Projekt Skizei is a photographic project on Instagram, made up of 17 players from all over Spain (Andalusia, Catalonia and Galicia regions). Our purpose is to take photos exploring the aesthetics of police assault units which are fully free to chose their own materials and equipment, and always use elements matching this aesthetic look. We are currently inspired by the SEK unit of the German Polizei.
Since we were tired of the usual look, we tried to move away from the tiresome dualism in airsoft between American military or Russian military aesthetics, and above all the concept of wearing very minimalist and ultra-refined equipment. We wanted to try new things, and we decided to explore the police kits: The great ignored of airsoft.
Our aesthetic interest arises from the images we saw in the latest news related to world terrorism: operators who mixed tactical material with civilian clothing, that is, operators going about their daily lives were deployed in an emergency to a high-risk situation, the so-called ‘first responders’.
We start from police forces such as the FBI, SWAT, GEO, GIGN, SEK, GSG9, DSI, CTSFO, etc. and soon we only chose the European ones due to the difficulty of finding their gear, which is often exclusive, tailored and limited to the general public. We found it exciting to try to prove that this gear did not have to be so expensive or difficult to buy if you knew where to look. And finally we chose the SEK of the German Polizei for its very particular aesthetics, thus ruling out other units such as the DSI or the CTSFO that continued to have an aesthetic that was too refined and not so distant from what we intended to move away from. And so, in March 2019, Projekt Skizei was born.
Given that it is a photographic project, we could not ignore something the fact that the photographic technique must emulate that of the reference images we worked on, almost all of which were from newspapers, press agencies and independent photographers. Express photos for the news of the day in the press. Many of them conditioned by public censorship, taken with telephoto lenses from beyond the police cordon, in adverse conditions (at night), blurred, with noise, with flash flooding the photo and without major edits.
SEK - What is it?
The Spezialeinsatzkommandos (SEK) of the German Polizei was born in the 70s. It is a regional special operations police unit that depends on each of the 16 Landers that make up Germany. It is at the same level as other bodies such as the MEK (mobile units), and below the GSG9 (recognisable thanks to video games) or the ZUZ (Corresponding to the Zoll - Customs and Borders) that respond at the national level (Bundespolizei). Therefore, there are 16 different SEKs, each with its own features and aesthetics depending on the resources that each Lander assigns to them.
This gave Projekt Skizei a wonderful opportunity to experiment creatively with a wide variety of accessories, gear and aesthetics, as we did not focus on just the SEK of a specific Lander. While it is true that everyone can have their preferences, including myself, with Hessen’s SEK.
The SEK's tasks are manifold, from negotiation and intervention in armed kidnappings, such as arrests of entrenched armed individuals, protection of VIPs or witnesses, or arrest of potentially dangerous subjects on public roads (such as armed radicals with bladed weapons in anti-system demonstrations or violent revolts). To provide an example in figures, the SEK in Berlin has over 500 interventions a year, that is 1.4 interventions a day.
Police intervention units
First, we must bear in mind that, due to the nature and ultimate purpose of police operations, we find differences in their modus operandi with respect to military units.
The final task of a special police intervention unit is not to destroy, but to reduce the hostile threat in order to capture the aggressors so they can be legally prosecuted. This is very important, since thanks to this logic we will find the necessary keys to configure a seemingly police-themed kit.
1- Self-protection comes first, so the kits are very bulky, including helmets with screens, vests with soft armour plates underneath, and specific protections on the neck, arms and sub-abdominal area.
2- Typically, the threat is often barricaded in specific sites, so a security perimeter is often set up with many officers. Therefore, shootings are not expected at a great distance. It is common to see kits with CQB weapons designed for small environments and just a couple of magazines in really rare and secondary positions. Due to the varied role of its functions, the distribution of pouches between operators is extremely wide: giving priority to admin and utility pouches for a wide range of accessories, backpacks with breaching tools, ground drones, etc.
