Gear load out illustration

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Gear load out illustration

Postby diamondcutter13 » Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:37 pm

Been following this artist's drawings in the National Post's "Long Road" series on Afghanistan (http://news.nationalpost.com/tag/richard-johnsons-kandahar-journal/)

I like the piece he did below illustrating all the gear a war artist drags along with him.

http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/afghanartist1.pdf
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby vagabond » Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:40 pm

Cool, thanks for that.
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby AztecDave » Sun Aug 26, 2012 6:41 am

very practical load out. wonder what it tops out at, weight-wise.
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby Ultra Swain » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:01 pm

AztecDave wrote:very practical load out. wonder what it tops out at, weight-wise.


yea I can't argue with what he brought (except for the chest harness to film himself sketching) but that might be important I guess. My Burma kit is not all the different, except my backup camera is an iPhone and instead of cliff bars I just bring dry ramen noodle packs. But if we can't find 3-5 porters to carry all of it then the ugly decisions come.
Geez,am I NOT ALLOWED TO BE INTENSE FOR JUST 10 FUCKING SECONDS??!!!!!!!
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby diamondcutter13 » Tue Aug 28, 2012 11:07 pm

He had me at "its important I am able to carry my own shit" (I paraphrased).
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby Ultra Swain » Wed Aug 29, 2012 1:29 pm

diamondcutter13 wrote:He had me at "its important I am able to carry my own shit" (I paraphrased).


there is now way he can carry all that.
Geez,am I NOT ALLOWED TO BE INTENSE FOR JUST 10 FUCKING SECONDS??!!!!!!!
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby diamondcutter13 » Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:50 am

Ultra Swain wrote:
diamondcutter13 wrote:He had me at "its important I am able to carry my own shit" (I paraphrased).


there is now way he can carry all that.


Most of the embedded types will have a secured area like a FOB where they can leave their stuff and just pack for the day trip out or an overnight out in the sticks. Travel with the military will likely limit him to a carry on, a laptop type bag, A rucksack or duffel bag and a second "follow-up" which is your base camp type bag or pelican case that does not get hauled around daily.

These guys lose their cred with troops quickly once they start burdening those around them with mountains of kit and taking up more than their share of space so most of them pack accordingly.
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby JITW » Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:36 pm

He should choose a body armor kit that has side plates and a form fitting and more conformable/lighter helmet, also a better backpack, maybe something semi-custom

Leather gloves for climbing out of a burning tank? Seriously Dude?

He doesn't carry Imodium and Baby Wipes, that tells me this hero goes back to a bunk every night

Reporters, NGO folks and other war tourist types know shit about gear (not that I am complaining - I have/do get paid to consult about gear for clueless folks like this) - strange especially considering how important Kit is to their job

Trying not to hate too much here but all the Apple products, a mount so he can film himself and saying things like "while I am on Patrol" makes me think this this guy is a Major League Douche

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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby vagabond » Tue Sep 04, 2012 11:27 pm

JITW wrote:He should choose a body armor kit that has side plates and a form fitting and more conformable/lighter helmet, also a better backpack, maybe something semi-custom

Leather gloves for climbing out of a burning tank? Seriously Dude?

He doesn't carry Imodium and Baby Wipes, that tells me this hero goes back to a bunk every night



I don't know about baby wipes but Charmin has some great little rolls that fit easily into any size backpack and are handy to have around. I only do Immodium if it's explosive and I don't have time for it to work itself out of my system (such as taking transport within 24 hrs).

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Maybe you can do a post in response on Death Valley mag JITW?
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby JITW » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:00 am

vagabond wrote:
I don't know about baby wipes but Charmin has some great little rolls that fit easily into any size backpack and are handy to have around. I only do Immodium if it's explosive and I don't have time for it to work itself out of my system (such as taking transport within 24 hrs).


ya got to have Immodium of you are going to be out for weeks at at a time - Trust me, this is more important than ammo

vagabond wrote:Maybe you can do a post in response on Death Valley mag JITW?


That would make me a dushe if I called out someone I don't know on my blog lol


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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby vagabond » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:08 pm

JITW wrote:
vagabond wrote:
I don't know about baby wipes but Charmin has some great little rolls that fit easily into any size backpack and are handy to have around. I only do Immodium if it's explosive and I don't have time for it to work itself out of my system (such as taking transport within 24 hrs).


ya got to have Immodium of you are going to be out for weeks at at a time - Trust me, this is more important than ammo


I still carry it, I just try not to use it unless absolutely necessary.

JITW wrote:
vagabond wrote:Maybe you can do a post in response on Death Valley mag JITW?


That would make me a dushe if I called out someone I don't know on my blog lol


That's what blehgs are for dude. And you don't have to call him out, you can be nice about it. It's about starting a conversation, not being a douche.


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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby Furrowedbrow » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:52 am

My 2p:

In the last, 'military-themed' issue of Monocle (don't buy it- it reads like it was written by a 21-yr-old girl intern douchebot), they have a photo spread of what kit different journos take to war. Some of it's useful; most of it's just weight.

I spent 3 1/2 months of this summer in various shitty, rebelly bits of Sudan with a full rucksack/bergen and a smaller patrol pack: I ended up dumping most of my kit in a hotel room in Juba and coming out of the trip at a slight monetary loss for the experience, purely for paying an Eritrean dude for the privilege of storing my shit. This made me think about paring kit down to the minimum, assuming you'll end up carrying it all for a few days at least, and living it out of it for a few months. I used to be in the TA (sort of the UK version of the National Guard but, like, better ;-) ) and like all reserve soldiers, signed off with a shed full of overpriced and largely useless, self-purchased gucci kit. Don't over think it, and don't get enticed by sexy kit-porn catalogues. You don't need the best of anything; you just want something that does the job.

