CPT DAVID HAIGHT
BONUS PICS

By: Rich


Thought that I would give you a run down of the gear used on the figure and how I came to the conclusion of doing this type of figure.

As much as I like my WWII Brits, the Mercenary contest intrigued me and I began thinking as well as searching the net for a topic to use. The Congo Uprising came to mind since back in '78 while in XVIII Airborne Corps' 503rd MP BN working with the 82nd ABN on a training mission in and around Ft Stewart, and Hunter Army Airfield, we were alerted to start rounding up all of the dispersed units on a serious alert. Another uprising in Zaire, the former Congo, needed assistance again. After all of the elements of the 82nd were finally herded onto Hunter then airlifted back to Bragg, we after working 30 hour shifts had to drive our Jeeps back to North Carolina while escorting service and supply BNs with their fuel trucks. After all of that the Belgian Paratroopers were the ones dropped into Zaire again.

I remember being in the fifth grade in '64 when the original Operation Dragon Rouge took place, and after going on alert in '78 for similar circumstances, it made me do some research back then.

That nailed down the type of figure that I wanted to do, so all that remained was which head sculpt to use, and the research for his gear, clothing, and bio. I noticed while reading the material available on the events that eyewitness accounts changed from not only person to person, but paragraph to paragraph supposedly written by the same person. Most did agree that the brutality by both sides did happen as suggested in this guy's bio. The uniforms and gear were sparse, and considering the jungle and suburban terrain the figure could be easily over loaded if not careful.Pics revealed very little gear, and even clothing was worn. So CPT Haight wore a simply ensemble to include a dyed BBi SAS Bush Shirt, DML early GI Field Trousers. Both had buttons replaced to match. Boots are BBi Commando Vibram soled, with DML puttee wraps from the late war DML SAS figure who came with the maroon beret. The scarf is the BBi WWII paratrooper that looks like a section of parachute. Paddy Ryan, the BBi Aussie provided the hat which was reshaped. Harry Sinclair provided the back pack that was modified slightly to allow wear without the British web suspenders.

A TUS .45 is in the BBi holster with ammo/compass pouch above, along with ammo magazine pouch all dyed slightly green. These were attached to a DML plastic GI belt along with their cloth compress bandage pouch, metal canteen with cloth pouch also slightly dyed a greener color. The trench knife is BBi, and the magazine pouch for the Thompson is DML containing DML mags. Too bad that TUS never did spare magazines. When I finally got the Thompson set that Graeylin graciously sent, after being lost in the mail for two weeks or more. I took two afternoons to finally get this ready. So, the visible minimum two TUS items were the Thompson and the TUS coiled green rope that was tucked under the flap of the back pack with the DML British rubberized ground cloth. At the last minute I grabbed the map from the BBi RAF figure and tucked it in the left trouser cargo pocket. As for using the Major General Roy figure I had just stripped him down to clean the uniform after being stored for a move a year ago. His head sculpt just looked perfect to me for the figure.























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