"British uniforms around 1985-1990" Topic

I´m starting a 20mm british force for WWIII with the A&A FoF rules. The timeframe is around 1985.

What uniform is the best to paint. Was the DPM used in great numbers, or just the jacked with green pants?

Anyone that can help?

DPM has been standard wear for all arms since the 1970s.

Before the introduction of Combat 95, the DPM jacket and trousers were of a different cut, but that's not likely to be noticeable in any wargaming scale. The webbing would have been 58 pattern; Complete Equipment Fighting Order (CEFO) with yoke, pouches, bum-roll, water-bottle and respirator case, Complete Equipment Marching Order (CEMO) with the addition of the large pack (often referred to as a bergen, which it wasn't). In either order an entrenching tool or pick (normally issued half and half) should be worn, which could make an alarming clang on the helmet if adopting a prone firing position too enthusiastically.

The helmet would have been the old Mark 4, with the distinctive turtle shape; if this presents any difficulty, the shape of the helmet can be conveniently hidden by covering it with local camouflage (I find finely-chopped coloured paper and crumbled-up lichen effective in 1/76th), as the helmet was almost invariably seen with such stuff generously applied. The soldier's hands and face should also be smeared with camouflage cream, which was a dark brown colour. Boots might be combat highs, I suppose some people might still be wearing ankle boots with puttees, and there might be some black gloves.

If people are not in full combats, as might happen in some lower-intensity operations, you might perhaps see olive-green lightweight trousers worn with a DPM jacket, or even just an OG shirt or woolly pully, in which case webbing would probably not be worn, or just skeleton order (no rear pouches or bum-roll). It would also be unlikely to wear the (heavy and annoying) steel helmet in other orders of dress, and you can have a bit of fun here; although the dark navy blue beret was worn by most infantry regiments, there were other colours to choose from (although not as many as there are now), and one might also see hackles on fusilier berets, or the Royal Irish Rangers wearing the caubeen, or various Jock headdress.

Finally, if you hate painting DPM, and if you can find the figures for it, you could put everyone in NBC gear, coloured plain dark green -- I believe DPM noddy suits were just starting to be issued in the mid-80s.

All the best,

John.

John has pretty well summarised it. I did my 1980s Brits in all DPM, not too hard to do if you start with sand, then the brown and do the green last as it lets you control the overall tone.

58 pattern webbing is a sort of sludgy dark green.

Actually if you look at photos and footage of the Falklands you'll see that the OG pants were still quite common, although decreasingly so as the decade drew on.Contemporary photos of Northern Ireland bear this out. The glass fibre/ kevlar combat helmet was also on general issue by the mid to late eighties. I'd do them predominantly all DPM with the occasional pair of OG pants for variety.

Most importanly remember to give them all the dodgy moustache that is usually also seen in a certain adult type of film.

Thanks for the input, it is greatly appreciated, especially the part about the "dodgy moustaches". I think I will give the commanders that kind of moustache… Who can really resist a uniformed man with a nice moustache educated in the world famous british upperclass schools, the russian motorized infantry will either run away in horror or run forward in happy expectation…

Jokes aside, thanks for the info and painting advice.

Try this site, there may be some useful info there for you:

forces80.com

Actually the much loved 'lightweights', or OG pants, would not have been worn, except in a chipbag regiment, in WW3. The combat trousers had to be worn because the two layers these trousers were made of gave sufficient sweat absorption to allow the NBC 'noddy suit' to work effectively over the top.

Don't forget to add black to the DPM – in the open field British DPM often looks very dark from a distance (often too dark, I've often though), though is absolutely invisible in dark woodland.