Splinter pattern dilemma.

[Dracul]

So, here comes another dilemma on my hands. This time about the Splinter Camo Pattern. 

As I mentioned elsewhere, I was planning to order Splinter fabric off of Spoonflower, and so I did! This is the swatch I ordered: www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1262420 

The plan is to make helmet covers for the cheap plastic costume stahlhelms (and maybe smocks down the road). 

This is how it was printed and shipped to me. With a tentpole bag and a helmet cover to use as examples. 




None of these quite match. While the swatch and the tent pole bag shapes match, the colors don't. Then the helmet cover looks like the shapes and the rain drops are scaled down, with the rain drops' shape looking like the E. German rain drops. 

Note, the webpage does seem to match my tent pole bag pattern quite well. 

Was this a common thing that happened with splinter? More importantly, if the swatch and any future screen printed fabric I order(ed) will come out like this/that, will that be alright? 

(I hope this isn't a common thing with Spoonflower, some of my other artistic projects are relying on them for custom fabric...)

Off topic, but if look at the top of the pic, you can get a preview of what I'll be working on next! 

[LϟϟAH1944]

green is too subdued. that being said, no 2 examples of german camo match perfectly- rollers, different dyes, etc. all make a big difference.

[Dracul]

That's what I thought, thanks for the confirmation. It's good that I can use this as a fabric source. Can't really find this stuff elsewhere for a reasonable price.

[ssgjoe]

What do they charge by the yard?

[Dracul]

Depends what type of fabric they can screen print on anything from cotton to lycra to canvas. I was going to go with cotton poplin, at $20/yd. The swatch here is their standard cotton, and too lightweight. You can kind of see through it. I'm hoping the poplin will be like the poplin we used for some of our uniforms in Vietnam.

[LϟϟAH1944]

I don't think they screen print, but print digitally.

[Dracul]

You're right, its not screen printed, its all digital. Supposedly to cut down on wastes and costs. Which I all fine with as the buyer. Especially with how expensive WWII fabric can get....

[2nd Bat]

I think once exposed to the sun and subject to mud, rain and dirt it will blend quite nicely and that your fabric choice will probably have more bearing on acceptability from the truly anal "experts"

The splinter pattern you show being slightly bolder is probably a good thing for our purposes as I have noticed that the subtle splinter pattern quickly become plain OD at any distance at all to the naked eye. This is especially true in the forest and after even very slight fading from the wash and the sun.

[Dracul]

Well, I just got another swatch of a pattern I needed for an un-related-to-WWII project, and I suffered similar problems. The colors are as faded as if they've been through the washer and dryer a few hundred times. And I know its not my end since when I created the design on Photoshop, I used the precise color hex codes. So no matter how it might have looked on different monitors with different brightness settings, it should not have came out like this.

Sooooo, I'm going to have some "colorful" words with Spoonflower's customer service tomorrow, and hopefully after that, they start taking me seriously and send me better items. I know it seems like the Splinter is fine, but this bullcrap with my unrelated project undermines the entirety of the project. So, hopefully, I'll be getting Splinter more like my Zeltbahn Tent Pole example on the left there.

[aldrich]

Well, having the splinter be faded would actually be a good thing. Especially since helmet covers would be out in the sun all day long. Of course, only if it looks like sun fading. Hopefully you will get things worked out.

[2nd Bat]

Anything is a dramatic improvement over my cheezy plastic helmets so splinter covers with this fabric will be big improvement even if they're a little off.

Same can be said about smocks. This site is the only place I've seen with fabric choices even close to Kraut patterns from WW2.

[Dracul]

Well, after my colorful worded e-mail to them, did they say that you can't get true colors with cotton. I'd have to choose a polyester. WHICH IS SOMETHING THEY SHOULD HAVE LISTED ON THE PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT FABRICS PAGES!!! Meaning, they cannot print true black onto any sort of cotton, and any other color will not be its true color on cotton. Which explains a lot.

On top of this, their responses were pretty intelligence insulting....

Needless to say, I'm pretty annoyed, but I'm going to give these guys one last chance.

[2nd Bat]

The German helmet cover (like so many things designed in Germany) was way way more complex than I would have guessed. Yikes the number of pieces required given what it is designed to do (cover a helmet) is mind boggling.

[schmitz]

Aug 17, 2015 23:22:00 GMT -5 LϟϟAH1944 said:

green is too subdued. that being said, no 2 examples of german camo match perfectly- rollers, different dyes, etc. all make a big difference.

Definitely true. The brown however looks similar to the browns on my Zeltbahns. It may be a better idea to make these look like field made helmet covers as they were way more common than the factory produced ones.

[2nd Bat]

That's interesting although field made had to have been a simplified process when compared to the factory produced items.

