HonourableArthur

At the start of this month, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and purchased my first ever uniform article. Well, when I say article, I should using the plural as what I ordered came in a set. It included a cap, jacket, trouser, belt, a small collection of badges (All of which are quite possibly reproductions) and a set of ten medals thrown in with the lot for free. (Which are a random assortment and are fakes.) Now, of course, for the true collector, one looks for authenticity. For me, I was only interested in the clothing aspects, rather than the trinkets that came along with it. Although, I do appreciate the effort the seller made in putting that together. As when i found my jacket, the medals and badges were already pinned and ready. Now with that little disclaimer out of the way, let's continue with the story.

It took only 16 business days for the package to arrive at my doorstep, which traveled all the way from Kharkov, Ukraine. (Or Kharkiv, if you spell it in the Ukrainian way). I was honestly expecting it to arrive much later, with at least 20 business days. But, to my surprise rested a cardboard box that looked a little roughened up, all with Cyrillic prints on it. The box must of been in this state, given the fact a sticker noted that this package was inspected by Biosecurity Control. We're very adamant on goods coming into the nation, especially if they contain fresh food, meat or soil products. It was packed well in that the cap was in a wrapped in a plastic bag with the belt sitting inside the peak and the jacket and trouser were folded together in the other bag. Suffice to say, it was a little bit a thrill for me to receive something like this. Must be from that looming anticipation over this month.

So with the background delivered. Let's take a look at what I got. I'll try to let the pictures do most of the talking.





I attempted to research what some of these badges are. I had a feeling at the start that the diamond shape badge on the far right is some kind of educational badge, and the larger one down the bottom is some kind of officer proficiency badge. The middle of the row of three is a Guards badge, but the one to the left shouldn't be worn by an officer, as far as I found out. It's a badge awarded to soldiers and sergeants primarily, recognising their high scores in political education, but overall high discipline and display of good soldiering, I suppose. The one towards the top didn't have any information in English. So spelling what it said out in Cyrillic into a search engine and using Google Translate for a rubbish translation yielded something. It is a decoration given mostly to hard workers, in the civlian sphere for their contributions to Socialist labour for the state or something typical like that. The year for this one is 1978. Although, I could only ascertain that this decoration is issued to civilians, rather than military staff.















I found this within the confines of the left skirt pocket of the jacket. Not sure what it is. Most likely a reproduction of something.



And finally. The whole lot in one frame.

With all that, I conclude this journal. Now the descriptions I gave to the finer details aren't completely accurate as they're merely scraps of what I could understand. So for anyone who has extensive knowledge on such things, I welcome any explanations in the comments below. I do know that this very uniform is a parade uniform for the Soviet Army: Ground Forces, particularly of that of an Artillery Major. I do know that a belt wouldn't be worn without the breeches, gloves and jackboots as the belt would be used for parade participants. Rather, the trousers, jacket, cap, decorations (And white jackshirt and black tie and tie clip) would be worn for spectators on parade. Especially for the Victory Day Parade.

As of recent, my computer as developed the habit of booting up slowly. We're not talking 5 minutes or 15. No, we're talking around 2 hours to fully boot up to the point where it is in a more normal state. From around an hour after start-up, I am able to do a few things, but they will freeze up. I looked around to see what the issue was and it turns out my main hard drive is giving me some grief. Constantly at 100% disk usage, hence the indicator on my tower constantly remaining. After 2 hours, it dies down and goes back to normal. So from there, I am able to use it as I would any other time. I have taken precautions and made the appropriate measures, but I can't be sure to fully test it. I'll explain just down here.

Today I leave for a 20 day trip over to Indonesia. Whilst it is the usual family visit, it still is a holiday to unwind and forget about any apparent stresses of domestic life. An escape, if you will. Of course, issues will crop up, but being better prepared will pay dividends. In any case, during that time, I'll be even less active than I currently am. And yes, I know I am barely active for the past few months. This isn't due to domestic issues, rather the lack of drive to publish anything. Whilst I could, and should, prepare better and full sets of uniforms of the Makmurian Armed Forces, I often feel bored with that. Leaving it for a little and coming back to it often helps. Suffice to say, I have been working on things behind the scenes, most of which not published. Speaking of which, I'd like to extend an apology to ComradeMarshal in not fully completing the Morning Dress he requested an embarrassing amount of time ago. I have gotten work done on it, but haven't reached a fully complete state. The basic appearance is complete, just some many tweaks to get it to look right. I plan on continuing this when I return, as I do not possess a laptop or such a thing to do pixel uniforms whilst away. I'd love to, though.

With all that said and done. I'll be sure to check out any deviations, journals or what have you once I gain access to some form of wifi. I remember seeing some nice things going on during my trip to the United States last year, and that was only for 7 days. It's not often that I post journals, if at all. This is my first, technically. With all that faffing about past, I wish you all a great day.