Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Wish Lust - Survival Hardware - Baccy Pouch

In  a departure from my usual kind of review item I wanted to show some love for one of my co-authors for Breach Bang Clear , David "Norseman" Williams. Norseman has a very popular YouTube channel that I am very fond of.  
As well as tutoring in outdoors skills, Norseman is also an accomplished smith and leatherworker. His small businesses  Survival Hardware LLC - makes Hard tools for hard times. Based in Idaho, USA.
As well as knives and sheathes, wallets and one such piece is this, the hand crafted Baccy pouch.
 Handmade from rugged pull-up type leather that will give you an appealing aged look.
The cowhide is lightweight, yet very durable, as it is chrome tanned.
The Baccy Pouch is designed as a tobacco pouch, has two generous pockets inside, one to keep your loose tobacco in and your smoking accruments in the other. 
 
Now, I'm not  a smoker and I'm not promoting or endorsing it , but I am an avid tea drinker and I figure this would be a good way of keeping my tea in good order, dry and in one spot. I envisage keeping bags and/or loose leaf tea in one pouch and strainers in the other.

The pouch rolls up and is secured with a leather strap.  It is hand stitched with medium weight, 
4 ply twisted and waxed polyester thread. This pouch should be very long lasting and provide a rustic, aesthetically pleasing storage for all your dried consumables.






 


Monday, August 19, 2019

Movie Reviews : Pandemic, Hell, Ravenous

I took the two weeks after Easter off work to be home over the school holidays. I managed to squeeze some apocalyptic movies into my allotted couch potato time when impressionable eyes were elsewhere. I promptly lost this post...   Here's what I thought:


Title:  Pandemic
Year: 2016
Director: John Suits
Origin: USA
Mood: Grim
Style: dark First Person Shooter, suspenseful
Apocalypse Type: Zombie plague
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown.
Antagonists: Cannibalistic bite-infecting fast zombies
Protagonists: mixed military civilian Search & Rescue crew
Outcome: Grim.

CDC doctor embedded with a military refuge in LA is sent out on a Search and Rescue mission to extract the team send to a school supposedly full of survivors. Its established her family live in LA and she suspects are still alive. The 5 stages of infection are established: 1) Flu like 2)debilitating bronchitis 3)aggressive and conscious 4) death-like coma 5) fast hyper aggressive zombie. Infection is spread by exposure and bites. S&R crews equipped with biohazard suits including suit radios and helmet cams with green screen night-vision option. Teams include a medical specialist, a driver, a shotgun equipped gunner and a red-shirt navigator.

It is established that a vaccine is available to combat a Level 1 infection but is in limited supply and only available for the Dr. The crew is expendable. A “field infection test” gun is available to determine if survivors are infected. The Crew is sent out in a modified school-bus to retrieve the previous crew and any survivors from the school and along the way are attacked by swarms of Level 1-3 infected, including a honey-pot roadside trap. Combat is handled via FPS style helmet-cam vision which is a decided improvement over hand-held “found footage” handy-cam shakey-cam styles often used in the genre.

Relegated to foot travel and separated, the team struggles to make it back to the compound alive, battling the infected with improvised weapons, the crew locates the Dr’s daughter and eventually make it back to the compound in a scavenged ambulance with heavy casualties. An enjoyable if predictable zombie plague movie with some nice hooks, and not too many “close the damn door” stupid movie trope survivor errors. The medical science may have been flakey and the crew certainly wasn’t a front line unit, but they weren’t pitched as one either but it was a realistic enough “get it done” movie.



Title:  Hell
Year: 2011
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Origin: German-Swiss
Mood: Grim, Gitty  dystopian escape and evacuation road-tip
Style: stark and bleak
Apocalypse Type: Environmental disaster. Drought, famine, scorched Earth
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown. Near total Biosphere destruction
Antagonists: the Sun, other survivors and scavengers
Protagonists: family of survivors
Outcome: Grim.

Final Thoughts: get some effective hand weapons that you can use!

An upswing in solar activity has blasted the Earth, baking the surface, evaporating water leading to widespread drought, famine and death. In typical Mad Max style, survivors scour the wasteland for food, fuel and water in a cramped and stuffed station-wagon with bars on the windows. Goggles and dust masks are all the rage. Desperate survivors battle lone hermits for petrol station supplies and we get an idea that exposure to the sun leads to 2nd and 3rd degree burns and blindness rapidly. Some excellent post-apoc scavenging in the checking of toilet tanks and hydronic radiators for good water! Poor personal security movie-tropes made me yell at the screen.

