Rank Insignia and Uniforms Thread

[MovingtargeT]

The part of me that likes systematic rank systems would like Sergeant First Class to be 3 chevrons and a rocker, after the precedent established by Pvt, PFC, Cpl, CFC, Sgt. Of course, that is not the right choice for your timeline which would deliberately be following longstanding military tradition over synthetic aesthetics.

Yep, I almost went the SFC route but decided against it for those reasons exactly. Also, it seems odd to need to distinguish a senior NCO as being "first class" among other senior NCOs (yes, I know SFC is a rank in the US Army...I still don't like the sound of it). To make it that far you need an impeccable record, so being "first class" is redundant. Speaking of redundancy, I didn't want to have any First Sergeant/Sergeant First Class confusion.

Does that mean that when Texas broke off from the U.S., a lot of U.S. sergeants changed their rank to First Corporal, and a lot of U.S. staff sergeants changed their rank to Sergeant? That's not going to be popular with the soldiers. But I can see dividing up the E-4 rank into E-4 and E-4.5 could be popular, since, if I'm not mistaken, there are a huge number of soldiers at that level.

The change in title might rub some the wrong way (i.e. a US Staff Sergeant assuming the equivalent role of a Texas Sergeant) but the pay and duty description would be similar and there would be more of a prestige factor of reaching sergeant. As Zippy said, the Texas system treats sergeants more like the Commonwealth nations, you don't get fast-tracked to Sgt. in 3-4 years like the US system.

By the way, I like using the U.S. general stars, since that has a lot of meaning in the popular imagination. And I like your decision to use one bar for Second Lieutenant, and two for First Lieutenant. That aligns with Confederate usage. I think it's more likely, unfortunately, that they'd copy the US system of one gold bar, then one silver bar, than two silver bars. I really like the arrows.

I seriously considered using the original Texas Republic system of starting the 2Lt with a blank tab, but this would be confusing with modern field uniforms. I didn't deliberately copy the CS system, but yes...they are basically the same idea. The arrows are a directly copy of the OTL Texas Republic ranks. Since Texas loves lone stars on everything, the US generals insignia was already a perfect match.

 

[VANRIDERFAN]

That's a good idea, and it shows more "true patriot love". On a similar topic, I had put some thought into a different Canadian rank system, so that the French and English names are translations of each other. Right now a "Commander" is also called "Capitaine de frégate", and those are much too different.

Enlisted ranks:
Mariner 3rd class, Marin de 3e classe
Mariner 2nd class, Marin de 2e classe
Mariner 1st class, Marine de 1re classe
Chief mariner, Marin-chef
Master 2nd class, Maître de 2e classe
Master 1st class, Maître de 1re classe
Master Chief 2nd class, Maître-chef de 2e classe
Master Chief 1st class, Maître-chef de 1re classe

Warrant Officers:
Formation master chief, Maître-chef de formation
Master chief of the Navy, Maître-chef de marine
Master chief of the Canadian Forces, Maître-chef de Forces Canadiennes

Officers and Cadet
Naval Cadet, Cadet de marine
Sub-lieutenant 2nd class, Sous-lieutenant de 2e classe
Sub-lieutenant, Sous-lieutenant
Lieutenant, Lieutenant
Corvette captain, Capitaine de corvette
Frigate captain, Capitaine de frégate
Ship captain, Capitaine de vaisseau
Commodore, Commodore
Rear admiral, Contre-amiral
Vice admiral, Vice-amiral
Admiral, Amiral


I offer these with the caveats that I am a civilian, I am not Canadian, and je ne parle pas français. I don't see why the French isn't sous-lieutenant, and the English low ranks aren't 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class. Other ranks I propose do push similarity a little further than is necessary, and "sailor" and "petty officer" may be more acceptable translations of "matelot" and "maître".

Sorry nope. Don't like those at all.

(it seems to be change, and don't you know that change is a bad thing?

 

[jetpack]

Sorry nope. Don't like those at all.

(it seems to be change, and don't you know that change is a bad thing?

I'm glad to get the opinion of someone who's affected by this. I respect your opinion, and I imagine a dressed up version of your opinion is the reason it's not like this: the proud traditions of two nations cannot be discarded. What would you think of tiny changes in the direction of conformity. Or what would you think if only the other guys had to change their titles, whether that's those folks who speak the wrong language who mess up your country, or those people with the wrong level of education who don't know how to run a navy?

pretty good actually. the only corrections would be: "Maître-Chef de la Marine", "Maître-Chef des Forces Armées Canadiennes", "Cadet de la Marine / Cadet-Marin",

If you want a 2-way mixture of rank names (british and french) translated into the other language, you could use:

Petty Officer 2nd class, Bas-Officier de 2e classe
Petty Officer 1st class, Bas-Officier de 1re classe
Chief Petty Officer 2nd class, Bas-Officier-Chef de 2e classe
Chief Petty Officer 1st class, Bas-Officier-Chef de 1re classe

Thanks for the corrections! And thanks for more proposals. I leaned towards the French version more often because for me that's the nifty exotic one. I think "master" sounds wrong in English, and I was wondering how you would say Petty Officer in French.

