ZombieCajun

I added a snap button, it works perfectly and nobody knows it

Chalk holders look perfectly fine for level 1, especially if they've had the clips replaced.
 
The clips are both more available, and easier to make yourself than the full dosimeter replica plus it's the part that people actually see (unless they are tall and looking down on you - not to pick on James lol).
 
Chalk holders are also dirt cheap compared to replica dosimeters (especially shipped from Philo in Italy).  The fact if they want to upgrade later they will have "wasted" the money on the chalk holders doesn't hold water.  They didn't waste the money, it got them level 1 approval.  Just because I've upgraded all the pieces of my costume over time, doesn't mean I wasted cash on my initial code cylinders, rank bar, belt, boots, and hat.  I trooped happily with all of those things for years and upgraded them when I had the cash.

That would be my point. I know of one guy who bought some original ones here in the states but that was a one off - until we have several consistant vendors I do not agree with removing lower standards


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Hello hello!
 
Something caught my eye in an ongoing staff officer build thread, and it was suggested that a CRL discussion thread be created to spin the conversation away from the poor OP's thread:
 
 
As a person extremely interested in building a staff officer in the future (I'm a sucker for black uniforms <3) and who'd wanted a captain or lieutenant plaque (purely because they're visually interesting to me) I'm... disappointed to find out that this wouldn't be possible? And I'm struggling to understand particularly why? It's a fairly dramatic change and one which I'm sure the general public won't particularly care about.
 
A call to action then! I'm fairly new to posting here regularly, so if there was previous discussion here, can those threads be linked so I can read the history behind this decision? I also appreciate that this appears to be a controversial and possibly overdone topic, and I do apologise if I'm dragging the old bones back up to pick over, but I'd honestly appreciate an explanation with refs and reasonings. I had my heart set on my two-line rank plaque!
 
Thankyou in advance!

The only way to avoid that is to test on the same fabric as your pants before actually applying the heat n bond to your pants. Thinner or more loosely woven fabric are susceptible to bleed through. There's no fix that I know of, once you've applied the heat n bond, since the adhesive is heat activated and bonds extremely well to the fabric. Once it's saturated the fibers, it's there permanently.
However, sometimes wool fabric will turn shiny when ironed with a lot of pressure and without a cloth between the iron and the fabric, so if that's the case, that's fixable. To remove the shine in this case, you'll need a cloth (a white, clean dishtowel or pillowcase will do) that you'll place on the right side of the fabric, and make sure the iron is on the wool setting with steam. Hold the iron so it's very close to the press cloth, but not quite touching, and steam it. Be careful not to burn yourself. After steaming, while the fabric is still warm, use the press cloth to rub the shiny areas, to raise the fibers and reduce the shine. You can repeat this until the shine is gone.

My pants are CosplaySky and a lot of recruits and other Officers in my squad who know that ask me how I got them looking decent.  Here are the steps I took (as others have said, asking for changes when ordering is a complete crap shoot):
 
1.  Brought in the rise of the pouches by more than two inches at the apex (if you don't feel comfortable doing this alteration then any seamstress around can do it for you for probably twenty bucks or less if you just show them a picture of the contour you want).
 
2.  Added interfacing to both the front and rear of the pouches.  Cut to fit the contour of the pouches and make sure to extend the interfacing into the non-pouch part of the pants to help them stay stiff.  I used iron-on and after three years am just now needing to replace is (I'll just pull it out and iron more in).  No sewing skill needed for this part, if you can use scissors and iron a shirt, you can make this mod.