Some advice on add-ons

My friendly and humble take is this.

With gear, it's really not so much about looking authentic, at least it really shouldn't be. The thing about the pictures from overseas is you're looking at guys who wear the things they have out of necessity and because it works for them. Nobody really wants to wear body armor, Plates and gear are heavy, not to mention magazines and rifles.

I was lucky enough to have played for some time now, and luckily been able to use a lot of different gear, bags, holsters, pouches even clothes and footwear I've changed over the years, fine tuning it. I was able to do this by sharing my friends gear over time to see what works. For example I used a friends shoulder holster that we all told him not to get. Found out we were right..it was terrible. I wear 9" boots beacuse I rolled my ankle bad in a game once..hasn't happeend since.

Basically what I am getting at here is I would start thinking about your gear in a different way. Look at it as what works for you and what you need rather than how you want it to look. If you think about how you play, and where you need to grab your mags from or how you move etc, you'll build a realistic rig on your own. It will be realistic for you as well which is most important as you're the one who has to use it. It would probably be most helpful to take the purpose built approach:

To use what UAD said as an example, if you find you could use a drink on the field a lot of the time, throw a camelbak in your kit. If you find yourself fumbling to put mags back or throwing them on the ground and would rather have them on you so they don't get lost or damaged add a dump pouch. Basically find a purpose for a piece of kit before buying it.

I know you probably won't have the chance to get your hands on and field copious amounts of gear or types of things..you can practice without it though, for instance if you were choosing a holster, figure out where on your body is most comfortable or quickest to draw from, based on your body mechanics, you can do this just by reaching around you with your gun etc.

For instance, I know I hate hip holsters even though I've never worn one. I learned this by using the method above and simply lifting a full frame and even a compact pistol from my hip level. No holster needed found out I hate pulling my arm up that high and chicken winging it to present. Shoulder holster would swing around too much and get in the way of my movement for me. Decided on a drop leg as that was the most comfortable place for me to draw from as my hand falls right to my grip and I don't have to think. I actually just did this same thing recently as I have no mag pouches. Practiced "drawing" my mags from various places on my chest because I have a molle vest, found out it's really not going to work for me and I'm now shopping for a drop leg rig.

The thing about this approach is you never have wasted space on you and you will use everything consistently. Buy the gear you need and set it up the most efficient way for you. That's the reason there is so many options out there, and it's really half the fun of this sport! I think you'll end up much better off using this method, it's what ultimately worked for me over time and was a lot of fun to do.

Hope this helps! Good luck and enjoy! ;D

Haha sorry to hear that man! Hopefully I'll catch you at a game sometime then.

Sounds good I see what you meant now, hopefully you didn't take the post the wrong way wasn't being an ass I have nothing else to say. That's awesome you've def got the right base going, as far as the other stuff, I don't have any of that right now but it is pretty neat, off the top of my head the things I've seen most are glowsticks whiiich, you already have. Maybe try n throw some strobes or something on there like you were saying.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of feedback on that stuff from other members here. I've got no experience with it so I'll be of no help. Have fun!

I know, personally, I like being able to draw my rifle magazines extremely quickly, so I opt for open-top pouches over having to open a flap. It's still not a bad idea to have a few spares in flap pouches as back-ups, but for main fighting I have three magazine in a single stack open-top pouch. Also, admin pouches help for patches, as they have plenty of velcro room on them, and also for PTT's.

Also, if you're interested, I have a Condor RRV in ACU with a bunch of pouches for sale, if you needed one for a tan load out. miairsoft.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=commerce&action=display&thread=43016

Commerce section, start a new thread with WTS (want to sell) and whatever you're selling as the title. Give good information, pictures, and a price for what you're selling, and wait for the PM's. You can "bump" a thread to the top every 24 hours after the initial post.