My son was admitted into the hospital a few days ago after he almost stopped breathing from a complication of his bone marrow transplant a year ago so until now I have only had a few minutes to glance at the discussions the past few days until tonight. I'm back in a flight or fight mental state ready for a phone call from my wife and I'm back at the hospital but going over all this has helped me take my mind off things for a while.
Darren's last post of the helmet and goggles looks pretty complete. Nothing I would really add. I'm good with it and ready to move to the next section.
I do think having specific buckles isn't needed for a level 1. The buckles and clips should look similar though in material and basic shape. There is going to come a time here soon where those Yugoslavian bags are going to become hard to come by. The same is true of the hex mesh inside the mask. There should be mesh, but I think using square mesh would be fine for level one since its not really visible from a few feet away.
Here are my thoughts on how the variations should be handled. The CRL should be for a basic trooper. Get this part done and complete. This should be what people should have to pass muster for approval. Then we add in option of what gear can be added, taken off, or colored differently at the end. The variations of how all this basic gear gets worn is part of what I think makes the Mud Troopers cool and different from the rest of the Empires characters but I kind of feel everyone should have full gear and not missing a left shin etc. If your on a troop and you want to leave off the helmet and cloak and say your Han, great. But if your with fellow Mud Trooper, you've got the basic gear.