Downed power pylon over-road made for an excellent improv road-block and ambush point, but removing it was not when I would have chosen to teach my child-survivor how to drive. Good scavenge the flipped wreck scene gave an opportunity to “split the party” as well as a chance for a piss-break to establish the adult female got her period and was not-pregnant, contraception being an issue often overlooked in survival movies.  

Raiders kidnap the child and in the ensuing pursuit the male survivor badly breaks his ankle. Taking shelter in a mountain side rail tunnel the female lead sets off alone to rescue her sister and “get help”. She encounters survivors who operate a farm and discover they are cannibals, escaping a “marry-in or get eaten” proposal, the ensuing flight through open ground sheds some of the “sun is a murder ball” tension built up earlier.

The survivors take shelter in a cave in which they find a ready source of water. Survival looks bleak but possible.

Final Thoughts: better married to a cannibal than served to one as dinner

Title:  Ravenous ( Fr. Les Affamés)
Year: 2017
Director: Robin Aubert
Origin: Fernch Canadian
Mood: Suspenseful, realistic setting
Style: believable escape and evacuation road-trip
Apocalypse Type: Infectious Zombie plague
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown. Zombie swarms
Antagonists: Cannibalistic bite-infecting fast zombies
Protagonists: family of survivors with kids
Outcome: Grim.
In the woods in rural Quebec a farmstead is holding out against the zombies by being vigilant, quiet and risk-adverse. Two adult male friends patrol in a pickup truck until lone is lost. The survivor finds a bound woman with a suspicious bite mark who claims it was a dog not zombie. He befriends her and takes her with him. They encounter   a small girl and take her in.  Returning to the farmhouse they encounter a group of zombies building towers out of trash in a peculiar ritual. They accidentally alert the swarm of their presence and their flight leads the swarm to their farmstead. Instead of barricading and bugging-in the opt to bug-out and go cross country to a cold-war bunker they are aware of.

Taking limited supplies from the dwindling larder of the farmstead the survivors make a harrowing flight through woodlands relying on bush-craft and stealth to avoid roaming zombies and other hazards. Good use of hand weapons ( machete and hatchets) to avoid the noisy pump-action shotgun. They escape detection by mimicking the zombies carrying items to the ritual piles and eventually make it to the bunker only to discover its been stripped bare of resources. A note suggesting  a direction to search for more survivors is discovered before the swam arrives and decimates the survivors. (They didn’t close the bunker either).

Final thoughts and lessons: They should have bugged-in where they could. A stocked trap-door cellar would probably have been secure against fast-but dumb zombie swarms.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Quick review: Gloax - MP Magic socks!

Everyone loves a pair of good socks. Your feet will thank you and it can really make a difference to your effectiveness. Regular socks, be they woolen, cotton or more exotic materials like bamboo or the like are a big step up from nylon or acrylic blend, especially when it comes to smell. However, science has advanced and offers some other alternatives.


After a sweaty work out, or a long travel, or in the morning, you will definitely appreciate the difference a pair of clean dry socks. even more so if they're not stinky and are comfortable. The clever minds behind the Glovax gloves would like to introduce their MP Magic socks, they claim as "world's best odorless socks".




These socks are made from some very unique materials; This fabrics are infused with not one, but three antimicrobial metals: Silver, Copper and Zinc! Multiple metals can kill more types of odour and disease causing microbes. The the antibacterials effects will be much better than single. Silver is known as a great antibacterial meta, featuring in everythign from bandages to homeopathic potions, copper can kill bacteria too and it is also a key component of many enzymes, Zinc can reduce bacterial loads and thus odour too! This three metal infused technique takes existing techniques and layers them for increased coverage and effects. Based on a specially treated cotton, with a proprietary blend of mineral substances, enhance the performance of the metal elements, and  are never washed away.


I wear boots. all day, every day. That's a pretty rough task for any sock. I hike, train and work in my boots. In winter time I like to leave my socks on because I'm very tall and my feet stick out of the covers. even with daily sock changes and foot washing, that takes a toll. I was sent some of these socks and tried them out. I wore the same pair for a week. I chose the ankle socks because I was purely interested in the foot effects. They were great!



