#Military repro

[introspect-la]

WTAPS FW20 POCKETED JACKET

[sayruq]

Only a few minutes into Biden’s speech, several protesters interrupted, calling for a cease-fire in Israel’s U.S.-backed military operation in Gaza, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians and set off a maternal and reproductive health crisis. The president was interrupted over a dozen times as security struggled to wrangle protesters who were screaming “Genocide Joe!” and demanding a cease-fire. Hundreds of Biden supporters tried to drown out the protesters by clapping and chanting, “Four more years!” “Israel kills two mothers every hour in Gaza! Cease-fire now! End the genocide!” one protester yelled at Biden, who was standing on stage in front of a massive “Restore Roe” banner and flanked by supporters holding “Defend choice” signs. A video of the event shows Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, clad in her trademark hot-pink pantsuit, standing up and chanting “Four more years!” as security dragged the shouting protester out. It was a real-time illustration of the growing rift in the reproductive rights movement during an election year that will determine the future of reproductive health in the U.S.

Basic prenatal care, such as treating anemia, is nonexistent, causing more women to die during childbirth and more babies born prematurely, many of whom die without access to hospital incubators. Food shortages are leaving pregnant women, new mothers and newborns malnourished. And a lack of menstrual hygiene products has caused an increase in infections in women and girls. “No one is making the connection that there’s a huge repro genocide happening in Gaza that we are funding, and the big repro organizations that are endorsing him are pretending like it’s not happening,” one leader who has met with the Biden administration on abortion issues told HuffPost. Most of the workers who spoke with HuffPost asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from their employers or others in the reproductive rights field.

[vague-humanoid]

To the dismay of many sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice workers in the U.S., many movement organizations had to be pushed to call for a ceasefire in Gaza or otherwise voice support for Palestinians who are being murdered en masse by the Israeli military. This includes Israel’s recent assault on Rafah, a supposed “safe zone” that was shelled by Israeli forces, killing dozens of people who were sheltering in a displacement camp.

While some recent demands from pro-Palestine protestors may seem to have nothing to do with the repro movement—namely the call for institutions to divest from arms manufacturers that aid the ongoing genocide in Gaza—Prism exclusively reports that connections to weapons companies do exist in the repro field. In fact, the nation’s leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care contracts directly with one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers.

[myemuisemo]

It's actually a Jacobean house! Not a repro! This was, for me, the exciting revelation early in chapter VII of The Valley of Fear, the most recent Letters from Watson. While this makes me embarrassingly wrong, being anywhere in the vicinity of Sherlock Holmes is a recipe for being embarrassingly wrong about something, so I feel myself to be in good company.

This implies Birlstone Manor is something along the lines of Ludstone Hall, which is massive and impressive.

Someone who grew up with English history needs to weigh in on whether "King Charles I hid here" was a sly joke, similar to ones in American novels where every realtor claims "George Washington slept here" for old houses on the eastern seaboard. There seem to have been military campaigns in that part of the England in 1644, but there seem to have been military campaigns everywhere in England, Wales, and portions of Scotland in 1644.

Hidey-holes had already become an architectural tradition by the time Birlstone Manor was built. The National Trust has a lovely tour page of Elizabethan "priest holes" here.

It looks like we're winding ourselves up for another plunge into American history, with the fictional Vermissa Valley, in the coal and iron mining hills of Pennsylvania. So let's get ready with a map of iron and steel producers and a separate map of coal mining sites. These don't narrow the location much, but don't spoiler it for me! Part of the fun is figuring out from clues in the text what exactly is going on.