Essentials:

A few pairs of socks, a few pairs of pants (as in boxers).
A couple of t-shirts
A warm hoody or cheap cashmere jumper- something light but warm.
A Barbour (which functions well as a wind- and waterproof bivvy or groundsheet- I'll never go anywhere without one again).
Your normal phone.
A cheap, battered old-skool Nokia, and a couple of local SIMs. You'll probably end up giving it to your guide/minder/fixer/whatever.
Body armour: Vestguard £500 job, integral soft plates, additional Level IV ceramics, very light and manoeuvrable, no groin and neck and arm shit to make you slowly flop around a killing area in the sun.
Cameras x 2, lots of charged spare batteries, and assorted ancils (firewire etc).
Laptop/Macbook Pro
Boots: I used a £10 pair of desert boots- they began to give out by the end, but hey. I don't quite get the BFC 'what are the bestest most-SOF boots for buying trinkets in Marrakech' thing... That said, they had zero grip on mud.
Trousers: a pair of cheap cotton cargo pants, and a pair of jeans in case I shat myself.
A couple of notebooks, a handful of pens and propelling pencils.
Imodium.
A water bottle (I used my UK 58 pattern with a metal flask for cooking)
A belt, with lots of notches for lost weight.
Chlorine tablets (which were pointless: you may as well get the shits for a few days and get used to the local water)
A shemagh, to act as an emergency blanket and to keep millipedes/scorpions from crawling over your face while you sleep.
A locally-bought, $5 knife.
Lots of cheap lighters.
Lots of duty free cigarettes.
A thin, small, warm wool blanket nicked off Kenya airways. Cracking bit of kit, that.

What I should have brought but didn't:

A helmet: Next time a UK Mark 6 from Ebay, 'cos it's cheap, if crap from a prone position (but I'm not going to be shooting anything, so that's not a big deal).
A head torch for padding out to the latrine at night- (no need for Petzl stuff, just a few LEDs from the local outdoor store), ditto a $1 pair of flip-flops to be bought locally.
An inverter, to charge batteries from a car/Landcruiser (this would have been ultra-useful).
A basha.
A few bungees.
A balti dish for cooking/washing.

And that's it. I've dredged the shed and put a few utility pouches onto a 58 pattern belt for the stills camera and water bottle and shit for next time, but this is a kit list for the absolute, most isolated, most barbarous place on earth (AFAIK) and it's still pretty light.You should be able to get all the above in a bergen, and be able to carry it no probs. I brought way more stuff to my first conflict gig when I ended up living in a fucking hotel for weeks.

Next gig, somewhere more ostensibly civilised, I'm going to dump all the camping crap and cram it all in a Golani pack (or its less-Israeli-sounding equivalent) for a coupla weeks.

JITW: ref the Apple products, it comes with the (meeja) territory. It's more about the industry-standard editing software than the shiny kit.

Finally: if you're going somewhere cold then a Snugpak softy jacket. No question.
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby rickshaw92 » Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:07 am

A thin, small, warm wool blanket nicked off Kenya airways. Cracking bit of kit, that.


Stealing the blanket off the plane is a SOP for me. If the airline does not nail it down it's included in the price of my ticket as far as I am concerned. I got a big bag full of em in my moms basement. That said there was a time when BA had these really gay blue / red / pink blankets that were horrible.
Im reallly fuclimg pissed but fespite that I can still hit a tarfet at 1000m plus. mayVRVe bnot tonight but it qint beyond the wit if man. Nowhammy.
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby ktrout » Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:04 am

Damn, last year I spent five months crossing Eurasia on a bicycle. I think I had maybe 50 pounds, total. I've gotten used to exclusively wearing hiking sandals (Chacos) because I didn't have space for shoes. A few months ago I did an adventure race where I was trudging through snow in them. Pushing my bicycle. I can now do a ten km jog barefoot. I just got around to trying on my jeans again because I only had space for nylon cargo pants. Jeans suck for anything besides sitting around anyway. I had a pair of socks or two, but I've gotten used to forgoing underclothing at all. Someday I'll start behaving like a civilized human being again, but it wasn't really my strong suit anyway.
I thought it was funny when I met up with a couple of Brits in a Range Rover near Novosibirsk packed to the rafters with spare ... whatever.
Did I lose some weight? I think I freaked out the staff at Auschwitz.
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Re: Gear load out illustration

Postby thewalrus » Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:06 pm

ktrout wrote:Damn, last year I spent five months crossing Eurasia on a bicycle. I think I had maybe 50 pounds, total. I've gotten used to exclusively wearing hiking sandals (Chacos) because I didn't have space for shoes. A few months ago I did an adventure race where I was trudging through snow in them. Pushing my bicycle. I can now do a ten km jog barefoot. I just got around to trying on my jeans again because I only had space for nylon cargo pants. Jeans suck for anything besides sitting around anyway. I had a pair of socks or two, but I've gotten used to forgoing underclothing at all. Someday I'll start behaving like a civilized human being again, but it wasn't really my strong suit anyway.
I thought it was funny when I met up with a couple of Brits in a Range Rover near Novosibirsk packed to the rafters with spare ... whatever.
Did I lose some weight? I think I freaked out the staff at Auschwitz.


Probably packed to the roof with.... spare ranger rover parts! Because unlike a Toyota, good luck getting Range Rover pieces in eastern Russia.
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