3- The use of reflective patches with the word Polizei and/or fluorine yellow/orange armbands is essential for friendly identification when wearing civilian clothing, for friendly designation, and to inform the general public that they are the police.
4.-As a curiosity, it is very common to see operators carrying two hand guns, a short one on the belt and one on the leg.
5.-All SEK officers always wear a side lanyard on the vest, an IFAK and flanges/handcuffs, for the following reason:
Once the intervention is done and the threat has been reduced, the first thing is to immobilise the hostile suspect, and so they use the bridles or handcuffs for this purpose.
In an already secured environment they still need to stabilized the wounded enemy and carry out a search, the weapon is no longer useful and cannot be left anywere. They have a specific lanyard on the side for this purpose, to hold the weapon and take it with them preventing it from moving in a really comfortable way.
Finally, as individual self-protection, each member of the SEK always wears an IFAK and normally one of the officers is a paramedic wearing a backpack for healing purposes.
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SEK Gear
Reading this far, the big question would be
How could I equip myself like this and look good?
- Counterweight Pouch Chinaco
- Chinacas shoulder pads
- TMC Orange Handcuffs
- IT MP5 Pouch
- Gunfire Pouch Double grenades
- Viper Ifak Pouch
- MFH/Miltec Utility
- FMA Sentry XP Helmet
- Balaclava by Andre
- TT Tac Pouch 1
- TT Tac Pouch 5
- 5.11 Double Pistol Pouch
- TMC Pouch Doble
- German Surplus Shirt
- TT Tool Pocket XS
- Lanyard Chinaco
- Safariland by Taiwangun
- TT Tourniquet Pouch
- TT Grenade Pouch
- TMC Cup
- Chinaca Holster
- Taser M26 by Bariman
- Ufpro Striker XT2
Extra equipment / breaching
A very iconic piece of equipment could be the ballistic screen helmets, the Ulbritch Zenturio C1300H, the Zenturio 05 or the Busch helmets in all their variants. As such original helmets are extremely expensive and, in some cases, not available to the general public, we were able to manufacture our own Busch variants using Mich with ARC rails and real ballistic screens (which are marketed in the civil market), or using Fast with AOR2 cases and modifying the typical female Velcro scheme that they usually include.
Also a Zenturio C1300H replica in fibreglass with a 10 cm thick Plexiglass screen.
In addition to this, they carry X2 and M26c tasers, demolition equipment such as rams or bullet shields, which we made in a 3D printer or even homemade. Or even with chain mail, as an anti-cut suit to reduce potential attacks with bladed weapons.
Regarding clothing we can find Ufpro uniforms mainly, despite some isolated exception from the SEK with Crye Precision cut uniforms, (which are, however, much more linked to the GSG9 instead of the SEK). Also the presence of black work overalls, some Multicam garment, Pencott or even Concamo and Flecktarn. The tactical gear is usually by Lindnerhof Taktik, Mehler, Tasmanian Tiger or a wide range of sports brands such as Arc'Teryx or Fjallraven. They wear Salomon, Lowa and Adidas boots, or civil footwear such as Vans, Nike or Converse when they operate in civilian clothing.
Weapons
The weapons arsenal ranges from Mp5 (in many variants), Mp7, G36 (C and K), Scar L, Glocks 17, Sig p226, to AUGs (Only SEK from Bavaria). Almost always with specific B&T parts and accessories such as modified stocks to be able to aim through the screens of helmets, handguards, grips, etc. They also carry scopes, red dots and PEQs.
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In short
Projekt Skizei has become more than just a group of good friends; a way to experience airsoft beyond game day. We have been able to stay creative throughout the week by making the airsoft experience much more complete, based on news and photo research, identification and knowledge of the gear they use, airsoft market research to see where we can get such items in a cheap or original or even by making them, to wrap everything up in a fun photographic creative process that illustrates the work done.
A proactive and refreshing way to keep up the excitement for the hobby that we encourage everyone to try out with their friends.
