Various Homemade Loaner gear.

[Dracul]

It begins....



Insterburger managed to get 36 of these on to one yard from Spoonflower. Personally, I wouldn't have minded a losing a row to give myself more fabric for hemming. Its too little for my comfort. But he didn't know that and I just kind of figured they would be spaced out more, so this on me and I'll know for any future runs. 

I can only get a quarter inch for hem, I'm much more comfortable with at least half inch. 




Despite my small complaints, I'm getting these done. Hopefully to have them done and onto the next thing by end of the weekend. I still got a few more surplus E. German tunics to convert and belt buckles to paint.

[insterburger]

Drac-- that's an easy mod to do, can mod the art for subsequent runs (I'm working on an improved graphic in general). Oddly, I thought I was being generous with the hem compared to the exemplar I had-- just goes to show, I guess!

These will be an extremely cheap way to produce gobs and gobs of Volkssturm armbands. Very excited (and grateful for the sewing help from Drac!)

[Dracul]

Well, you did follow the exemplar to the T, so I can't fault you for that. And, its getting done pretty well. I just need sew all 36 of them into the loops.

And no problem, I'm getting some of these myself. On all this Volkssturm talk, I was even thinking about making a Volkssturm specific breadbag, too.

[2nd Bat]

Wow that is very cool. The colors appear spot on. I thought the Spoonflower run was going to have a wide latitude of different insignia on a single run. Heer breast eagles, SS Eagles iron cross ribbons, Luffwaffe eagles, SS runes, cuff titles, arm rank insignia, smock arm insignia etc? Is that even possible? If so that seems even more economical as it would provide a variety of insignia cheaply while keeping the numbers in sync with demand?

[Dracul]

The insignia thing is still going on. This just happened to be acted on first. I did the files from Inster with the insignia, both standard and (ingeniously) sanitized. So, when I get some time, probably a week night, I'll get them prepped for Spoonflower.

[Dracul]

All 36 finished in stacks of six, "Examplar" Repro in the middle:



Outside of a few flaws here and there, everything turned out well. Only main problem I found was that the pattern on the top most row was cut off a bit, and not realizing it until after I cut away all the white border fabric. My fault there and I'll keep those. So, three of these came out short, but its not really noticeable. 

Inster, I will get these, and some Kar98 parts, out to you on monday! 

[2nd Bat]

Wow! Those look fabulous. These of course are perfect for the German impression in progress since the completeness of uniform and gear for the Volksstrum was rarely very complete.

[insterburger]

Those look insanely great, Drac, can't wait to get them!

As 2nd Bat says, these are a great resource to have, as any combination of kit from 100% civilian to a sparsely equipped full impression becomes very authentic simply by adding the armband. Of course, they only help for very late war scenarios set in Germany, but nonetheless they are well worth having.

[Dracul]

Thank you, these were shipped out today.

I'm thinking about just using mine for a more civilian look for Volkssturm loaner kits: Thrift store earth and darker colored wool coats, random field cap, the armband, Volkssturm breadbag, and a standard looking bolt action.

[Dracul]

Got finished with another East German tunic conversion last night/this morning. This time it was with one of the later, more heavy-cotton/knit style ones (as compared to the earlier ones that the wool is much closer in make to the WWII ones). I also tried a few new things here, with varying results. 



I tried sewing on the collar a different way, and because how thick everything was, it turned out fat looking. I know how to avoid that now. I admittedly made the piping on the shoulderboards too big on these (though, not as bad as some of the repro ones I've seen). I can always make more in the future. I did a cleaner job with the cuffs and while it doesn't solve the basic problem with them, I think its less of a distraction. I also found some scrap tan fabric from a project a few years ago and used that in the cuffs. Also, used greenish-grey thread this time. 

To be honest, I didn't really like working with this type of tunic. I know its not much different from the wool ones, but I felt those were easier to work with. I don't have anymore to do the conversion to, but if I go out and buy myself more to convert, I would make sure they are the wool ones. 

[2nd Bat]

I have a couple E German tunics Volks donated to the cause and I could for the life of me figure out how to redo the collars. He used a watered down latex paint to dye them with a green tint and it is adhering just fine. How did you tone down the sleave piping?

If I could redo the collars and add insignia they would look even better.

