When is "too much?"

[Anglian Pro]

This thought came to me at my last game, the site I play at also accomadates Airsoft players, as we were on the walk up to one of the "arenas" the airsoft players were coming off, they looked like real soldiers as in they had helmets, military grade vests, dog tags and even real military insignias, when is it too far?

I'm a Paintballer (Obviously) and the guys I play with have vests and such but they're made FOR paintball and they're nessacary, I'm not too sure about people who dress up like that, myself my load out is British DPM trousers and Jacket and a shemagh for neck protection but I also have a vest, but that is for Paintballing, it holds all my pods.

Yet a couple of people come along wearing fake medals, fake insignias and are all kitted up in unnessacary kit to make them look like pretend soldiers, Helmets, real radios, plastic cap guns in holsters etc etc.


I'm not too sure about this, I understand it's all fun but surely some sort of line is to be drawn? So what is your opinion? Where is the line? Any ex-forces on here who feel this way? One current serving soldier who came to my site got slightly annoyed with a kid who was dressed in a full soldiers load-out.

 

[Gassy]

To all who post Do Not turn this thread into an airsoft bashing event or you will be punished accordingly , and yes they scared the hell out of me talking to one of them at p8ntfest

 

[Anglian Pro]

I'm not, It's about Paintballers, I was merely stating seeing the Airsofters gave me this thought.

 

[outkastmike]

They do there thing & we do our thing.

 

[Anglian Pro]

Okay let me start again, this has nothing to do with Airsofters, delete airsofters let's start again.

Okay, people walked past me at a paintball site, dressed like soldiers with body armour, medals, berets and military imitation gear, now If I was a real soldier I'd be annoyed at these people pretending to be "me", is there a line that has to be drawn? or is it just harmless fun?

 

[Tom Allen]

surely it's just harmless fun, if a person objected to this they must have a sad existence. If their argument is this belittles the sacrifices soldiers made during the many wars, then they seriously need to get a grip on reality.

 

[BubbleGumBob]

most airsofter i have come across are army rejects... plain and simple there playing army havent got a problem with it just the way it is... medals is a bit to far

 

[Tom Allen]

is it not just the same as a pink/purple barrel, or multi-coloured clothing...

 

[Rider]

take it or leave it. what ever floats your boat and all that.

i started playing paintball in camo (i know...... ) but moved onto a bit of sup'air then joined a scenario team as although i enjoyed a bit of tourney it just wasn't as appealing long term.

but the camo had gone and stayed gone - as had the "playing soldiers" bit. the guys i started out playing paintball with, most of them have gone over to airsoft eek: how could they?!) and a couple of them are treating it like woodsball with tiny balls. where whatever, play for fun, etc....

on the other hand a couple of them have gone "immersive" as it were. they now have full sets of camo with all the right bits to be correct issue uniforms and kit, with the right sort of gun..... and take it all too seriously. it almost came to blows apparently when one of them played one after being hit in the arm because "a minor small arms injury on a peripheral area wouldn't overly inhibt the combat effectiveness".....

to each there own. they wanna get there little balls out and pewpew each other and play soldiers, fine.

they wanna go dress up like a tree and spend 90% of a big game under a bush, fine.

end of the day, they pay their money to play their game their way.

it's just not everyones cup of tea.

 

[Tom]

It's choice, and how they like to play
Like me you wear a vest, however I disagree that a paintball vest is necessary, or that it is valid because it is made for paintball
It's what we wear through choice and to match what we want to carry
Airsofters don't have to have a vest made for airsoft, a genuine one will meet their requirement. (but one made for airsoft should be cheaper as it can have the style but does not need to be mitary as if your life depended on it)
I have 2 vests for paintball, one is a genuine military vest - the pouches are varied and I can only carry certain pods each customised to fit, the other is also genuine but is MOLLE and it use paintball pod pouches
What is essential is my paint and air, I don't need to wear a vest for them and if it's quantity I can carry the same amount or more with my paintball pod belts

Not every airsofter goes in a full military rig. If those you saw want to then there is no harm
If they choose to impersonate the military and lay claim to the badges / medals then that would cause offence, but playing in the woods in fancy dress harms no-one