How did you get your start in Re-enacting?

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• (February 02, 2011, 12:47:01 AM)

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[Philonivs Maximvs]

If you want to split hairs, I started when I was 8... fashion my own MP-40 out of wood in the garage and battled my 2 buddies in the neighborhood woods out back! I started back in 1996 with this hobby though... although the year before that, a couple soon-to-be-friends came in with an HRS poster and put it up in the gun shop I was working at in Indy at the time. I didn't see it right away, but the "why read about history when you can relive it?" slogan really got me. Good marketing, HRS! They tried to recruit me into the LAH after I called them, but I couldn't join right away anyway (had to work weekends). So I waited a year, called them again, and was soon off to my first event at North Vernon, IN

It was a fraked-up way to start though: the two guys in question had recently left LAH for interpersonal reasons, and were sorta free-lancing it, but were wearing Totenkopf insignia. Right after my first event though, they dropped out of the hobby for a bit, leaving me to tag along with the 2.SS part-timers from Indy, and joined the TSG. But by the Gap 1997, I'd talked to Barry Anderson (now CO of "Norge"/11.SS in OH) about forming a unit: the result was 5.SS "Wiking". We soon hammered out the Pionier thing, and chose to make it 2./SS-Panzer-Pionier Battalion 5 specifically. Then I went to work for Rollin (At the Front) in 1998 in Louisville, and the Fallschirmjaeger bug bit me.... something I would have rather started off with anyway. Barry went on to quit too to start his "Norge" unit, and left "Wiking" to Alan Miltich.

Working for a big vendor like that helped immensely.... I soon found myself in a GI impression (leg), and got together a Polish Para Brigade kit and ran with the guys out of Chicago in 1999. Also in 1999, I fell into WW1, and hooked up with a couple friends that were already in IR.111 (Baden). Had to sell both the Polish & WW1 kits.... damn shame, as I really do miss them, especially the Great War kit & the trenches at Newville (natuerlich!). I also put together a Heer officer impression for when I ran Rensselaer, IN battles... just because I took the advice of a couple friends: unit commanders indeed tend to listen better to someone wearing a lot of rank! Otherwise, no reason to be an officer for me, unless I actually had a unit with platoon or better strength. Oh yeah... don't forget the Finnish "Winter War"! Got the M36 uniform for that, and we did that a couple times at Rensselaer. Good, cold times.

Nowadays I have Fallschirmjaeger (FJR.19), Soviet infantry (early, 95th Rifles), and GI infantry (early & late, 2nd Division). I have a Heer M36 & M42 tunics, so I could throw that together too... wanted to do 1940 battles, but not for now. Working on that civilian thing soon... JOIN ME! One of these days, I'd love to get back in the trenches, and who knows, maybe even Roman too. At the moment though, I gotta lose weight before I get back into a uniform... just a pet peeve of mine that I won't break.

[Sturmkatze]

Also in 1999, I fell into WW1, and hooked up with a couple friends that were already in IR.111 (Baden). Had to sell both the Polish & WW1 kits.... damn shame, as I really do miss them, especially the Great War kit & the trenches at Newville (natuerlich!).

 One of these days, I'd love to get back in the trenches, and who knows, maybe even Roman too. At the moment though, I gotta lose weight before I get back into a uniform... just a pet peeve of mine that I won't break.

Phil, come back, come back to the light... 1./IR23, you rnew home. We can talk Rome later....
>=M->

[atlanticwallblanks]

I have always been fascinated by the war.  I thought the "cool factor" for the German uniforms and equipment made it the most appealing. When I was a kid I would come home from school, watch Tom and Jerry, and read through the Time Life series on WWII my grandfather had.  I did this every day for years.

In my teens I started to collect Mausers, in college, I started collecting weapons from all sides of the war, but still mostly Mausers. 

About 12 years ago I was at a gun show and a guy with a "T" shirt with a Panther tank on it walked by me.  I said nice shirt.  He stopped to talk and I found that he was a WWII reenactor. I was hooked on the spot.  He became my first Sgt and now my unit commander.

I was 5 when Star Wars came out and knew then that the weapons the Imperial Storm Troopers carried were mostly German weapons.  I guess there was no other outcome.

We have since moved on to ad a partisan impression and now an NVA impression is in the works.

Robb

[Philonivs Maximvs]

Yeah, my dad wasn't that thrilled when I made Heer insignia out of paper and stapled them to his old Marine fatigues!    By the time I was 12 or so, I'd perfected my own "BeVo" method, using cloth instead and super-fine Sharpie.... oh yeah, stylin'.

