#milsurps

[pyrousred]

THE LATEST ADDITION TO MY COLLECTION...

...the M40 gas mask! I bid sniped this one off of shopgoodwill, hell of a find for a hell of a price.

For those who don't know, this mask was the US gas mask from the 80s until it was replaced by the M50 in the early 00s.

One unique feature, which you can see in the first image below, is its 'second skin.' Long story short, the base material of the facepiece (green) is made of silicone rubber - which is good at a lot of things, but not so good at resisting blister agents. So to keep the mask from being damaged by certain chemicals the wearer may encounter, a butyl rubber second skin (black) is fixed over the mask.

I intend to remove the second skin at some point, as well as take off the lens outserts and reconfigure which side the filter connects to. I'll probably change it all back to normal afterwards, I just want the experience.

[sl4vght3rh0vs3]

[unnonexistence]

it's true that hermann's clothing aesthetic is mostly something along the lines of "dorky professor," but i think it's really more like 80% dorky professor, 20% military surplus. (that 20% is probably all ppdc gear, but the Aesthetic™ of the ppdc gear is milsurp).

like, hermann's a practical guy. he cares more about the function of his clothes than the appearance (see: glasses cord, oversized parka). he's also been working for the ppdc since he was in his mid-20s. you can't tell me he doesn't own, like, fleece quarter-zip tops in neutral colours and too-big "one size fits all" sweatpants with "P.P.D.C." stamped on the side.

[ndylaurent]

old patches

[selfmaderibcageman]

new boots ^

[3liza]

бирючина товариш

[jadedpiper]

average going out fit

[tyrianwanderings]

Patina

[primordialll]

genuine surplus gas mask (probably filled with asbestos, do not try at home)

[hellbraiserart]

Everyone say hi Jotna! She is a devotee of decay, and infection, and her dearest wish is to see the world consumed in holy rot. She is also very kind and friendly and is excited to tell you about all of her new sores and rashes and get you to join her cult

[1794]

google search "ok to wear school shooter jacket as 25yo college freshman site:4chan"

[anarchoanimatronic]

hate the us military but the surplus cold weather trousers i found at an antique store today look cool as hell

[that-dinopunk-guy]

It's been a while since I bought any milsurp, so when I saw an ad with these cool-looking British patrol packs I thought what the hell. Mine just showed up today, and sure enough it is pretty cool. It looks neat, it has room for stuff, and it has little straps on the outside for attaching more stuff.

But it also came with free goodies inside!

I also got an opened packet of napkins, a pack of gum, these little...flag marker things, and a fossilized rubber band that I did not bother including in the picture.

[9x19-balaclava]

Save money or..buy a rifle dated back to WW2🤔

[selfmaderibcageman]

got some pretty cheap nice looking milsurp boots..

[pattern-recognition]

I was thinking about getting something from varusteleka :( whats a better place to get military surplus?

90% of my acquisitions have been things i’ve found irl, exclusively in antique stores or vintage shops because even if you can find a brick and mortar surplus store it’s simply not worth your time. Football season is over; it’s not that surplus is drying up like you hear people say, the wells have been empty for years now. Places like Varusteleka, American Pipedream, and Kommando Store still receive the odd shipment of miscellanea now and again, but warehouses full of the articles that are most prototypical of what people want from milsurp (N-1 deck jackets, M43s, M65s, fishtail parkas, strichtarn coats, bomber jackets, etc) are an anachronism in the 21st century. You can see it written all over the marketing of the popular milsurp retailers; it’s not possible to keep a business afloat with used tableware from the Italian Airforce or a random smattering of SADF web gear, so they’ve pivoted to structuring their brands around niche internet demographics that they can outsource new-production commodities to cater towards. It can’t feasibly be just about the militaria anymore, so they have to build up a recognizable brand around themselves hence all the shop specific t-shirts and paraphernalia. The new wave is far flung from the ad-hoc bargain basement nature of Army Navy stores of yore. Like with everything post the rise of e-consumerism the market has been rationalized, the prices standardized, and everyone is a collector now. To actually answer your question though, I recommend just getting an idea of what you want and then getting it from ebay or an equivalent, or finding a dedicated curated vintage shop nearby. The prices won’t be dirt cheap, but I think it’s more worthwhile to just get a quality garment where you know you can find it instead of wasting an indeterminate amount of time in vain trying to salvage from thrift stores.