by LettuceHead » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:52 am
Long story short, there was interest and some stellar events but then interest waned due to various factors.
As a blankfire reenactor now, I can tell you that the reenactment world for both blank and airsoft is mostly (like, 75%) Normandy, followed by Itay/ Sicily. Eastern Front depends on the region. Red Army is the cheapest WW2 impression to put together, followed by British infantry. If you're willing to accept some farbiness, German kit has become much more affordable.
Read the threads and the oft-told story will unfold... WW2 airsoft in the PNW is effectively dead over a chicken/ egg syndrome. No one wants to invest in kit because there's no events, but there's no events because no one will invest in basic kit. There's some hesitation over authenticity standards, with some people turned off because of not enough correct equipment and others because of too much anal-retentiveness to details. In the end, though, there is not a large enough core group of hard-cores to attract and sustain the genre here.
The thing is, its not that much money to put together a basic WW2 impression. The "stitch Nazis" can suck it... this is airsoft. Most impressions can be put together for a few hundred bucks minus replica AEG. Its no museum-quality uniform and field gear but it looks good enough for running around in the woods with foggy safety glasses on. But, at the same time you do need to put some effort into it. An M14 is not an M1 Garand, nor is an AK a Stg44. Get a good replica weapon, an appropriate tunic, helmet and basic field gear to start. The rest will eventually fall into place. Get the very basic for infantry so everyone is relatively close, unit-wise.
Myself, I can portray British Para, infantry or Commando for both NW Europe or N. Africa/ Meditteranean. I am almost done with my German Fallschirmjager impression, too. I do 6-8 blank reenactment/ living history display events a year; its my passion in life. I would love to do WW2 airsoft again... but I'm not holding my breath. People need to just bite the bullet, spend some money and just freakin' do it.