One of the larger parts of the loadout is the BDUs, the actual basic uniform. Bearing in mind my plan to keep this loadout to a reasonable budget this meant a little creative buying.

The real Russian tactical BDUs are, of course, the BEKAS two piece set or the one piece equivalent - both available from Redsoldier.com in the USA. The Bekas set will set you back $99, including shipping, this breaks down to about £50 - so can I do any better than this, but still retain some semblance of an authentic look?

Left:  No - not me in a catalogue pose! This is the Dickies boilersuit, available at pratically all work wear stores at around just £15. It's a pretty utilitarian piece of clothing that looks exactly like those one piece suits used by tactical units the world over. (Photo: Dickiesstore.co.uk)

My first idea was to buy a plain one-piece 'boiler suit' in black. That's a fairly generic tactical uniform look, and is something that is easy to get hold of. Sure enough I found what potentially was a real bargain at UKprotective.com - a black XL boiler suit at only £9.99! Sadly, on delivery, I found the one real disadvantage of a one-piece suit - if you are above average height (I am 6' 5") the 'average' body height in the suit tends to cut you in half! (Or at least it did for me, but the purchase wasn't wasted as I passed the item along to a team-mate who it fitted perfectly!) 

Left: The Dickies Redhawk Warehouse work suit. My bad flash photography makes this suit look shinny. but it isn't. Click on image for larger version.

So, next I looked around for a two piece work suit and was duly rewarded with a nice find at Dickiesstore.co.uk. The Dickies Redhawk warehouse jacket is almost an exact match for the Russian Bekas style BDU jacket. Not only that, but at just £11.20 (ex. VAT) it was half the price of the real Russian jacket. So I ordered the jacket, but bought the matching Redhawk Action Trousers, which have the added benefit of being able to take a set of Dickies safety knee pads in integral pockets, from a local work wear store.

Left: The Dickies Redhawk trousers come with built in pockets which take their knee pad inserts (£5.40). This is a nice idea, as some people don't like the military style knee pads, which constantly slip down (photo: Dickiesstore.co.uk)

The whole outfit cost me about £30, compared to the £50 for the real Bekas. 

Finally, I added the team badges which really set the outfit off nicely. I saved a bit more cash here by daring to sew on the badges myself (the local seamstress was going to charge £20 to do the job). So overall, I saved myself £40 at this stage, not bad and enough to put towards some of the load carrying kit I want next...

Next time I will be looking at the load bearing kit; the assault vest, holster, pouches and belt.

< Click here to go back to Part Two