by
Composite
I could've started a whole new thread for this.......and called it something helpful like "Look what I've seen!".....but....
I recently had the opportunity to get up close and personal with some more Virtuses....Virti......Virt?.....you know what I mean and, as any Compo fan would do (well, those who've known Mr Pickersgill for a long time) I looked for a screwdriver! A car key (and one broken shed padlock key later...we can always lever that door off anyway) helped us get a snap of a cover-less Virtus. Now, buckle up as this is one hell of a ride!
...but it turned out that one of them wasn't quite the same as the other.....one had the "old" (now) style cover whilst another had the later model. There were also slight differences re the helmets, well the front bracket too.......how exciting was that?!...it was like finding a champagne round bottomed droop tail in a pile of old M34 Feuerschutz! ('see, I can play that pretending-to-be-German-in-an-attempt-to-make-us-sound-special/elite thing too!)
The trouble with the old / first cover was that it came built-in...literally. It couldn't be slipped off at the untie of a string....you needed a screwdriver to undo the 5 bolts to get the cover off!
Well, this new cover is excitingly different ('s'funny cos I'm not FEELING that excitement coming back from you, the readers....)....
Firstly, the back....
Mk1 on the left...bolted on like a....errrr....thing that's bolted on to something else.....but the MkII (by the way, I've given them these exciting and highly descriptive product names) slips OVER all the nobbly bits, including the delicate hard-to-see brow bracket and there's even holes for the bolts at the back...although I'd argue that they've played it a little too safe with "room to grow" either side.....
Moving around to the front, which, incidentally is ALWAYS the best bit....
....note how the new cover (right) positively cascades over the top of that near-invisible brow bracket, securing as it does under the helmet rim via a sophisticated array of....errr....elastic edging.... Oh, and whats that?!....no black metal back-plate in the NVG mount nowadays....this just gets interestinger and interestinger.... (sorry for those for whom English isn't a first language...that should probably read "more interesting"). But that's not the biggest thing...here's the kicker at the side....
...theres a bloomin' great hole.....this exposes the slot-in bracket top and the side mini-rail (if it was fitted)....but what's that strange triangular piece of MTP which seems to be inside the top of the hole.....wait, surely not.....it gets even better?
...inside the new cover (removable) are little flaps which expose or cover the top corner of the new and exciting triangular hole! Now these flaps, when closed cover that HUGE expanse of what would be a totally exposed helmet...must be getting on to a square inch (that's probably about half a square litre to you youngsters) of plain, uncovered helmet....a Dragunuv-users dream!
But wait...there's more....they've only gone and changed the Velcro (or should that be Hook'n'Pile nowadays....LGBGQTBT gone mad!) patches AND repositioned the elasticated foliage straps too....just look at how that masterpiece of elasticity now snakes its way up diagonally across the side of the helmet, almost parallel with those little white words....oh....mmmmm...sorry about that......
Phew, what do you think of that?....and they say that TR stuff is interesting....covered brow bracket, exposed bolts, hidden flaps, migrating Velcro.... what we're witnessing here is a cataclysmic shift in the Helmet world...this is the equivalent of when they discovered that "SS" actually stood for "Secret Squirrel"......you will ALL remember where you were when you read this.......
...now I come to think of it, I should've offered them a few quid for it (although I'm sure bribing a Squaddie is illegal)......but they'll be in a box at War and Peace in 2 years time, three for a fiver.......
Someone make a note for when some idiot asks in 10 years time "when did the Removable Cover come in?" (oh and they'll ask in a totally new thread too......)
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