[Dracul]

I removed them by removing the stitching that held the cuffs to the rest of the sleeves, so I have the cuffs by themselves to do the mods to (much easier than trying to do the mods when attached to the rest of the sleeves and tunic). Doing this removes the piping as well. After all the mods are done, I re-sew them on.

Inster cut the piping off, but I'd suggest against doing that unless you have an extremely steady hand and fine tuned motor skills. Its reaaaaaalllll easy to cut through the surrounding fabric that you want to keep just taking scissors to it.

If I do another conversion like this, I'll do a little walkthrough with pics about doing it. 

[2nd Bat]

Thanks!

[insterburger]

Feb 27, 2016 14:19:34 GMT -5 Dracul said:

Inster cut the piping off, but I'd suggest against doing that unless you have an extremely steady hand and fine tuned motor skills. Its reaaaaaalllll easy to cut through the surrounding fabric that you want to keep just taking scissors to it.

I second that. Fine cutting is much more in my skill set than sewing, but removing the piping was a time-consuming PITA and while it worked out OK and looks acceptable enough, I wouldn't recommend it. If you have sewing skills, I can only imagine it would be as easy or easier to remove and resew the cuffs, with better results being easier to achieve.

[Dracul]

So, my latest try at store bought wool fabric turned out mostly to be a failure as well. 

This is the wool that eBay store fabricwholesaledirect sells, and just the standard grey. My computer monitor showed that the shade was pretty close to the E. German dark/stone grey, but I didn't get close to that: 



E. German wool visor cap for reference. 

The grey is too light, and pinkish. Not sure if the pink shows here, but its definitely pinkish in person. I was really hoping that the grey would have been at least like the stone grey, but oh well. What's good is that this is definitely quality wool, and will be returning to these guys for other projects, haha. 

It really sucks that these guys don't offer swatches, I could have avoided paying for a full yard... 

Well, time to make the most of what I can with what I got. Once I get some other small projects finished, I'm going to make how many field caps as I can out of these and see if 2ndBat wants them, haha. 

[2nd Bat]

Perhaps wool Scarves? Or the German head wrap?.

[Dracul]

Nah. Scarf and Toque are dark grey and forest green/OD, respectively, and made from knits

(Pic taken from At The Front's site) 

[ssgjoe]

Make some homemade winter items Oma would send her little soldat who's on the frontlines on Christmas

[Dracul]

Got examples of those to look at?

[schmitz]

Looks good Dracul. I'm impressed. If I could make one suggestion - seeing as most arisoft events take place in '44/'45, it may be a good idea to recreate m40/42/43 tunics rather than the 36 (with the bottle green collar/shoulder boards) as these were a rarity late war. In any event though, it looks good.

[ssgjoe]

Mar 21, 2016 6:42:26 GMT -5 Dracul said:

Got examples of those to look at?

Just knit some wool gloves. Homemade wool gloves would be 100% accurate.

[Dracul]

Despite the Memorial Sale ATF had, where I ordered a lot more belts, I decided to still go ahead and make my own with the materials I already had prior to the sale. I'm making these longer than the standard sizes of belts I've got, so I can fit those of larger stature and not ever have to resort to those spray-painted East German nylon belts. 

My current progress:


I have a good start, but I just can't get it to be as smooth and shimmering my repro (at the bottom). I'm going to try a different polish tomorrow night, but if I can't make it have the exact shimmer or smooth, I'll be happy that these are made from good leather from the USA, by my hands, and will look the part from any distance. 

Oh, and Schmitz. Thanks! I do these E. German tunics up in M36's because I feel the contrast of the gray to dark green collar and shoulder boards is, in a sense, more iconic. These are going to be wrong regardless what I do to them, so I think its better if I make them look more iconic than "correct." As for the mid- to late-war stuff, like you mentioned M40/42/43, screwing with the pockets on the E. German tunics is kind of insane, and I know the pockets were some of the most noticeable changes between those models. However, I do want to make HBT tunics from those later periods. As in that thread, I already made two Drillich tunics, and I still need to hash some problems with my pattern out before going on to make full combat HBT's. I'm going to work on two more soon, for Insterburger, where hopefully I'll get the pattern down. Proper wool is too expensive, and with the time it takes to sew them up, I could have just got Hiki tunics for far less (I did get some yards from ATF's Memorial Day sale, watch out for that in the near future, hehehe)

[Dracul]

First two belts are finished! 




