IMTU: Imperial Armed Forces Uniforms

[Meteoric Assault]

Re-working the Imperial Navy uniform. Finished the belt buckles. I am probably going to put a bayonet fob / Sword Fob on the belt.
With the boots presently I am looking at some styles of motorcycle boots for inspiration. Now, the helmet is 90% complete it reminds me of the star wars big helmet theme. That said, I need to do highlights on the Imperial Army Uniform as you can see I started on the rank patch (Facing: Right Arm). The trousers I haven’t even started on yet. Remember this IMTU not OTU.

 

[TamsinP]

"The Imperial Navy" from Mongoose has a decent section on uniforms, with illustrations for each rank.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

"The Imperial Navy" from Mongoose has a decent section on uniforms, with illustrations for each rank.

I am ill-inclined with anything Mongoose. I do have a Vaccsuit duty uniform almost finished, but i am still working on the colors and where to jam the sunburst. Also I have a IISS scout uniform Dress, Service Dress, and I am going to do the IISS Hawaiian Shirt (Replete with Scout Motifs).

 

[Meteoric Assault]

IISS

 

[whulorigan]

IISS

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And thank you for the light-medium grey, and not that horrendous light-blue grey that some people like to use because back in the MT era it was the age of "vibrant colors" in RPG gaming industry illustrations.

Just a thought to try: What about a light grey-white stripe (with some thin black trim ?) with the red sunburst? I think IISS banner/colors are red & white or red and light grey-white, IIRC.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

And thank you for the light-medium grey, and not that horrendous light-blue grey that some people like to use because back in the MT era it was the age of "vibrant colors" in RPG gaming industry illustrations.

Just a thought to try: What about a light grey-white stripe (with some thin black trim ?) with the red sunburst? I think IISS banner/colors are red & white or red and light grey-white, IIRC.

IMTU I will make another for you down the road.

 

[whulorigan]

"The Imperial Navy" from Mongoose has a decent section on uniforms, with illustrations for each rank.

I find I really like the IN Uniforms in the MgT Imperial Navy Sourcebook for Enlisted Ratings up thru Junior Officers. I am not as happy with the Field/Command or Flag Officer Uniforms.

(Also, the artist messed up with the Officer rank insignia by assigning the Cadet/Midshipman the Ensign's single silver-sunburst "pip", and then discovered up the line he had a problem once he got to Lt. Commander / Commander. He also didn't know what to do with the Flag Officer Ranks, reusing Big Gold Sunbursts - They should have 4-pointed stars (which could be surmounted on gold sunbursts of course, but they can't simply reduplicate the field-grade insignia).

And they really need to make a visible rank distinction in grade for Fleet Admiral: Rear Admiral, Fleet Admiral: Vice-Admiral, and Fleet Admiral: (Full) Admiral, and show Sector Admiral and Grand Admiral as subsequently superior to these (i.e. they really need to be Rank O11 and O12, like the old German Navy Ranks General Admiral and Grand Admiral) - which would be better names for the generic ranks, with "Sector Admiral" being an "Appointment Rank".

 

[Meteoric Assault]

These were the start of a project that was wasn’t finished ( I will probably recreated them in SVG)

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Lots of old Projects

 

[whulorigan]

Lots of old Projects

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These I remember as linked to Brigadier Lord Bleddyn Huelcyn-Aadarkhi's wiki page as the Regimental Colonel-in-Chief.

 

[whulorigan]

These were the start of a project that was wasn’t finished ( I will probably recreated them in SVG)


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Nice. (And I always like the Continental "Captain-Lieutenant" - works great for Vargr Corsairs & Swordies, too - "Herr Kaleun . . ." ).

For OTU, Commissioned Officers pips were 1-2-3 Silver Sunbursts for Junior Officers, 1-2-3 Gold Sunbursts for Field/Command Officers, and 1-2-3-4 four-point stars for Flag/General Officers. And as noted, there is a need for O-11 & O-12 Insignia for the OF-11 Ranks (General/Grand Admirals & Field Marshals [Subsector/Sector]).

For me, I would make Rear Admiral (Upper-Half) just Rear-Admiral, and make "Lower-Half" a Commodore (Substantive or 1st Class), and make the lower Commodore "2nd Class" as in appointed or acting (for a Senior Captain) as was the case in old RN usage (and they similarly distinguished the two via stripes of one and shoulder-boards/pips of the other). I was never overly fond of the little inter-service spat that led to the USN Upper/Lower Half of the Promotion List divide when Commodore was disestablished as a substantive rank, and all the Brigadiers General realized that the USN was promoting its Captains over their own 1-star ranks directly to 2 stars.

 

[Drew]

I did not know where to post this, but I thought this was a good starting point. I finally got some answers on how it was calculated in the Heaven and Earth Universal Military Profile (UMP) and the Universal Squadron Profile (USqP). I used the Co-Pilot Function and got most of the answers that no one could answer. Where the Co-Pilot found them is unclear.