[pattern-recognition]

I'm pretty clueless to fashion production; is there no way you can produce a "decent" facsimile of that camo by taking a digital pattern and sort of printing it onto a similar match of fabrics? I actually have some stake in something like this existing, because there's a lot of discontinued aloha shirt patterns I wanna claim for myself.

you can, technically, and for reproductions that’s usually the easiest solution. if you look up “michell pattern camo for sale” you’ll find a variety of shops selling cheap dropshipped commodities, usually outsourced, in every pattern under the sun from the emblematic, like M81 woodland, to the esoteric, like 1945 German Leibermuster. all of these are polyester shein-esque clothes tho, with all the quality of a halloween costume and made at the cheapest price possible. to truly recreate a pattern as authentic to the originals as possible, one not only needs quality fabrics to print on but a similar machine to those that existed in the factories 40, 60, or 80+ years ago, and to replicate the printing process. camouflage is typically printed in layers, similar to silkscreening though at an industrial scale, and to a discerning eye this can produce distinctions in the final product. as one might expect, none of these factories still exist, their tooling has disappeared into time, and the manufacture process was likely either never recorded or kept secret. that said, some modern companies do seek out old tools, of which Buzz Rickson’s became famous with their bomber jacket repros, and it’s not like it’s impossible to make something that looks nice with new methods. however, even if a cunning tailor finds a solution or negotiates with a textile mill to produce a pattern, such manufacturing steps are often time consuming and expensive, and the commodity itself is only appealing to a very niche market. thus, old camo patterns are either not worth it to businesses to try and recreate, or have a dizzying price tag when they do.

Aloha shirts are actually a very apt comparison, not only are the patterns themselves somewhat of a civilian equivalent of camouflage, but the trends in production and reproduction are similar. Companies like Sugar Cane are well renowned for their Hawaiian shirts, but, like with military apparel, because the tooling doesn’t exist anymore many of the best new-made garments are made with vintage dead-stock fabric.

all that said tho, i’m not an expert on such things so all of the above is more or less what i’ve learned or intuited through exposure, there are likely more erudite articles on the subject.

[petermorwood]

okay so l'academie française gives its members ceremonial swords, and my linguist friends been thinking that proper linguists also ought to be given swords. what kind of swords would be most suitable in your opinion?

Since linguistics involves clarity of expression, their swords should be of very plain design with elegance of proportion, not flamboyance of decoration. Maybe something like this - original in the Met, repro by (defunct) Phoenix Metal Creations.

Swordsmith Peter Johnsson has a theory that correct proportion plays a role in a sword’s balance to help it work right, while also playing a role in its appearance to help it look right.

IMO a sword which “looks right” doesn’t need improved by gilding, enamelling or precious stones. This hasn’t stopped some cutlers from doing so, but there’s no law enforcing good taste.

The Academie Française doesn’t have a “standard” design. Instead its members commission custom work which represents their background in scholarship, science, the arts etc. Here are a couple of their sources: Gassier and Mellerio.

Sometimes the swords are styled after genuine court or military swords, from a historical period favoured by the academic or a notable date in literary history.

Sometimes the personal associations are more pronounced and it’s a case of YMMV...

In this example (the engraving is a vèvè symbol from the Vodou religion of Haiti)...

...I can’t unsee other objects.

Their influence is almost certainly accidental - people who make swords for the Academie aren’t likely to be familiar with wallhanger repros at the bottom end of the market.

And then there’s this, which is just “Osti de caliss de viarge sur un vélo, à quoi pensais-tu ce jour-là?” Or just “le WTF?”

Wait, there’s more. It LIGHTS UP.

That. Is. Weird.

Artist Jean Cocteau designed his own and had it made by Cartier (!) YMMV on its appearance as a sword-hilt...

...but with his trademark sketch profile there’s no doubt who it belongs to...

***

[my-darling-boy]

hello! i've recently become very interested in military fashion from the early 20th century, ideally to incorporate into my own wardrobe. unfortunately that seems to be a very niche thing, as most of what i can find is either a) just about the war or b) about men's fashion in general and not much about uniforms etc. do you have any recs for better research, tips for places to get clothes, how to style, etc... thank you, you're wonderful! :)

I think I get a lot of my WWI (British) references from a book called British Uniforms and Equipment Vol. 1 by John Bodsworth and Great War Tommy, the British Soldier 1914-18 from Haynes books; in my opinion, both give clear reps of various garments, so I’d recommend checking out visual books that relate to the country you’re interested in. Because the fashion you’re looking for is a type that is a unique product of another type of fashion, what you can do with it is entirely up to you.