I looked at the pre-unification RCAF ranks to see if Francophones ever used a title like Commandeur, and I was surprised to see that those ranks were even less consistent than the naval ones. The French equivalent of a Wing Commander was a Lieutenant-Colonel d'Aviation. I thought they'd be able to keep things straight for a shiny new service.

 

[MovingtargeT]

TexAF Ranks

Like the OTL US, the Texas Air Force (or TexAF as the troops call it) borrowed heavily from the Army tradition. Officer ranks are identical, but the term "technical" is added to some enlisted ranks to differentiate from their combat counterparts in other branches. As in the US, the "technical" prefix is shortened to "tech" in common speech, so Master Technical Sergeants can be referred to as "Master Tech Sergeant" or simply "Master Tech." Instead of the Army style enlisted categories of private/corporal/sergeant, the TexAF uses two categories (airmen/sergeants) but Senior Airmen and Master Airmen are actually junior NCOs and often serve as crew chiefs and supervisors.

edit: See the updated version here
Rank Insignia and Uniforms Thread

 

[Laqueesha]

Hmm, for general ranks, however about the star surrounded by a wreath, like on the coat of arms?

 

[MovingtargeT]

Hmm, for general ranks, however about the star surrounded by a wreath, like on the coat of arms?

The rank tabs would look too cluttered with all of that detail. I wanted the CoA to be separate and worn by all members, not just a symbol for those at the top.

 

[jetpack]

TexAF Ranks
View attachment 290797

That's a good set of names. I wonder if over later on, the enlisted will be renamed to be identical to the army ranks, since they used the same insignia anyway. I think Staff Sergeant is usually lower than Tech Sergeant, so that would be an adjustment for people. I'm surprised you changed some enlisted rank names but not others. What were your thoughts on "Technical Sergeant" and "Master Technical Sergeant"?

 

[Fenwick]

 

[MovingtargeT]

That's a good set of names. I wonder if over later on, the enlisted will be renamed to be identical to the army ranks, since they used the same insignia anyway. I think Staff Sergeant is usually lower than Tech Sergeant, so that would be an adjustment for people. I'm surprised you changed some enlisted rank names but not others. What were your thoughts on "Technical Sergeant" and "Master Technical Sergeant"?

The Staff Sergeant now being a senior NCO threw the system off, so I needed a junior NCO replacement for the E5 slot...hence Master Airman. I also didn't want to copy all of the Army ranks because the duties are different. In WWII, the US had a separate category of "technician grades" to differentiate between combat and support troops. Much of the Air Corps NCOs were appointed to these grades, so I kept the spirit of that in mind with the TexAF ranks which is why I used Technical. As for Master Technical Sergeant, I thought that "Master Tech" sounded cool (like "Master Guns" in the USMC) and thought "why not?" Master Sergeant would have been fine, but I wanted to make it more unique to the TexAF. As for the TexAF eventually adopting Army ranks, I doubt it. "Air Private" or "Air Corporal" would make sense for paratroops or AF security forces, but not for the entire air force.

 

[Nicola]

That's a good set of names. I wonder if over later on, the enlisted will be renamed to be identical to the army ranks, since they used the same insignia anyway. I think Staff Sergeant is usually lower than Tech Sergeant, so that would be an adjustment for people. I'm surprised you changed some enlisted rank names but not others. What were your thoughts on "Technical Sergeant" and "Master Technical Sergeant"?

tech sgts being higher than Staff sergeants is not universal. The RAF rank of 'chief technician' is between Sergeant and Flight Sergeant ( which is the RAFs equivalent to Staff Sergeant - and in both cases being Senior NCOs at Sergeant level due to having and using OR-4 Corporals )

 

[MovingtargeT]

RTMC

Not many surprises here, officers' ranks match the Army and enlisted use the "lance" prefix rather than "first class" suffix. Both Winter Dress (dark green/red) and Dress Blues (red/gold) insignia are shown for the enlisted side.

(edit: see the revised version here Rank Insignia and Uniforms Thread)

Thanks for looking. Navy insignia coming soon!

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Future/alternate history colours and insignias for an independent Republic of Quebec.

the insignias are inspired by those currently worn by municipal police forces and some provincial uniformed agencies in Quebec. "FARQ" stands for "Forces Armées de la République du Québec" or Armed Forces of the Republic of Quebec.

The regimental colours are a throwback to colonial flags although in this context the square's colours would only change based on branch and not on regiment. The specific unit is indicated by the name in the middle of the obverse and battle honours are inscribed on the reverse.

