Flak Vest

[Woodard]

I was thinking of the M55 anyway. For Vietnam you can do Army without a flak, but doing Marine you 100% need one. It would be tricky up near the shoulders where it's thick, but backdating it would mostly involve removing things. The things are so flimsy anyway, normal shelf ware destroys them. It seems mostly a matter of the equipment (Heavy sewing Machine) and the materials (fiberglass or plastic plates, something to pad the shoulder areas, and Wal Mart green poplin). The labor would be much less than a jungle jacket or trousers.

[John Abshire]

the Marine flak for Korea would be even easier to make, just leave out a couple steps on the m55 flak...

[m1junny]

ben, how come you never showed me this forums before? leaving out the REAL korean out of korean war forums??? lol

anyhow, hello guys and im new to this forums. im a member of 9th ID CHG with ben and i see you guys are talking about body armors here... except you guys are only talking about m52 armors... anybody want to talk about m12 (t64) body armors?

[m1junny]

that above is m12 body armor in case someone doesn't know what it is

[Woodard]

Yea, I saw one on E-bay about 5 years ago. Lost it at the last minute to "thugkilla_27" or some crap like that. Still makes me absolutely livid.

[m1junny]

i have two m12 right now (would have three but sold one to fellow unit member whose actually our spearhead person for starting korean war impressions)

there was another m12 on ebay recently and i grabbed it as well. it had the case for the vest as well but this one is missing the apron part.

so right now i have

2 x vest (front and back)
1 x apron
1 x CASE

[Woodard]

Well, that's two vests, one apron and one case more than I have!

[sdfoster]

Welcome Junny!

And Woodard, did you say you went 'livid'? This I gotta see, you're one of the calmest, most 'cool & collected" people I know!

[Woodard]

Well, some time has gone by, so now it's more "irritated". I keep saying "he's probably robbing a 7-11 with it or something", it's probably some serious collector with a misleading name...

[m1junny]

supposedly an ROK with a captured ppsh43... and yes with an almighty M12 body armor

[Glen K]

Well, I finally found an M1951A that I can squeeze into, size medium. A decent price, too, $80 at an antique mall I almost didn't stop at. Perfect for display, though...

[Piperjohn]

Just wondering, how farby would it be to have the collar of an 3/4 removed...Just for wearing at events??

[Woodard]

The M1952A has epaulets, so that's another minor difference. Other than that I'd say not to due to the fact that the 3/4 collar ones are getting expensive nowadays. Plus I imagine that the Kevlar fibers run into the collar, so that may present a bit of a challenge to cut through.

[foxholetom]

Its not worth doing. The M69 3/4 collar vest is also beefier in general. Thicker material, etc. I've talked with a friend about reproing the M12 vest. Biggest holdup is a sewing machine that can handle canvas, but on the whole, they're very simple. Hardware is all WW2 hardware, the webbing sections are available, we'd just need the right canvas. The plates were simply aluminum, which is also easy.

I've also been pondering reproing the M1952 vest (as opposed to the M1952A). They're even simpler, but they also have straps of unknown purpose on them. I've never actually seen one for sale, but they're common in pictures. In fact, truth be told, I've still yet to see a picture of an M1952A before the armistice (as opposed to the M1952). Is this confusing yet?