Because I reenact a British private, my wardrobe now has some influenced items :P I’ve replaced some buttons on a large olive green coat with genuine SD buttons for casual wear. I’ve got thick knit scarves and fingerless gloves for colder temps (wanting a pair commissioned with the 3-finger pattern which saw your thumb and index finger separated and your other 3 fingers in one wider slot in the glove, which were historically accurate for the war at the time). British soldiers wore hobnailed brown or black ankle boots, and I’ve a couple pairs of brown boots with that vibe, besides my hobnail ones I own. Trousers at the time were obviously high waisted, and you might also consider wearing things like button braces. Watches (mostly for officers) were often small on a thin strap to be worn around the wrist, there were shrapnel guards as well that would cover the watch, and you can find repro shrapnel guard watches today. You might also think about pocket watches, small wire frame glasses, and even quirky things like a “good luck charm” somewhere on your outfit. I’ve known some people to thrift old plain jumpers and jodhpurs.

Chain bracelets and cord necklaces with medallions on the end for me are reminiscent of the IDs worn by soldiers for me. I’d wear a plain chain bracelet, but I’m weird and sometimes I take my custom reenactment bracelet out for a spin to the grocery store :P

Overall, though there were tons of uniforms around 1900-1920, a good place to start is to look at the country you’re inspired by and take a look at their soldiers. Take note of the outfit structure of different ranks and their clothing (i.e. a British officer’s clothes are going to be well fitting whereas a private’s is going to be quite formless) colours (khaki, grey, brown, tan, etc), materials (wool, cotton, metal, linen, leather, etc), and patterns like knits or stripes. Even looking outside the army ranks, you can search for naval things too. Though later wars aren’t my cup of tea, I have a genuine American sailor top from (the 40s or 50s?) which is quite timeless and can pass for earlier years at first glance. You can even find (unissued) authentic or repro canvas or leather bags which originally held gear to use as shoulder bags for books and laptops. I think I wore my British tunic as a wool jacket a couple of times one winter? Just stuff to think about!

[horse-and-anchor]

It’s not all House music and Techno! Here is a new Horse and Anchor tote Made from (believed) repro U.S.M.C. Double sided frog skin camo. Green side out. Lined with Japanese selvedge denim, leather rough out foot, vintage military leather rifle sling hand straps, copper rivets and brass hardware. Ships with adjustable shoulder strap. #horseandanchor #camoflauge #frogskincamo #tote #carryall #vintagemilitary https://www.instagram.com/p/CTp8bGlPid8/?utm_medium=tumblr

[voughtcorsair]

oh if I may have a plane fact! do u have a favourite example of nose art/paintjobs in general? I love the walfisch plane posting they look like pacmen

YES !!!!! below cw for iron cross imagery (again in wwi context ) bc there r some german planes

first of all !!!! this one is kind of obvious but i think the red baron's flying circus is really interesting.

i don't know how accurate any of these are because there's various repros and repro flying circuses and paintings and popular culture and - However . the red baron's plane is obvious BUT the rest of the #11 squadron was nicknamed the flying circus because of the fact that they copied him and tried to keep him from being as obvious a target by painting parts of their planes red, and then moved to giving their planes unique paintjobs as pictured above. below is a fokker d.vii that would have been used during a similar time period (unsure if she was in the circus or not) with ummm ❤️ SUCH an interesting paintjob. vibes of razzle dazzle camo

next up is this guy! miss jenny :-) she was used as a training aircraft during wwi and may have continued in military use or entered general/civilian aviation post-war - i don't know the history of this exact aircraft. it's not a super unique paintjob n im pretty sure it looks like this cuz it's worn down but it's super pretty and!! she has super unique fuselage art , ive been asking around and the general consensus is that it's a chupacabra.

some more that i am less familiar with:

farman 40; french observation plane during wwi

unsourced and unfortunately im better at history and sociology than id'ing aircraft 😭 (the world if pinterest had sourcelinks >>> )

this is about all i know of/can find off the top of my head- info about wwi & inter-war nose art is weirdly a little difficult to find? so google images is all like. wwii era Or nose art that i deem Not Unique Enough 💔 but :-) woohoo!

