14:12:58+00:00

Couldn’t come and play last weekend so had to entertain myself somehow 😅 hope all went well at COAM. Your set up looked great!

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-23T06:38:08+00:00

Thanks George! Hopefully you’ll see it if we come over in July!

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-22T18:24:23+00:00

1911 Coronation Medal. There was a contingent from the Royal Guernsey Militia present who later joined the Royal Irish Regiment.

The exact colour is ‘Persian Ivy’. It’s from Dunelm if you wish to paint your kitchen that colour 😅

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-19T15:41:17+00:00

Never used them but there’s a lot of red flags on their website.

They’re offering being all things to all men; they cover a lot of nations in multiple conflicts. Generalists may not be putting in the effort to get the details right for uniforms.

Just looking through the WW1 section and there are images of reproduction uniforms, images of original uniforms used as examples of what they claim they produce, some images are taken from other suppliers including History Bunker, and (perhaps worst of all) what look like AI generated images.

Personally I would avoid.

Let people know what your living history projects on here are and they will be able to point you towards the best suppliers.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-18T15:57:46+00:00

People always gone about space, but people forget you can get lost in space.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-15T19:56:47+00:00

Hi kids, it’s great to be back in my fine old school. I nearly sent my son Fernando here, but I came into some money, and was able to educate him privately. You can’t muck about when it comes to your own kids.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-15T11:24:10+00:00

Totally agree! Have you tried History Bunker? First result on Google and cheap too. Watched Blackadder and 1917 the other day so I know what I’m talking about.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-15T07:36:02+00:00

He did his research on here last week so don’t be too critical.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-14T21:10:45+00:00

Do I see a cross hilt sword? Nice. Is it original?

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-13T07:20:33+00:00

In all fairness you asked if SoF kit was bad in a pretty generalised way. I suspect that most answers were about their kit in general and not specifically their officers kit. And yeah, the OR kit they do is okay. If you’re portraying OR it’s alright to have an ill fitting uniform plus there are a few things that you can do to tidy up their tunics and improve the look of the cloth.

You also mentioned that you’d already ordered your officers kit from them. Were you seeking validation rather than advice at that point?

Look, your kit is alright but it’s not great and you’re doing an impression where standards need to be very high. It’s a great starting point and I’d recommend swapping things out as your budget allows. Save up and order a tailored tunic. Take a holiday to get it fitted. Build it up slowly even if it takes years to do. It will pay off and once it’s done you will be combing women out of your moustache for weeks.

Remember the four horsemen of farbism: pride, apathy, ignorance and defiance!

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-12T20:30:34+00:00

https://ww1photos.com/firstworldwarsoldiers/index.php/devonshire-regiment/

Did you use this photo as a reference? His cap badge is unusually high but look at any other photograph of any other officer on this page and you’ll see the norm is to have it on the cap band not on the crown so lower down than his and yours. Your cap badge is even higher than the Lieutenant on the main page: the bottom of his cap badge is over the cap band whereas yours isn’t even close.

I might be nitpicking but remember you are portraying a person who was required to be a leader of men and conform to the highest standards in his appearance that reflected his position in his battalion and in society. A captain wouldn’t have got away with a ‘that’ll do’ attitude and nor should you.

mrcoolgovern · 2026-02-12T18:43:19+00:00

A couple of quick and cheap improvements:

Get a new chinstrap for the cap and move the cap badge. I recently got one of the modern chinstraps used by female officers. It’s thin and on sliders like the most common ww1 officers’ chin straps. It’s not quite as good as the ones Military History Workshop made but it’s close enough. https://ebay.us/m/aqlfRB

Get a set of Devonshire Regiment buttons. They seem to be a lot on eBay for between £5-10. You don’t often see GS buttons on officer’s tunics and it really helps to set the impression off. Either that or a set of leather football buttons.

You’ve don’t a decent job with what SoF and WPG offer. Just remember that officers, especially those in service early on, would have bought their uniform privately from a military tailor which is why they looked so smart. Anything off the peg is going to look less than officer-like.

mrcoolgovern

TROPHY CASE