 

[jetpack]

Filler

That is a really cool logo. How did you make it? Could you provide some context for it? I reviewed a bunch of your more recent posts on the thread, and I didn't see anything about Wild Dogs.

RTMC

Not many surprises here, officers' ranks match the Army and enlisted use the "lance" prefix rather than "first class" suffix. Both Winter Dress (dark green/red) and Dress Blues (red/gold) insignia are shown for the enlisted side.

Thanks for looking. Navy insignia coming soon!

This isn't very different than the Army, and it shouldn't be very different. Please tell me you'll still present the Navy ones. I'm a fan.

Future/alternate history colours and insignias for an independent Republic of Quebec.

the insignias are inspired by those currently worn by municipal police forces and some provincial uniformed agencies in Quebec. "FARQ" stands for "Forces Armées de la République du Québec" or Armed Forces of the Republic of Quebec.

The regimental colours are a throwback to colonial flags although in this context the square's colours would only change based on branch and not on regiment. The specific unit is indicated by the name in the middle of the obverse and battle honours are inscribed on the reverse.

I just looked up en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sûreté_du_Québec to see how you derived it, and I see you extrapolated a lot. Here's a summary of Quebec police ranks:
Sergent: 2 narrow stripes
Lieutenant: 1 narrow stripe and one normal stripe (like a Naval O-2)
Capitaine: 2 normal stripes (like a Naval (O-3)
Inspecteur: 3 normal stripes
Inspectuer-Chef: 4 normal stripes
Directeur général adjoint: 2 wide stripes
Directeur général: 1 very wide stripe

So it looks like the police stripes were partly derived from naval stripes, but they invented a sergent one to be one step below lieutenant. As far as I can tell, this system is unique to Quebec, but it's not strange. Marc went and extrapolated a whole system of enlisted stripes from that. I like the system. Maybe I would have started the chevrons at ajdudant, so that ranks with similar names have similar insignia.

Marc, how did you decide to use 2 wide stripes for colonel, rather than the navy-like system of 4 normal stripes? Was it just for the sake of being different, and more police-derived?

 

[Fenwick]

That is a really cool logo. How did you make it? Could you provide some context for it? I reviewed a bunch of your more recent posts on the thread, and I didn't see anything about Wild Dogs.

I used GIMP.


In SW the British Union has a special forces team of Jackal, Dingo, Hyena, Wolf, and Fox.

 

[jetpack]

Fenwick, did you start with a template, or reference images you pasted in?

 

[Fenwick]

Fenwick, did you start with a template, or reference images you pasted in?

I open gimp.

I search for clip art. Symbols, shapes, designs.

Then I just throw it together.

For this it was a shield with had a wolf. Was going for a MGS look.

 

[MovingtargeT]

This isn't very different than the Army, and it shouldn't be very different. Please tell me you'll still present the Navy ones. I'm a fan.

Hey, thanks! I am planning on finishing the Texas Navy ranks soon. I started doing the uniforms for an independent California around the time I was finishing up the Texas ranks, then I got caught up with real life stuff, then election drama, etc. and haven't been drawing as much lately. I'll get around to finishing up Texas soon and maybe posting some teaser stuff about California. Not coincidentally, interest in various Cascadia and California secession movements spiked way up after the election results, maybe my ranks and uniforms will be a reality someday!

 

[Hapsburg]

Thing I put together. And as I say in the image itself, many things were adapted from parts created by other content creators in the Pixel-Archives group on deviantArt. I have named the most prominent ones, but there are many others, and I strongly encourage you to check out the compendium of things they have there. I also draw inspiration from other works of fiction, most prominently Mass Effect, Star Wars, and
Kerberos; as well as developments we are seeing today in personal protection and the integration of communications and network-centric warfare with the individual soldier.

Fast-forward over a thousand years in the future, and despite technological shifts, the basic layout for equipment is strikingly similar. High-tech powered armour and laser weapons are too costly and too unreliable to equip a trillion-man army.

 

[Archangel Michael]

Rank insignia of the United States National Guard, a part of the U.S. Department of Civil Defense from my TL

 

[jetpack]

Rank insignia of the United States National Guard, a part of the U.S. Department of Civil Defense from my TL

Neat rank names. Nice systematic insignia. I've been kicking around the idea of using police-sounding ranks as part of a military force. How did you decide which police sounding ranks align with which OF level? It's a similar issue that Marc had in adopting modern Quebec police uniform to an independent Quebec military.

The premise of mine was that NASA and other space exploration adopt uniforms for ease of transfers from military personnel, while emphasizing using civilian sounding rank names to emphasize that they are peaceful. I was thinking that maybe one branch would be the TSA-like organization that uses police ranks. Eventually their mission to patrol launch sites and inspect launch materials evolves into inspecting things in orbit, and once war breaks out, they become a real military. I see that you are using police like ranks for a very different thematic reason, because you're emphasizing that this is a dystopia where the National Guard is a paramilitary force that's involved in policing.