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Finding 1940s style trousers for sale as a tall person is maddening haha. Do you have any ideas on where to find reasonably priced ones online?

Hi! Sorry for the delay! I was having computer issues. Omg yes finding trousers is such a pain in the butt! I’ve got a few places you can check out. Most of my resources are military and very feminine related but check out these links and see if they’re helpful :) Etsy and Ebay are good places to look and vintagedancer has examples of modern clothes in vintage styles that you can buy. 

https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-mens-pants-trousers/

https://www.ebay.com/b/1940s-Vintage-Pants-for-Men/175780/bn_14799064

https://www.etsy.com/market/1940s_mens_pants

https://www.rustyzipper.com/mens/pants/40s50s/

https://vintagedancer.com/vintage/mens-vintage-inspired-clothing/  (this one has a list of shops that sell trousers)

https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/womens-1940s-pants-styles/

These are my sources for military style 1940s repros:

https://www.atthefront.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=trousers&Submit=

http://onlinemilitaria.net/

https://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=trousers

https://www.wwiiimpressions.com/

Hopefully something here can help? If you know anyone who can sew you could always try to commission them using vintage patterns too.

[wri0thesley]

I've seen this on a couple other blogs so I wanted to ask you too: What outfits would you like to see your f/o (s) wear? (Including pictures would be nice but you don't have to if you don't want to!)

so as i’ve mentioned a hundred times i wear fifties repro and i’d LOVE to see some of my boys in 50s repro to match!!! i guess it’s hard to match to each boy but hmm

i see prosciutto as going for something maybe kind of preppy and traditional? something like this

abba’s going for the leather jacket greaser look no question

diavolo is wearing a suit because it befits his image and i begged him no more fishnets

and sorbet and gelato are going kind of casual but i’ve mentioned before i hc gelato as a former military man and he’s not able to keep away from the aesthetic. he insists he needs all the pockets for his knives. sorbet’s casual but has the ‘dark colours only please’ thing going on! he’s got the greaser thing abba’s got going on but in a more muted way. 

that all being said, i’m a sucker for historical fashion, and fancy waistcoats and frock coats on ANY of my f/os has me sweating. dress them like some vampire chronicles bullshit and i’m gone

[vintageleatherjacket]

My Tribe..... @kevin.two ・・・ Three of the finest leather jackets for sale. Both Himel jackets are made of Shinki horsehide • Canuck car coat (40) // @himelbros Brimaco cafe racer (36) // @himelbros M-422A flight jacket (40) // @therealmccoyslondon • #himelbros #therealmccoys #vintage #repro #reproduction #leatherjacket #flightjacket #caferacer #carcoat #shinki #horsehide #military #brimaco #m422a

[peashooter85]

Modern reproductions of World War II Italian military rations.. for sale at Repro-Rations reprorations.com

[gearskin]

#Repost @sam_v05 • • • Completed helmet setup *means repro ••• #airsoft #pewpew #military #milsim #survival #soldier #tactical #airsoftworldwide #airsofting #airsoftmilsim #airsoftgear #guns #militarylife #camouflage #airsoftnation #milsimlife #airsoftworld #camo #nods #armasight #dualtubes #bnvd https://www.instagram.com/gearskin.eu/p/BuqmOaSnaVT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kn4i2ylpo0sr

[nana-glass-chillhop-radio-hour]

Don't forget when the CIA spooks strongarmed John into puppeting around the president's corpse and like.... apparently didn't think he was smart enough to use that unfettered access to the overwhelming military force wielded by the American executive branch to do anything they didn't want him to do. Bc that part stood out to me as an especially trenchant sociopolitical critique imo

Also repro rights Mercymorn became "yeah I'll just sleep w my boss to make him a baby w/o his knowledge or consent like it's literally no big deal" Mercymorn because um. That's also A Lot. We are sooooo far beyond the parameters of normal behavior here lol

It's endlessly funny to me, that so many people read Nona the Ninth - a book where a group of indigenous people from a small nation in the southern hemisphere spend years trying to build a communal plan, begging anyone to take collective action, reaching out again and again for as many people to get on board as possible, only to be stymied again and again by the individually and structurally powerful, who simply didn't care (and couldn't care due to the incentive structures imposed by power) and just wanted to preserve their own power/lives at the expense of everyone else, only for one of their number to be singled out and given immense universe-altering power by a magical entity, which of course led to disaster and the collapse of their original goals because, you know, absolute power corrupts absolutely and will magnify even the most minor human foibles - and came away thinking ah yes, the point is that John as an individual is ontologically evil.

