Re: Litton vs Norotos (facemask)
IR-V has it about right on the face masks vs the helmet thing.
Aint no kidding about the Skull Crusher, it fits about 3% (ok maybe 4%) of the population and the rest just suffer. I have tried everything under the sun to try and make them work but ALAS nothing seems to. The Skull Crushers stability comes from the plastic halo as it wraps around your head. Problem is it is one size and the majority of heads out there are not that size.
The Norotos face mask is as described. Now the lack of some sort of ballast on the back does rely on the arms of the mask pushing down on your cheeks for stability. I have NOT tried any kind of a ballast bag hung off the back patch. As such the leather pads, sticking to your face, can be annoying if your out in hot weather. It comes in both the Wilcox Dove tail and the PVS 7/14 mount.
The Litton mask is a smaller profile with a tubular metal frame rather than the large plastic catchers mask feel of the Norotos. BOTH of their chin cups suck and this is the one (and ONLY) advantage that the skull crusher has, a better chin cup. You can scavenge the skull crushers chin cup for adaptation onto either of them. Works much better on the Norotos though. There are two versions of the Litton mask, One that has the mounting arm able to flip up and another that does not. As mentioned only available in the Wilcox dovetail.
They are lighter weight and cooler BUT when your wearing them they are completely strapped to your head and don't come off instantly. Last thing about them and I know your asking as a cooler alternative to a helmet BUT if you need to wear a hat (say, due to insects) with either, about your only option is an over-sized Boonie Cover.
Gotta agree completely on the helmet thing though. Putting either mask on is a lot of adjusting straps to get it just right. A lightweight helmet is easier to deal with in every aspect and the Ops Core Base Jump is a GREAT choice.
Now as an aid to cooling a helmet, there are a couple of options. As mentioned above, open the cooling vents up larger. ALSO there are cooling inserts that can be used, like the Cool Aid helmet liner.
http://www.brigadeqm.com/cgi-bin/tame.exe/store/level4c.tam?M5COPY.ctx=26219&M5.ctx=26219 You soak them down with water, they absorb the water and fluff up and through evaporative cooling keep ya cool. As they dry out, splash a little more cool water in them and you are good to go.
I have both masks and in most cases I will simply grab my base Jump helmet over a mask. Now all that being said if your still set on the idea of a mask, if I had to pick between the three (1 Norotos and 2 Littons) I would go with the Litton version that flips up, just my preference.
Hope we haven't confused you further here.
IPSC_GUY
SIERRA II ALPHA