With these functional fabrics, you can take off your shoes without any hesitation over worrying about their smell. A weeks worth of almost constant wear,including a 4 hour hike and a few hours of Viking training. My feet felt great and smelled pretty good too. The socks are breathable and even when my feet got hot and sweaty, a quick pull out and wave around both cooled them and dried then off. Think that comes down to the metal infusion of the fabric but also the design and cut of the sock certainly comes into it. More than just a modern miracle textile, these specially designed the socks at the toe and heel area, perfectly match the human foot shape, make that part super breathable and durable!

With their metal infused fabric these socks are designed to transfer heat more efficiently, and be more durable! Odorless, Comfortable, Antibacterials, super durable,Breathable. I gave them a pretty solid thrashing and they bounced back well. They work well as advertised, are comfortable and resilient day after day.

The Glovax team, just finished a campaign about a set of rugged cool work-gloves. Which are well worth checking out as well.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Events: 600 posts! 836,000 hits!

I clicked over a couple of big milestones recently. I cracked 800,000 page views earlier in the month, and looks like I've having even more success as well there, but also just published my 600th post.

Between my regular Reviews, Home-Front pieces, Wish-Lust pieces and Event reports. I've covered a lot of Kickstarter projects as part of my reviews, which have been great to.

I also have written a bunch of posts for Breach Bang and Clear and cross posted here too.

 It's been really great to see some high levels of interest in the things I've covered, as well as a bunch of LIKES and comments as well.

I'd be delighted to take requests of gear, events or topics to cover, so if you have a hankering to see me review something, try something, go or do something, to help your understanding of what I think it takes to be Apocalypse Equipped, do drop me a comment and let me know!

Ready For Anything. Are You?

Friday, April 1, 2016

Review: Platatac - Tactical Crate

This just in from Platatac in a recent press release via their FaceBook page ...:
 

"After the recent unveiling by 2nd Commando Regiment during a training activity, we can proudly announce the release of our NSN'd Assaulters Milk Crate (patent pending).



Build from carbon fibre bonded with inconel this bad boy can withstand over 16kn of force, 2000 Degrees Celsius, 10 sticks of TNT and pretty much anything a triple figure digger can throw at it.

The recently declassified Assaulters Milk Crate is a team essential item. With multiple lashing points for the Tuff Tactical Quick Release


Tactical Tie Off Point (TTQRTTOP) and light weight modularity the Assaulters Milk Crate is a must for all DA's.



Supplied with Two pieces of core flute and 4 black zip ties.



Available in 3 colours. (Blackout 1000x, Tactical Tan, Killer Wolf Grey)

Weighs just 6 grams.

RRP $499.00

Available for preorder 1st April 2016"









I've noted on the forums there may well also be a Blue Force Gear force-on-force trainer in the works as well, but reports also suggest that Multicam just wont stick to the frame. It's too high-speed.




Presumably you can add other modular features, but that may well come with package inserts

 


 
 
 
I was fortunate enough to have a couple come my way as well, and can tell you though mine were pre-release (note the unreleased Blaze Orange range-officer option peeking out underneath) and a possible SF/ SASR aquatic version in Blackout there.

These are some serious pieces of kit, with numerous uses around the bunker, in the field, and for all kinds of bug-out or bug-in use. They're so tough you could even transport perishable items like milk in them!

I'm hanging out for a possible titanium version, but I'm always a sucker for over-engineering.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Review: Fenix HL35 headlamp

First seen on Breach Bang&Clear here ...

My pal Sean from G8 sent me a pre-release Fenix HL35 LED headlamp to review, which was awesome to have happen, and very timely for us here.
I've covered a number of Fenix lights previously, from the unusually designed TK51, to the mighty LD60 and the very handy E99Ti keychain light to the very practical domed CL20 camp lantern. The HL35 is the next iteration of the existing Fenix headlamp range, and whist some of the stats are still unpublished, here's what I can tell you.