[petermorwood]

Book of Years question - does a taipan look like a katzbalger and a makher like a messer ?

Short question, long answer - with pictures!

Just for fun, I’ve sourced almost all the images in this post from Kult of Athena to demonstrate how much visual research can be found on a single website. How accurate that visual research might be will need more work from the researcher. All of these are A-OK.

*****

The Book of Years series were originally very (excessively?) samurai-influenced, and while ebook revisions done by an older and wiser author have changed a lot of that, some aspects remain.

A wakizashi looks like a smaller version of a katana, so I imagined a taipan as being a smaller version of a taiken, which was itself inspired by the “Munich longsword” which I saw years ago in a book by Ewart Oakeshott and have admired ever since.

However I've just done a word search of all the novel files, and I’m surprised to discover that most weapons, including the taipan, aren’t described in detail. This is about as far as I ever went:

"There was a broad-bladed taipan shortsword in his hand..."

(Horse Lord)

”Broad-bladed” leaves an opening for “narrow-bladed”, just as “straight” can leave an opening for “curved”, but this is a bit like my own occasional writing advice: “If detail isn’t vital, vague will do just fine.”

However @dduane looked at it and said, “a bit less vague wouldn’t hurt once in a while.”

Not in this scene, though. That taipan’s in the principal villain’s hand, so focus is more on what he’s going to do with it - something villainous, brutal and nasty - than with how it looks.

It’s not like a katzbalger; they’re longer than I imagine a taipan to be:

A qama or kindjal from the Caucasus is more the thing.  Zaporozhian Cossack to Alban Horse Lord isn’t that much of a stretch, and may have had an influence on the “Prince Ivan” series. :->

This one’s notably long and broad...

...while others are shorter, or slimmer, or curved, or all three.

The makher was created another way; there the name came first.

"Aldric took note of a diagonal belt across the man’s chest supporting a makher, the leaf-bladed shortsword favoured by the Drusalan military..."

(Dragon Lord)

I pinched that word from an Ancient Greek weapon called a makhaira which - depending on what you read and where you read it - looked like a kopis...

...or didn’t look like a kopis.

I just liked the sound of the word itself, and applied it to a weapon resembling  the early (Mainz-pattern) Roman gladius.

That Messer notion might come from this description:

The Drusalan’s weapon was little more than a big knife, a broad, slightly curved blade ending in a clipped point, and it looked like the bastard child of a falchion and a butcher’s cleaver.

(Demon Lord)

That was indeed inspired by combining a big Bowie knife...

...and a Messer like this repro.

But it was never called a makher in the text, even though it’s opposed by one.

The eltmakher from “War Lord” and later IS curved, and since it's usually referred to as a "war-knife", the Kriegsmesser source is pretty obvious. This sword-hilted interpretation is even better, since it doesn’t have the distinctive Messer riveted-scales grip.

According to internal history, way back in time taikenin were also curved, with one full edge and a false edge near the point. 

"(Isileth's) hilt and guards would have changed many times as style dictated, but the blade itself, one of the first to be straight and fully double-edged, had a lineage few clans could match."

(Horse Lord)

The old-style taiken I was imagining turned out to exist in real life; it was a Swiss sabre, like this repro by JT Pälikkö of Finland.

Or, even better, like this one.

“Alban swords have been straight for hundreds of years. But someone who might have, ah, personal reasons for recalling an earlier time might have a sword in the style of that time. A time when Alba was a free country. A time ‘when blades were curved and honour was straight.’ That’s what your people like to say, isn’t it?” “Not my people. Not in my hearing.” Aldric glanced at the sword. “And that’s not very curved.” (Shadow Lord)