Quick Fire, and other GAF Comrades:
Apologies yet again for my delay in responding to recent posts (... as well as to your PM inquiries, Quick Fire, which I will address here in this post ...) but nothing I do seems to activate notification from CAS City to me of any responses to threads I have started, or posted in, nor do I get notice of any personal messages for me ...
Anyway, an excellent place to get a proper Pattern 1871 haversack would be "Poor Richards' British Gun Shop & Historical Reproductions" in Phillipsburg, NJ -
http://www.richardsreproductions.com/great-britain.html I have bought quite a few items from Jay Richards and have been well pleased with all of them.
As for correct insignia, there really isn't much (if anything) available in the way of reproduction NWMP insignia.. However, the main reason there are no such reproductions ...
and why that isn't really a problem for a NWMP impression ... is because there was no such insignia for anyone below Commissioned Officer status!
Other Ranks (i.e. NCOs, Constables, Sub-Constables) had no insignia other than the NWMP buttons on their uniforms, together with such rank chevrons/badges or trade/efficiciency badges they were entitled to wear.
So, ideally, you just keep yourself at a "lowly" rank ... and then you
"don't need no stinkin' badges" ...
If you look at period photos of NWMP Other Ranks ... you will see what I mean: no badges on headdress, nor on the collars or elsewhere on the tunic ... except for rank insignia for corporals and above - ...
North West Mounted Police NCO rank insignia from 1876 until into the 20th century were as follows:
As I believe I mentioned earlier, being rather too long in the tooth (and too 'bulky', frankly) to have any chance of credibly passing myself off as an active Constable, I have elected to do my impression with the rank of Sergeant, which may lend a wee bit more credibility ... though I will certainly not be anywhere as
svelte as Sgt. Bagley here -
I have yet to sew on my rank insignia ... mainly because when I got my canvas stable jacket, I decided it needed a bit of alteration, so I delayed attachment of rank insignia until I have that done. I didn't like the spacing of the buttons on the stable jacket when it arrived ... they were spaced too close together and grouped a bit too high to look quite like the spacing and positioning in the period photos ... and since the jacket actually arrived quite a bit too big (... as if that would usually be a problem with clothes for me! ...) I could actually take apart the whole front and move the edge seams in to eliminate the existing buttonholes completely, so I will be able to re-position the button holes and buttons more to my liking. Taking the front closure apart like that required me to remove the standing collar, for re-attachment later once the front closure is reworked. It turned into a project which was starting to challenge the limits of my modest tailoring skills so I put it aside for a while, but must really get back at it now that the Holiday Season is behind us.