I think that there could be some discussion on some of the various ship designs/tech levels. Please comment.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

I did not know where to post this, but I thought this was a good starting point. I finally got some answers on how it was calculated in the Heaven and Earth Universal Military Profile (UMP) and the Universal Squadron Profile (USqP). I used the Co-Pilot Function and got most of the answers that no one could answer. Where the Co-Pilot found them is unclear.

I think that there could be some discussion on some of the various ship designs/tech levels. Please comment.

It should probably be the start of a new thread.

 

[kaladorn]

Do you remember which issue?

Not without access to books which are either gone (had a flood last August, still some in storage, some went out...). It might have been the Traveller's Digest one, but I was sure that here was one in Challenge. I recall a Marine looking a lot like a US Marine (peak cap, striping on the dark pants, jacket was another colour, and there was a sword. I might be able to look through this stuff sometime in the next month or two, but not now. After the blasted flood, then my mom died (I'll call the flood a portion of that), then this spring mice, and lately carpenter ants. Hoping to clear all that stuff away by the end of October...

 

[kaladorn]

I owned that comic ( 1983-1984 is when It came out), the officer had a snake like body with Humanoid upper body. I have not mastered all the complex anatomy of the many sophonts. I am still working on the digitigrade legs of the Aslan and Vargr.

Did not mean to suggest that capturing all the many sophonts would be easy. Just that one of any type of BDUs, work duds, fancier ones for formal events, or mess dress when you have your full gongs and so on..... they just can't be the same for all the sophonts so it's just a part of the rather large clothes challenge that Imperial Forces face. (Why is there no Support table that includes 'Gear Fitting'?)

 

[whulorigan]

Did not mean to suggest that capturing all the many sophonts would be easy. Just that one of any type of BDUs, work duds, fancier ones for formal events, or mess dress when you have your full gongs and so on..... they just can't be the same for all the sophonts so it's just a part of the rather large clothes challenge that Imperial Forces face. (Why is there no Support table that includes 'Gear Fitting'?)

It also leads to the logistics question as to whether or not the Imperial Forces field units of mixed-species composition (or at the very least, if there are certain sub-units designated as "xeno-formations", etc., due to the differing outfitting (and in some cases biological needs) of different species). It seems like mixing Vargr and Humans might not be too difficult, but once you start dealing with species originating from different biomes, you now need to consider the logistics of accommodating differing victualing, medicine, and supplies for various alien sophonts within a unit, etc.

Are there all-Aslan or all-Plexxan Companies or Squadrons for practical reasons, for example?

 

[kaladorn]

It also leads to the logistics question as to whether or not the Imperial Forces field units of mixed-species composition (or at the very least, if there are certain sub-units designated as "xeno-formations", etc., due to the differing outfitting (and in some cases biological needs) of different species). It seems like mixing Vargr and Humans might not be too difficult, but once you start dealing with species originating from different biomes, you now need to consider the logistics of accommodating differing victualing, medicine, and supplies for various alien sophonts within a unit, etc.

Are there all-Aslan or all-Plexxan Companies or Squadrons for practical reasons, for example?

On the one hand, there's the fact that every species is a xeno for any other species!

Here's where you probably would need to focus in determining whether certain combos could work:

• Atmo - if you can't breathe the same gas mix or close (very close), you probably aren't on the same ship (counter case: Delphine members that live in part of a ship that is water filled and they have a suit that lets them enter other area). Generally though, your Gas Giant folk and the terrestrial folk are not breathing the same stuff.
• Allergies, Parasites, Differing Poisonous substances - If you can't walk around together and not having people sick or dead (from the contact), then you aren't going to be on the same ship unless there is an easy thing like 'you wear mask and thus you don't send off pheremones that drive the rest of the crew crazy'.
• Food - if you can eat (with some supplements) one common diet (or at least nothing so horrific nobody can handle it), that eases logistics.
• Weaponry, Comms, etc (tech stuff) - can all the sophonts on a ship be able to operate all the systems on it (that they could reasonably need to, including emergencies)? If they can, even if they use a small tool or they reconfig the holodynamic workstations, that's still an easy thing and one assumes that accommodating limited physical changes (in terms of seating for workstations and sleeping), then you're probably okay.
• Can you handle battle and rescue and other such exciting things - can you handle G loads? (some may have better than human), can you be transfused, get some drugs if surgery is required, and so on - does your medic and doctor know how to treat you and can they for the frequent harms that conflict and accident bring? If not, you probably get posted somewhere safer.
• Cultural issues: Vilani and Solomani have some issues and they are pretty close.

That said, Dynchia, Swordies, Stinking Zhos, Vilani, Vargr, Aslan (if the cultural barrier is managed), and many others who are out there could be present - Ursas, Delphines, etc.

Maybe some aquatic ships carry multiple aquatic crew - Delphines, Githiasko, Orcas, etc. (assuming nobody is eating one another).

 

[kaladorn]

IISS

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I found the article from Paul Elliot from (I believe) Challenge magazine or Traveller's Digest or whichever it was. I don't have the context, but I do have the content. It's only a page or three but you might like to see them. Ping me with a message and I'll return with what I know (assuming you can). If not, ping me at kaladorn at gmail dot com.