Hey Henry Junior,
I think that my new DM Adventurer looks pretty swell. I don't have any pics right now of mine, but I can offer my thoughts on it.
When I opened the box and took out, my first impression was that it
is rather darker-looking on the actual felt, and the ribbon is kinda light. I think on color, if the felt and ribbon colors were switched, I think it would be more screen accurate. But, SA aside, I think it looks amazing when I wear it.
In terms of durability, I think it stands up incredibly to water. I wore it in heavy rain and it survived; although it takes more than 24 hours to completely dry at the recommended room temperature. I haven't tried anything else to test it, partially I'm afraid to.
I should have ordered the hat Open-Crown for me to bash the Adventurer myself. For twenty dollars, the Indy Bash advertised does not really look that good like the pictures. In my humble opinion, the bash makes the Adventurer look too... generic/factory-produced if you will (i.e. little character in the hat). My apologies if that sounded pretentious or something
, but that's how I felt.
At first I was afraid to try and re-bash my hat (because apparently Akubra puts a lot of hat stiffener on their hats) but I did. Using John Penman's tutorial on youtube found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozJKQVCgeZ4 (Thanks, Mr. Penman!) I was able to shape it into a Raiders bash albeit without much of a turn.
If you, Henry Junior, decide to shape it, make sure to use what David Morgan calls the "Cowboy method". That, I believe, is when you leave your hat out in the rain and when it is wet, you shape it to your desire. Just don't get the inside with the satin lining or the leather sweatband wet, those will NOT stand to water, as I have found with experience. I was an idiot and got my hands wet when I tried to reshape my hat, and the lining tore. I had to glue it back into place.
I would NOT use steam to shape it. Despite warnings from various websites and David Morgan, I went ahead and used steam. Well, steam shrunk the felt on my crown and gave it a ToD taper.
I was aiming for a Raiders shape, but it ended up as a ToD hat with a tight pinch. On the plus side, the Adventurer still looks pretty fancy on me.
I am sorry for the long post, but overall, HenryJunior, if you want the Adventurer, go get it! It will stand up to hard weather, and it looks nice, what with the lining, ribbon, and sweatband. Again, the colors are off, but for this price, you get a truly durable hat that has the potential for any Indiana Jones shape.
If you want a comparison between the Federation Four and the Adventurer, here's one (which is not mine).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfdt/2487385108/