It is an aluminium housed, high performance headlamp boasting three levels of light from the main LED (assuming similar stats to the HL25 a maximum of 4/50/280 lumens while in burst mode, and a 223ft beam distance). A second, red LED is built in as well, and the selection button on the side of the housing cylinder next to the power button. You cycle through the four modes once the light is on with this. 1) steady white light (cycle through power setting with power button), 2) steady red light, 3) slow flashing white light 4) fast flashing red light. The main light is cycled through its three settings by pressing the power button, once lit and both LED's are shut off by holding the power button down. Holding the Mode button down will cause the light to come up on its maximum setting, before allowing you to cycle through the modes. The lamp is fitted in a bezel and is rotatable 60 degrees in the front, with a nice sturdy ratchet action, and well crenelated ends to facilitate the turn.

Built to resist the elements, the HL35 is waterproof to 2m, impact resistant at 1m and incursion protected to an IPX-8 rating. The HL35 is powered by 2 AA batteries.

The HL35 measures 66mm (3.2") wide, 45mm (1.8") "deep", and weighs about 90g (3.2oz) so it's remarkably dense, but not too weighty. the around the head and over the crown elastic headbands. These are usually the part of headlamps that I like the least; that the lamp part either flops around or the band is awkward. The HL35 is very stable, with a thin closed cell foam pad holding it in place and adding some comforting padding and the elastic is adjustable both in circumference and over the top.




One thing about the lamp, the two buttons are a little differentiate, especially with gloves on. I was rummaging in a dark nasty place this week, and needed to not bring too much attention to myself (don't ask, but I have a strong stomach), and it was tricky to select the right option with the gloves I had on. Working out which button was the power, and would let me alternate the three light levels, and which was the mode button, and inadvertently set me to strobing, was a problem.  I feel that even with the mode button being stippled, and a bit larger, the fact that they are both side-by side makes that tricky, especially when gloved.

That said, it's the first headlamp I've had where I didn't cringe at having to put on and use, the light was crisp and well cast, and it was comfortable to wear. If you're in the market, it would be well worth a look in.

Friday, October 9, 2015

Movie Reviews: The Colony, The Day After Tomorrow, Doomsday

I wanted to give a couple of movie reviews for some movies I have watched and enjoyed recently (or rewatched). They are all delightfully post or currently-apocalyptic and in some way speak to my outlooks on preparedness and post-disaster survival.
 
The Colony (2013) is set in a snowball scenario Earth, with the remainder of humanity locked away underground in vaults, not unlike in the Fallout series of games, as Colonies. We learn that the Colony our protagonists are in has suffered significant epidemics, and lost many of their population to both disease and also summary execution. They have a small selection of livestock, supplies of grains and seed-libraries and a very grim determination to survive. We also learn that the world froze over due to man-made weather stations gone awry, and have both radio contact with other colonies, and also satellite uplink to scan the surface for hot-spots, looking for a mythical thaw. Colony 7 sends a team to check on Colony 5, who they lost radio contact with after a garbled distress message. When they get there they find the that the colony has fallen victim to screaming cannibal crazies. They fall back, make it home but have lead the crazies to Colony 7. In the ensuing poorly orchestrated defense, we learn that a different colony has found a localised hot-spot, but have no viable seeds to restart the ecosystem. It's up to the remaining heroes from Colony 7 to survive the cannibal's and save their seeds...
 
So, fun premise, very well shot and cast, but the scripting and plot was a bit sketchy. The long term surviability issues were well presented, but I'd have liked to see some more competency in the Colony survivors, and less "mindless ravagers" from the cannibal crazies. If they were smart enough to survive, find and assault a fortified Colony, why were they growling, snarling animals? Give me thinking savages as believable bad-guys any day.
 
 
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
An old favourite, and another snowball scenario Earth (in the making) in which a massive ice-sheet calving in Antarctica triggers a cascade of global cooling. This happens whilst world governments deny the possibility of climate change, and everyone except Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall, who not only locks horns with the US Government, but also finds assistance with NASA, and other Climatologists across the world as they begin to see signs of a coming disaster. With 3 weeks of non-stop rain in some areas, and after a series of weather-related disasters beginning to occur over the world, (which was awesome). The young adult son of the paleoclimatologist is in New York with friends when the climactic snap freeze occurs, which is awesome as it is thrilling. The paleoclimatologist must make a daring trek across America to reach his son, trapped following the international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age.
 
