greg.hays

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Ok, now full gear with mask. Now of course they did not have to wear this during the War because there was no use of chemical weapons, also who knows if the Lanyard would have been worn....I can only guess not. But I wasn't taking it off and risking damage as it is torn

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Ok now we will start gearing him up a bit more. The helmet comes from the huge Baghdad hoard.....all inspected but I suspect unissued.

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Next up is a Republican Guard Officer. I believe this is an Artillery Officer but I can not be sure yet. He is wearing the correct Officers Pistol belt, a Baathist Party Service Badge denoting participation in the first Gulf War. That is what Iraqi interpreters identified it as at least......still have to find some way to confirm that. This configuration represents everyday or garrison wear of the uniform.

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This update represents two long years of trying to construct accurate representations of uniforms worn by Iraqi forces prior to and during the Gulf War era. I have done my best to keep each one as close to what I can remember from experience. This effort represents 90% of my collecting energy and funds so hopefully it looks good.

First one is of a regular Army Iraqi soldier during 2003. This is exactly what a soldier surrendering at Sadaam International Airport was wearing in April 2003. The uniform, gasmask carrier, helmet and compass were all recovered by yours truelly in barracks within 1/4 mile of the airport. Thus, in my opinion the most accurate in my collection so far.

Nice variations of the R.S. badges Greg So is mine the more common style catch then? Do you know which variations were more abundant, and maybe what time frame they are from? I know these are detailed questions but you seem to be the expert on these IAB's, and if anyone would know they would be on this forum. I like the detail on these and the zinc seems to have held out on your examples as well. If anyone has any more R.S. IAB variations please feel free to contribute as well,

Thanks again for showing Greg,

Pat

Well Pat I for sure am no expert. IAB's are simply my focus in terms of TR. Yes, yours is in my opinion the most common and I also believe that variation to be the final manifestation. The angled mark in my opinion being earlier. I base that only on the quality differential between the two in terms of crisp detail. But admittedly this is just my hunch..........much has been made of this maker and new things are being discovered every day. There is even a hollowback version now recently "discovered" that makes it all even more interesting.

Wide pin

Here is my newest PAB.

Wow, I had pretty much given up on trying to find out what it was and had settled on the idea of just having this "neat unknown goats head pin". Thanks so much for following up on it, now I will look them up and found out more. You never stop learning in this hobbey

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Here is one of mine with an the angled maker mark......

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Here is a variant with the same style mark but uncommon catch for this maker.

Well there are a few variants I'll kick it off with a nice wide pin I obtained from anotherforum member probably around a year ago.

They do look tailor made for each other, cazy how the wear and patina are very similiar. Great pair

Thanks, That is what I assumed but wasn't sure of. I have seen a bunch but not cased usually in the standard PX packaging. But hey, you never know right? Either way these are all great and a UN collection is very interesting just for the history

Darrell, great stuff....as usual. Forgive an ignorant question but do any of these come cased?

You are teasing me Pat.....show a scan of them together

Sorry, but I can only agree all fakes. I too was burned early in my Heer collecting by very similiar reproductions.