Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

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Kommander
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by Kommander »

It takes a special kind of person to want to reenact an SS unit. I suppose it's sort of the same mentality of all those guys running around as stormtroopers, somthing to do with evil is cool perhaps.
Cobar
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by Cobar »

Kommander wrote:It takes a special kind of person to want to reenact an SS unit. I suppose it's sort of the same mentality of all those guys running around as stormtroopers, somthing to do with evil is cool perhaps.
Both have snappy uniforms, but at least the stormtroopers are fake.
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g-man
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by g-man »

Cobar wrote:
Kommander wrote:It takes a special kind of person to want to reenact an SS unit. I suppose it's sort of the same mentality of all those guys running around as stormtroopers, somthing to do with evil is cool perhaps.
Both have snappy uniforms, but at least the stormtroopers are fake...

... and as a rule can't hit the broadside of a star destroyer, from the inside.
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
BDK
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by BDK »

I can see playing a villain within reason being fun - playing Bluebeard in an opera would be very cool, as would Darth Vader, but Titus would be a bit much... The SS perhaps as well... Though I could see the need of being able to convey the... The idea of evil with dream and purpose. Communism/Socialism has nothing behind it but envy and childish delusions of "only doing what made you happy," it's, fundamentally, infantile.

NAZIism, had a dream of a future to work toward, and induced a mass, psychotic, furvor.
Cobar
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by Cobar »

From the bit if Nietzsche I have read, he was saying something along the lines of everyone says they want/support good wholesome things, but in reality they think and act differently. He basically said do what you say or start saying what you are really doing. Hitler and the NAZIs pretty much took that the wrong way. Sort of like people using 1984 as an instruction manual.
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JKosprey
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by JKosprey »

Old Grafton wrote:
Denis wrote:
PawPaw wrote:People who perform reenactments age generally good people...
Not arguing with that, but I don't see the attraction of re-enacting, myself. It's not like the other side is going to win this time around, just to keep things interesting :mrgreen:
I've always felt a bit unsettled with the idea of wartime "re-enacting" unless the "re-enactors" are themselves veterans. Otherwise they're just poseurs. To their credit, they generally try to get it close to right, unlike Hollywood. JMO.
I did WWII re-enactments as a teenager. I really enjoyed it, but I found that after becoming a real soldier and going to a real war, it no longer held any appeal. (There was also rampant racism, but I suppose that shouldn't have been shocking since I "played" Axis...) As long as the re-enactors aren't portraying themselves as *actual* soldiers or veterans of battles they didn't fight in, I see no issue with non-vets having fun playing a part.
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JKosprey
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by JKosprey »

Kommander wrote:It takes a special kind of person to want to reenact an SS unit. I suppose it's sort of the same mentality of all those guys running around as stormtroopers, somthing to do with evil is cool perhaps.
I re-enacted Italian SS. Why? My friends father- who got us all started- did Italian SS at the time. He'd also done US forces and we often wound up playing Germans since the "unit" consisted of about 6 of us without linking up with other groups. In order to do the battle, somebody has to play the bad-guy. Also, the Axis equipment was far cheaper. At 15, I could afford a mauser rifle, but there was no way in hell I could shell out for a garand. Still don't have one, actually.
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Kommander
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by Kommander »

Heh. From what I understand one reason that Soviet reenacting took off was the cheap Mosin-Nagant craze of the past 20 years, combined with a ton of cheap military surplus coming in from the eastern block, much of which was close enough for reenacting purposes.
MarkD
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by MarkD »

When I did Civil War we Union troops were usually heavily outnumbered by Confederates, to the point where Confederates were often tasked with fighting on the Union side to make things more even. Mind you, this was even at Northern events like Gettysburg, so it wasn't all "The South shall rise again!" although that WAS part of it.

Part of it was that there was more leeway in uniforms. Union, you basically had a dark blue coat and light blue trousers. There were a couple different types of coats (sack coat, frock coat, or a short jacket), and you could wear a vest or not. Confederate could wear any of that (captured of course), or grey, butternut, or homespun. There was more opportunity for individuality. Couple that with the romance of the underdog, and the add in the Southerners who didn't realize the war was over (BTW, they lost).

There were ranges of authenticity to be found too. My unit, for instance, didn't allow women soldiers. Well, lets say we'd allow a woman if we didn't know she WAS a woman, just as a regiment back then might have let a woman enlist. Some units had OBVIOUS women in ranks (they'd go out wearing makeup and earrings). Some wouldn't let anyone over age 20-25, while we had lots of older men in ranks.
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First Shirt
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Re: Just what we need - Gunfight re-eanctment with live ammo

Post by First Shirt »

MarkD wrote: There were ranges of authenticity to be found too. My unit, for instance, didn't allow women soldiers. Well, lets say we'd allow a woman if we didn't know she WAS a woman, just as a regiment back then might have let a woman enlist. Some units had OBVIOUS women in ranks (they'd go out wearing makeup and earrings). Some wouldn't let anyone over age 20-25, while we had lots of older men in ranks.
My several-times-great grandfather was 28 when he enlisted in the 5th Georgia (Cavalry) in 1861, and according to the rolls, he wasn't the oldest in the unit. Guess authenticity is what you want it to be, for some folks.
But there ain't many troubles that a man caint fix, with seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six."
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