I loved this movie, it was well made, the effects were awesome, and it showed a lot of awesome people doing awesome things. I love competent survivors. The way the characters dealt with adversity, both the professional explorer type, in the dad and his team, or the clever and innovative son and his friends. They all displayed "the right stuff" and I approved heartily. The nay-sayers and slow-thinking characters got what was coming to them, and even though the premise and science is well exaggerated, I enjoyed it.
 
 
Doomsday (2008)
The movie starts out with a military quarantine forming on the Scotland-England boarder when a lethal virus spreads throughout Scotland, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. To contain the threat, a brutal quarantine is enacted with a new Hadrian's Wall being built. Three decades later, the virus resurfaces in London. A team is put together and is sent into Scotland to retrieve a cure by any means necessary, as there is reason to believe it exists there, after satellite footage indicates possible human activity.
 
It turns out that shut off from the rest of the world, Scotland has reverted to a Mad Max style cannibal wasteland. Lots of cannibal. Well fed and post-industrial nightclub outfitted cannibals, with all that goes with that. They have been somehow hiding out in Glasgow by the hundreds. Mayhem, murder, anarchy. Yay.
 
Then suddenly we're headed for the Highlands, where the Doctor last working on a cure is believed to be holed up. In a castle, with a fully fledged feudal society of survivors. Medieval styling all the way and all technology is eschewed. Apparently there is no cure, some folks are just naturally immune. More Mad Max car-chases and murder, and we find the Government back in London is neither innocent, or doing well. Mayhem. Lots of fun.
 
Having previously lived in the UK, I always love it when I see a disaster movie set there. The science and settings were good, although as with any fanciful plague movie, the speed and numbers always seem to be pretty wild. Having a diverse split between urban savages (who, unlike in The Colony) were still very, very human, just hungry, bad people, and the huddled feudal dwellers in the hills, indicates a couple of very realistically (again, if you bar where all the food and or bodies came from in Glasgow) portrayed post-apocalyptic society settings. I really enjoyed this, and will watch again.
 

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

On our way in the BattleWagon to see Fury Road at the Drive-In
 As first seen on BreachBangClear (they've gotten a lot of content from me recently, yay)

I've been pondering what, if anything to write about this movie. I grew up mostly overseas, away from my native Australia. When Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome came out in 1985, I was 9 and living in the UK, about to move back to Australia for the second time. Being a 8-9 yo Australian ex-pat in the UK at the time I had this, the 1981 Galipoli movie, and pre-Crocodile Dundee Paul Hogan as my cultural identifiers. The Mad Max movies were rather seminal in my appreciation of what it meant to be Australian (read into that what you will), my views on prepping, survival and self-reliance. So, as you might imagine, I had high hopes, and expectations for the new movie.

I'm not so much going to critique its story or plotlines (which I enjoyed), its cinematography (amazing) or even the sets, props and setting (tremendous) although I will touch on them all. Instead, I'm going to write about the -cultures- portrayed. Hopefully, that will pretty much leave you with a spoiler-free review, rich with material to consider.
It's good to be part of the Gang

The World: The opening introduction sets the scene for the movie, and the setting. Oil Wars, then Water Wars as resources literally dried up, and were lost, first by the wars themselves, which escalated to nuclear exchanges, then the environmental disasters that followed. Fallout is not explicitly mentioned, but I'll get to that when it comes to the people.
Civilization - All regulated civilization, recognizable national governments and services are long gone by the time the movie begins. Cities are emptied and abandoned, roads and infrastructure are gone. Manufacturing is all but gone, salvage and recycling are the golden rules for materiel.
Weather - With the loss of potable and agricultural water, which appears to be a widespread and catastrophic, we see vast deserts and dust-bowl type conditions. Vast storm fronts roll over the land, with sufficient force to destroy medium sized vehicles outright, and with enough frequency that travelers have masks and goggles handy and use them with casual efficiency that tells of lots of practice.
Water - Water is almost, if not more a valuable resource in this world as fuel, much in the way that it is represented in Thunderdome, (and Tank Girl). It is the basis of the major antagonist's (Immortan Joe) power, and is used to great effect by the gratuitous display of turning it on and off for his followers.
Food - As I often say, where there is water, there is life. Where there is no water, there is no life. With no arable land and no water, where does the food come from? They grow it, very, very carefully and securely. This brings us to the Factions.