Imperial Stormtroopers used a mix of WW2 weapons... most carried the shorter blasters that were mocked-up Sten guns that fired short mags of blanks (Lucas wanted the trooper extras to look like they were actually firing something, without a bunch of acting training). MG-34's sans belt or bipod were used for the long guns.... the desert troopers used Lewis guns without the pancake magazine. Not even sure if the newer "Republic" clone troopers used any derivative of WW2 weapons... of course, they were all done in CGI, so they didn't even have to build one set of armor!

Yeah, I'm a geek. But I'm in good company 

And Marsh, might have to take you up on that offer someday when I get back into it. I gots a late-1930's sedan to buy first!

[got5kids]

I wandered into a small militaria shop in San Diego back in 1987 and came across a flyer for a local reenactment group representng the Herman Goring Panzer Division. (Kids, this is how we did it before the internet.) I went to an event with all loaner gear, and I've been hooked ever since. Of course, helmets (original ones!) cost $50 back then, and a k98 cost about $100, and Ed Walton still worked for the IRS.   

Work and family commitments have conspired to keep me very inactive, but I hope that will change someday.

        Tom

[prgeyer]

Back in late 1999, I was desperately bored at the office and thought I needed a hobby.  Having just purchased Laurent Mirouze's WW1 Infantry in Colour Photographs, and always having had a major interest in military uniforms, I thought I'd just collect WW1 German uniforms and militaria.  A quick Google search came up with Great War Militaria's website, which had links to the Great War Association and various reenacting units.  That night, I went home and sheepishly told my wife all about this really interesting hobby that I hadn't known anything about before, and how it might be . . . uhm. . . fun to find out more about, you know, if you don't mind. . . dear.  She knew at that moment that she had lost me to the Hobby forever.

Anyway, went to my first WW1 event with IR63 in 2000.  Three years later, after getting to know more people in other parts of the Hobby, I started doing WW2; first with 12. Komp. 2 SS, then when I got tired of humping mortars all over creation, I joined up with IR104 with a 1939/40 Heer impression.  Now that I've got the bug, I've also put together a complete 1939 Polish impression, and am working on 1940 BEF and 1942 Romanian.  Heaven help me, I can't stop getting new stuff for new impressions!

[adam]

I started when I was fifteen in ACW. My uncle got me into it. I did that for about five or six years, then took a few years off. The interest in WWII started when I was 17, a few guys in the ACW were doing airborne, but my mom told me that under absolutely no circumstances was I to do WWII, Civil War was enough. The bug bit me again about a year and a half ago. At the time I was starting back up in ACW, only this time as a civilian. I was beginning to get frustrated with the idea of either pay $300 bucks for accurate clothing or killing myself with research to make an outfit that was "up to par." 20th century stuff seemed a lot better cause you could get pretty accurate gear for about the same price I was going to pay for a shirt or a hat in ACW, especially doing Red Army.

Other than that, I collect a lot of Great War stuff with the hopes of doing that someday. Haven't decided on an impression, but I collect a lot of doughboy stuff. I've been researching Ancient stuff (Rome, Gaul) since high school, just couldn't justify the money for an impression I would rarely use. So, yeah, Phil, if you're interested in Ancient Rome, drop me a line sometime.

[Sturmkatze]

Adam, where do you live? Wanna do WWI now? 

[adam]

Marsh, I live in Indiana, and, yeah, I'd love to. Time and money are about the only things stopping me. That's the main reason I decided to focus on collecting and WWII living history.

[Dave1928a1]

I started in 1987 I have been into  WWII as my dad was a WWII vet. My first love is infantry so I started in the Big Red One 1st ID and still to this day this as my primary gig ( were going to Torrance this weekend) I also do 9th SS  and we have found that sometime were needed as Germans to even out the sides so we cross dress. Its not just me but we have 10 in our unit and we all have dual impressions.

Dave

[FunkyFritz]

I was working at the local grocery store(not wal-mart) here in good ol' Hillsboro, Texas when two guys in M43 caps came through my cashier line.  They were buying hotdogs and buns, I asked them about the caps and they said they were reenactors.  Then they left.  About a year later, I met a guy who is now a very good friend of the family who runs a music museum here in town(I'm not advertising, this actually ties into how I met my Oberfeldwebel).  A few months later, over a few beers, we got into a conversation about World War 2 and he said I should meet his buddy who reenacts in a German unit.  I kept trying to get ahold of this guy and when I did, I started to tell him about the encounter with the guys in the grocery and he finished the rest of my story.  I signed up with the 5th Gebirgsjager here in Texas in 2008 in March.  I never played soldier as a kid, so now I'm attempting to make up for lost time.