So here we go – CIGARSINTERNATIONAL / Brothers In Arms.

This is not about gear at the first place but more of a look behind the barricades, seeing soldiers enjoying the time inside the wire or on vacation. Enjoy!

124th Air Support Operations Squadron providing ground support to aircraft participating in various local exercises. The Joint Terminal Attack Controllers are communicating with F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 310th Fighter Squadron, and other squadrons as part of the exercise Cactus Starfighter, A-10 Thunderbolt II’s from the 190th Fighter Squadron as part of exercise Snowbird and various other aircraft. Day operations as they provide ground support to live fire of various bombs and strafing runs. (17.January 2013)

Did you spot the TAD GEAR scarf? YEAH!!!

I think it`s time to bring you some more nice pictures, an exemplary panorama view plus further explanations where I spent my weekends and love to play. Due to the large dimensions and very complicated terrain, I will stick to one area where I have taken pictures, but it will give you a good idea why I like this place so much! Enjoy!

Before we start our tour, let`s talk about dimensions and terrain. Overall it is difficult terrain which makes fast actions like running and sprinting almost impossible (there have been several accident with broken bones, twisted ankles, etc.) in the past. There are few spots where it is possible, but you should be always on the lookout (especially when it is slippery in/after rain).

Dimensions are approx. 500m x 600m with a small river (during snow melt he comes a beast sometimes), a few tiny islands and constant rise/fall of the environment.

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The area is demanding and takes it toll during summer season when it becomes very hot and you`ll have to take a constant climb to get to good places – to defend, attack or surround your enemy (your best friend here: a good sling or weapon`s catch!).
My top downfall (around 2.5 meters) was from a rock into dense vegetation – no fun!
(I was lucky that I wore my whole protective gear that day)

***

Let`s start with a nice view from the edge of *Island 5* looking at *Area 4*:

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As you will imagine, crossing the river becomes often a difficult things to master if some players cover the other side and know how to defend. And besides watching out for a hail of BBs, the river becomes often a bit deep (0.5m – 0.8m).

Another photograph from a spot between *Area 1* and *Area 4* looking down to *Island 5*:

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Let`s go back to *Area 4* and take a look around! This is our main bunker that we usually have to protect at all costs. The opposite side tries to get inside and kill a balloon (fierce looking airy general) dummy – a nice mission objective!

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The main bunker is protected by some walls and fortifications and even smaller bunkers. Check out the pics looking from left to right (all clickable):

There are several good barricades to defend our main bunker (click to enlarge):

There is even a small defensive ditch with a small bridge over it – a hot point to defend! (Attention! Rushing forces breached our outer defenses – they are coming!)

My main buddy and myself (right) chilling between two games:

Let`s stay in this area but let us go a few steps towards the edge near the river. First a reference pic for size comparison:

Panorama shot (from left to right – *ISLAND 5* on the other side – click to enlarge):

You will see a small bunker in the last pic – let`s zoom in (click to enlarge):

And what`s next to this bunker on the right sight? This tall building which often functions as an important strategic point when it comes to a (kind of) siege. The distance between this building and our main bunker (plus adjacent fortifications) is around 40-50m (which often turns out to be a hell of a firefight without anyone really moving – more like a WWI scenario: a bit of trench warfare without having real trenches… )!

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Let us leave this area and walk towards *Area 9* (click to enlarge)…

Another small bridge:

If we follow one the many trails we got closer to a new base (click to enlarge):

This playing area offers possibilities to climb to awesome defending positions!

On the other hand it has some open areas – especially in spring and autumn:

Here a few pictures showing the empty river between *Area 6* and *Area 9*:

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Check my partner for size reference of the stones (click to enlarge)!

Another shot of the river and its content: fuckin` crazy 2-3m tree stuff build ups:

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That it folks! You`ve seen 25% of the playing area and when summer kicks in and everything starts to grow, I should do another post because you`ll hardly recognize the area! This is why I love this playing field so much: different kinds of terrain and with the change of climate, the area turns from a harsh and raw terrain to a Nam-ish one…

Next week I will start playing airsoft again. Yes! C-YA!

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BTW, thanx to all you visitors, Geardoshit almost reached 800.000 views!

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I don`t understand why VFC does such an ad with a TA31 replica. Why didn`t they stick to a (G&P) TA11 and pimp it a little bit? Only the airsoft god knows…

This it how things should look like!

P.S. Dear Chinese people, please be so kind and bring us a propper ACOG replica for our M27s!

OMG, there has something to be painted on my plastic version! This screwhead/ mounting part/ attachment knob looks so damn metallic! Yeah, wait a sec…

Now my PEQ box looks like this (I had no more gun metal color available, damn!):

The first time I will run through the wood with all this dense vegetation, the colour will be gone in seconds! Hahahaha, I am so stupid!

If so, why did I paint the small detail then? I don`t know but I need a cold beer NOW! Hahahahaha! Cheers! (…a nice soccer game will start on TV in a minute!)

P.S.
If you take a look at the RS photographs, you`ll see that two other screws are not metal looking, more like khaki/tan color! Should I repaint my box then? God bless, there are so many different versions since 2009 (the first time I was happy to see PEQ16s pop up), that I don`t give a s***… (both plastic screws look kinda cool that way, isn`t it?)
Where have I put the new Vodka bottle? I hope it`s already in the freezer!

One of my favourite new impressions will be an USMC grunt, so I decided to go over all unfinished parts and mods, because the weather was fine and I was in the mood to get things rollin`!

One of the things that had to be improved was my PEQ-16 box.

I really like the box itself (which is a typical USMC item for me), but the cheap (plastic) shining look is kinda childish, so I decided to paint it a bit!

First I started to cover up the important parts, details that I like to remain unaltered (incl. removing the blue screw):

I used some medical tape that offers protection and sticks, but can be removed easily (and the fragile paper stickers are 100% intact).

Next, I used some khaki color can (Krylon was gone, used some Begadi TAN one) and applied some nice layer:

With all the glare and ugliness gone, I removed the tape and started to use some oldskool techniques – washing, shading, highlighting, dusting etc. (check the web for miniature plastic scale modelling skills or similar…):

I also thought about adding scratches and marks of heavy usage, but I decided to leave it this way. Why? With my experiences in the past, I know that the box will look like shit (perhaps broken already?) after 2-3 games due to the very ruff terrain where I am playing…

Looking dusty, looking good, isn`t it? Seen in action, soon!
(I already found two things that I will improve/pimp more before doing some impression pix… (a never ending story, hahahahahaa…)