The Factions:
Swiped from Village Roadshow
The Citadel - Immortan Joe's Citadel is based around what appears to be the remnants of a aquifer pumping station. They have vast reserves of water, literally to tap, and we get a good look at the layout of their stronghold. High, virtually unassailable mesa honey-combed with tunnels and caverns, including hydroponic farms, controlled environment vaults and enough space to house an army. They have water, food and manpower. Throngs of peasants live outside the Citadel, dependent on the water and food provided, and also opportunities to improve their station in life. Soldiers, workers, breeders and "milkers". (yep, be on the look out for the hu-cows), and "Mothers-Milk" references. Without water and food, there are no people.
Guzzoline Town - Source of fuel for triumvirate of power, they produce the guzzoline (read petrol/gasoline) guzzled by all the various bikes, cars, trucks and rigs in the movie. They do trade with the other two major Factions with their valuable commodity, and presumably, have to import everything else. Without fuel, you can't move anything across this wasteland. You can't mobilize your armies, warbands or scouts.


Swiped from Village Roadshow
Producing fuel takes skill, and resources to produce, so their power base is secure and essential for all three Factions.
Bullet Farm- We don't see much about Bullet Farm, but from what we do see, and the name, we can assume that they are a weapons and munitions manufacturing facility. In the wasteland, we see that ammunition is precious, and not always reliable. Having a manufacturing base lets you arm your army, so the have a solid power-base as well, but are ultimately dependent on both the Citadel for food and water, and Guzzoline Town for fuel and transport. They can certainly arm and front a mighty force, but without fuel of food, they wouldn't be able to function. Nor could The Citadel or Guzzoline Town protect their interests without Bullet Town's bullets.
Raiders - Bands of scavengers, unaffiliated with any of the three Factions still roam the wasteland, preying on the convoys, picking off stragglers and no doubt raiding the three Factions from time to time. Highly mobile, poorly equipped and desperate They probably represent the most regular threats to the Factions or others in the Wilderness.
Loners - This is where Max falls. He's on his own, doing his own thing, surviving just for himself, and by himself. He is outside of civilisation, such as it is, and wants nothing more than to be alone. Who knows how many loners still exist out in the world, but odds are, they're few in number, given the hardship they face.

Swiped from Village Roadshow
Classes:
Swiped from Village Roadshow
Faction Head - The Triumvirate are lead in turn by Immortan Joe, The People Eater and The Bullet Farmer. They rule their own domains, and only by their truce, and personal history is their world held together. Immortan Joe has founded his own Valhalla cult to perpetuate his power, as well as Joe's own personal drive to keep a pure and un-fallout contaminated bloodline going, with his Wives.
Imperator - These are the commanders of the Factions, who are charged with overseeing operations and trusted with both secrets and access. They get the best equipment, vehicles and even cybernetic / prosthetic repairs.
Wives - Joe's prized breeding stock, and presumably parents (in some iteration) to some of the other members of Joe's Faction, (at least Rictus Erectus), they may also represent a breeding program to repopulate the world, or at least Immortan Joe's little part of it with mutation free offspring.
Swiped from Village Roadshow
WarBoyz / WarDogs - Joe has filled his Citadel with his followers the WarBoys who follow the Cult of the V8 (look for the clasped hands in prayer with eight fingers up) with their sacred wheel icons and brands), They also get called the Half-Life boys (probably due to radiations sickness) who are motivated by wanting to gain access to Valhalla by performing well, and dying in glory for Joe. They are all shaved-headed (or bald) and white-washed. Strange cultish behavior (like spraying their mouths with chrome paint to be "Shiny and Chrome" and calling for witnesses when they enact their final brave acts will the catch call of "Witness Me!" to ensure they get clear entry into Valhalla. Not bad for a loyal army of disposable soldiers.
WarPups - The Citadel is filled with too-young-to-fight kids done up like the WarBoys, doing tasks around the Citadel. They serve, earn their places and hope to eventually be promoted to WarBoy status.
Mechanics - The makers, repairers and resurrection artists of old and broken technology. Called "black-thumbs" they are a valuable and needed part of the community, and even other
The great unwashed - The peasants that live around the Citadel (and other Faction Towns) who try to gain entry, curry favour, beg for food and generally be pathetic hangers-on and potential workforce for the Factions. They also represent a breeding pool, and source of more specific resources (Mothers Milk, for one)

Swiped from Village Roadshow
BloodBags - This is one of the interesting aspects in Fury Road. Because the WarBoys/ HalfLife Boys are apparently chronically radiation poisoned, and suffer from what appears to be leukemia, they capture and harvest donors, to rejuvenate and refresh the ailing HalfLife boys. Early on, Max is found to be a universal donor marking him as a very valuable commodity, even given his savage reactions.