Compared to a repro:


Underside: 



Other end: 


Underside:



Alright, so the first two things you might notice will be that mine aren't as shimmery or as black, and that the stitching isn't straight. I need to work on these. I think I needed to add a few more coats of dye. Obviously the leather isn't right shade, but thats the underside and not going to be seen. I've sewn these with repro waxed linen thread from Landser Outfitters (I think?), the hooks and buckles are from Kelley's Military (SS early ones, that I sanitized with JB weld over the Swastikas). 

Although the off-looking-ness, I'm happy the way these came out. The magic is that I made the tongues longer and can fit anyone from 42.5in to 50in waist. 

Its been awhile since I bought the materials, but between everything, including the buckle, each costed me about 20$-25$ each.

I got enough hardware for two more of these, and could be done up in a night or two. I should be able to do two more soon. Maybe I should make them for smaller guys. Whats a good size range for small guys? 

[shiftysgarand]

I would shoot for about 30-36 inches for small guys. I personally am a size 30, but I bet with multiple layers of wool that would increase.

[Dracul]

Alright, thanks!

[Dracul]

With the critical failure of dying Allied uniforms, I realized the dye I used was too powerful. So, I further experimented to see if this dye cracked the code of dying E. German tunics. The result? Success! Major success! 

I tried it on an old E. German tunic mod I did. Not any of my more recent good ones, I never bothered to swap out the buttons and the green collar was some standard dark green fabric, not like the wool felt I used later on. So, it was a good candidate for experimentation. 



On the left is one of my recent and good E. German tunic mods, and the right is my old one dyed. Much more significantly green! Now to compare with my repro M36! 



It didn't turned out as bright or "apple green" as the M36, but its very much a believable shade of field grey! A darker shade of it, but still more believable than the E. German stone grey! 

I'm going to grab some more of this dye and do this to my other modded East German tunics! And of course fix up this older E. German mod to my recent standards. No reason not to! 

Like I said in my Allied Loaner gear thread, the dye I used is called "Rit Dye More Synthetic Peacock Green".

I know Insterburger had problems trying to dye E. German tunics in the past, as the dye just wouldn't stick, and I think I know why. This synthetic dye is fairly new on the market, and E. Germans probably used a lot of synthetic wool in their tunics. So, the standard fabric dye wouldn't stick to it. But now, since there is a good amount of synthetic material in E. German tunics, the new dye can work on it! 

[2nd Bat]

Drac,

That effort looks very good (IMO) and especially once under web gear and a layer of dust or mud!

[Dracul]

Thanks. Once I get this specific tunic modded like the rest, its going to look really, really good. When something is completely wrong, like an East German tunic, its always good to try to add to it in every possible way. Now that I know how to dye it, this is just one more thing I can do to make it look more correct, and its a pretty major step-up, too.

[2nd Bat]

I agree. Nice effort. I did a mass dying effort on a dozen tan French Army shirts in an effort to create Post 66, Reed green, Nam era, NVA uniforms and due to the high polyester content in the shirts had less than thrilling results. I may wish to redo them using this new type of dye. The beauty of uniforms is that once exposed to field conditions widely Assorted shades occur and exact uniformity is actually not authentic.

[Dracul]

Indeed.

A bit of an update since last night. I went ahead and dyed the other two E. German tunics I've modded. More interesting results...

Seems like this method only works on the ones with the synthetic wool material. The dye didn't seem to stick on the non-wool-like one (the more recent one I've modded).

What I find to be even more interesting is that the dye is so powerful, it changed the color on the dark green wool felt collars, that I've sewn on to make them resemble M36's, from the dark green to the "peacock green" of the dye. The dye managed to use a lighter color and over take the darker color. I thought the dark green would remain unaffected by the dye, since it was a darker color, but I was dead wrong about that, too.

So, now, the collars are peacock green, maybe a bit darker than that, but no where near dark enough to resemble a M36's collar. Hopefully, the dye was powerful enough to dye the base collars of these tunics, so I could at least just un-sew the wool felt layer and I will have decent M40 looking tunics. Since the dye didn't really take to my more recent mod, I'll have to redo the collar altogether now.

I'll have pictures of this up when I get home from work, and hopefully when they are dry.

I still plan on the mass cheap insignia through Spoonflower thing.