Gear:
The kit - Salvaged and many-times repaired is the order of the day. Nothing new, fresh or in fact "Shiny and Chrome" except for a very few precious items. Given the desire to reach Valhalla, the WarBoys forsake almost any kind of protective gear, other than masks and goggles, to ensure they are effective, capable and impressive to gain entry, and Joe's approval. Imperator Furiosa sports a prosthetic arm, and both Immortan Joe and his son, Rictus, sport lavish air-filtration systems, to keep them contaminant free.
The vehicles - Almost characters in their own right, the vehicles of Fury Road hold true to the legacy of the first thee movies. Heavily modified, performance and off-road capable, with arms and armour that you'd expect, as well as nitrous-enhanced and lots of turbo charging to boot.
The weapons - Guns are few and far between, with only bosses and hero's wielding them, with the majority of the fighters having the wrist-crossbows, spears and hand-weapons we've come to expect from the Mad Max movies. Ammunition is a critical resource, and you feel every bullet the main characters have (with the exception of the Bullet Town bosses party, but hey, they MAKE the bullets, why not go a bit overboard). Explosive tipped lances were a nice touch though, and the brutality of the world is really indicated by the way people fight.

The effect Mad Max Fury Road had on us when we went to see it; two parent types who grew up with the end of the Cold War and all the Apocalyptic cinema that came with it, two young adults who were fresh to the genre , and Tactical Baby who didn't think it was funny when I laughed at the car-crashes, all at the drive-in, all in costume, was evident, we loved it, and were captivated by the cinematography, the action, and the impact of it all. We were left with just one question... "Who killed the world?"

We did.

WITNESS!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Review: MTECH XTREME TACTICAL - Tactical cleaver

As first seen on BreachBangClear, makin' fun o' me accent ....

I do so love my knives, and I am always on the look out for new and excellent blades  to add to my collection. This was no exception to that. I was browsing through my email newsletter from Global Gear (who have supplied me with a number of other things in the past, from my M48 Walking Axe to the Zombie Outbreak series of nylon costume gear, to Mainstay foot rations) and up popped a rather tacti-cool looking cleaver.

One of my ladies was looking over my shoulder and exclaimed "oh, you need THAT" and as it happened, I was thinking the same thing.  I placed an order, and shortly there after, this arrived in the mail for me.

This is the MTech xTreme Tactical cleaver.


Sitting about 30cm (12") in length overall, 15cm (6") of that is the heavy chopping 440 stainless blade, which is black finished, that extends as a full tang with integrated finger ring the entire length of the piece. The textured black G10 handle is affixed with a large nut at the throat of the handle, and with several others along the length, to ensure a really firm attachment. 440 steel is a middling steel for high-end knives, but bear in mind, this is a cleaver.

The knife weighs 525g (18.5oz) but it very nicely balanced, especially important for any blade I intend to make use of extensively. This one in particular has found a lasting place in both my household kitchen knife collection, but also as a camping and adventure camp knife.

The rugged construction, with G10 being waterproof and resistant to cuts and scratches, its very hard-wearing. The black finish on the metal parts hasn't shown any significant wear either, which is nice.


The blade is very sharp out of the box, and has a gentle curve to it, so it is easy to maintain.  The edge is neither too fine, nor too shallow to be both an effective cutting and slicing tool, and allows it to be a resilient chopper. It is fluted in six places on either side to ensure an easy cutting action is achievable, by providing airflow along the surface. Like a big cheese knife. A very, very big cheese knife. For big cheese.

I've had no problems cutting vegetables,  frozen items, or even slicing steaks from a haunch of beef, Gangs of New York style.

I have had a perfectly serviceable Chinese cleaver on my knife-block almost since I left home, and they come in very handy when breaking down carcasses, or even big veggies like pumpkins and the like, but the MTech Tactical cleaver does it with modern flare.

The skeletonised handle lets juices and any other muck through to keep your grip solid and well placed. The gentle contour of the handle is well suited to carry the the index finger and gives very careful control over both cutting AND chopping action.
I trusted the edge and handling that I used it to dispatch a rooster from the most recent batch of chookens. The last thing I want is to make a mess of ending any of my creatures, especially if I'm then going to be eating them (he was delicious). The MTech didn't disappoint, made a clean cut, trimming feathers on either side.

I can't say that the finger ring really does anything for me, I suppose if I had hands like a hill-troll they might, but its just  too big, and too far for it to be of any practical use for me.


The Cleaver comes with a black nylon belt sheath, with utility pocket, and includes both a press-stud retention strap, and a three press-stud spine closure, but also a single loop to sling the knife, if needed. I was a bit disappointed by this, because it neither offers much in the way of protection from the pointy corner edges of the blade, or the edge itself, but it also lacks any really secure attachment options.

That all said, this is a very functional blade, in a rugged and modern style, and I find it very useful both in the home, and in the field.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Home Front: Impact testing

I wanted to do a bit of a demonstration on the effects of some of the impact tools I have been covering of late, and throughout my reviews.

Here's the lineup:
1)Cybernetic Research Labs Tactical Pen
2)Ti2 Techliner pen
3)RaidOps MF Delta
4)RaidOps TM Joe
5)Sharp Shooter keychain




I asked a group of my hitting and hacking peers and came up with "pumpkin" as as good a target for testing as any.

I wanted a good solid target, which would offer a fleshy impact simulation, not be pulped, but also not shatter on impact. I happened to have a butternut pumpkin handy and it being winter here, wanted some with dinner.

For good repeatability of the tests, I chose a downwards punch from about chest height for each strike. I didn't put any hip into the strike, nor follow through, just a static jab type punch. For the pen type tools I used a downward stab, from the heel of the fist. I braced the pumpkin with a pencil, just to stop it rolling, and turned it for each strike to hit a fresh surface 



The CRL. Tactical Pen sunk in only to the depth of the tool tip, stopping at the body of the pen. It collected a lot of material on the way out. In fact, my pen still has pumpkin wedged into the fluting.
















The Ti2 TechLiner pen sunk in further than I would have expected for a blunt tool, but it's sleek lining offered little resistance. It also cored some pumpkin, but not nearly as aggressively as the CRL pen.
















The MF -Delta had a fairly shallow penetration, with the flat head giving a regular indentation and the bottle opener head giving a shallower, but jagged indentation. I wasn't surprised that the Delta didn't dig in more, but it did feel very comfortable in the hand. 














The TM -Joe dug in a surprising amount, all the way to the "jaw" of the tool, which upon reflection, shouldn't have been surprising, given the chisel-wedge shape of the teeth of this tool.  















The SharpShooter was an interesting test. I did two, one from the key-end as a flail. Again with my hand held around chest height, and the second as a pen-strike as with the CRL and Ti2 pens. 


The flail end of the SharpShooter left a very shallow, but messy set of intends, one for each key, as well as the shackle, and even one from the ring (which I accidentally had left loose, rather than around my finger as per the instructions).






The pen end of the SharpShooter was fairly disappointing, but not unexpected, mostly because of the combination of the rubber stopper and the paracord knot. It left a bit of a bruise on the skin, but no discernible penetration. 















I then started cutting up my pumpkin, and got to see the trauma dished out by each tool.

The CRT and Ti2 pens showed their depth of penetration and the tissue trauma really nicely.
The MF-Delta's shallow penetration belayed the broad spread of trauma beneath the skin, which was quite pervasive all around the penetration, to a respectable depth















The TM-Joe offered a comparable amount of trauma, but deeper and wider. This is definitely the nastier of the two tools to strike with. I shudder to consider the combined effects of skin and flesh and bone when struck by this titanium tool.


The Sharp Shooter didn't display any significant penetration, nor trauma beneath the rind of the pumpkin (which was delicious, I might add).

All in all I'd say that the RaidOps TM-Joe was the most devastating tool to make a mess of a pumpkin with, and perhaps I will move on to some meat-tests with it, like I did with the SuperHammer and KA-BAR knives ...


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