[schmitz]

True, which is why, IMO, it would be better for reenactors as there are more acceptable variations and it was more common to see.

[Dracul]

With that said, do you have detailed pictures of these field made ones? I'd like to see if its plausible to replicate them. Because in all honesty, the factory ones aren't complicated from a sewing standpoint. Its a bunch of curved triangles, like a baseball cap almost, and taking apart a repro gives me the pattern right then and there. Might take a bit longer to make them, but at least its a solid process.

[schmitz]

Here you go. One of them isn't zeltbahn but rather Russian camo.

[schmitz]

not detailed though, no. But that's why I said it isn't as important to know the correct stitching and such, in the field they probably would've been made however. I mean, unless someone has a field manual that states otherwise. This is just my hypothesis...

[LϟϟAH1944]

or just don't use helmet covers, which is ages better for heer anyways.

[schmitz]

Oct 29, 2015 14:03:33 GMT -5 LϟϟAH1944 said:

or just don't use helmet covers, which is ages better for heer anyways.

That's for sure. But, I guess this is about covering up a bad repro helmet. So if you have one of the flat-topped, hard-angled repros, the cover would be better...

[Dracul]

Yeah... we are trying to cover up these monstrosities....

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009BRN51E

Anyone who dabs in the loaner kit sides of these know that you can either spend over $50+ on metal repros, just give guys field caps, or get these cheapoes and try to cover up the nastiness. I certainly don't have the money to buy 10 good repros and be done with it, I gotta be crafty.

I've thought about ways to get by with out using helmet covers, but their shape is pretty off, and paint likes to chip off and slightest bending (which the plastic does bend). So, its the best idea to use helmet covers with these. Even if you buy fresh helmet cover, you still are looking at under 30 for each helmet (+ the work to craft chin straps), but since I'm making them myself, each helmet with cover will be about $15.

With that said, back to those photos. Thanks for sharing them. Obviously we aren't getting some HD images from the 1940's, but I can still make out stitch lines with these images. And from doing up tunics, I know how to stitch the German way.

The first image, with the Russian camo, looks like a single piece going from front to back with circular pieces on the side. Which, oddly enough, is how helmet covers for modern day PAGST/MICH/Kevlars hemlets are (those helms were based off the Stahlhelms anyway).

The second image, the guy on the right, looks like he made his using a similar "baseball hat" method as the factory ones are, but with just four big "triangles."

Hmm... I think what I'll do, then, is follow what the guy did on the first picture. I'll take apart one of my PAGST helmet covers and go from there. Its a really simplified cover, only 4 pieces are needed: The front to back, the two sides, and the trim that folds under the helmet (I won't worry about the draw string as we plan on just glueing them to the helmets' insides). The second picture one, looks like it might be simpler and quicker to make, but making a pattern to follow seems difficult without cutting up one of these plastic helms. 

[LϟϟAH1944]

Give guys m43 feldmutzen and there ya go. youre not farb and not expensive.

[2nd Bat]

Indeed but there is nothing like the thwack of an Airsoft helmet hit for both target and shooter!
Even with the helmet cover (especially with a steel helmet) it never ceases to satisfy!

[schmitz]

But probably better to not use those helmets... the shape is way off... you can get an m43 and an m34 fairly cheaply.

[2nd Bat]

When you're costuming 20+ people budget is a serious consideration. The camo covers is the only effective way to get them to a passable state. I have tried paint, chicken wire, bands with lots of foliage, these pigs don't wear lipstick!.

The fact that most helmet covers were field expedients is really helpful as I am all over do it yourself. The beauty with field expedients is provided you have accurate materials there really isn't any right or wrong way As depicted in your photos, guys and units just did what worked.

[ssgjoe]

I agree with just wearing field caps. Your soldiers would look loads better and you wouldn't have to pay for helmet cover materials.

[stuka]

I know I personally like helmets, when secure on the head you kind of feel safer.

That being said, I haven't worn a plastic helmet so I don't know how that might effect a persons moral or what have you

[2nd Bat]

Truthfully under the camo cover and at any range at all I'd defy even the most ardent stitch nazi to know which is which (visually). I gobble up as many of the wool caps as I can source cheaply but especially with expedient made covers (which hide the shape infidelities better) its a real cheap head gear solution and is more of an action look than the caps.

Just my preference.

[Dracul]

With how cheap the caps can be off of eBay, a lot of them are weirdly sized and hokey (like HBT caps made from the same color material as the HBT M36's and not the dark, proper HBT material). I own three of these, and they are sized "large" but its a major crapshoot and not good for battle. A lot of them would fly off. I, too, prefer helmets. Especially since I prefer to go as early as possible with loaner kits. '40-'42 is my intended goal of loaner kits.

And yes, the helmet cover covers up the deformed shaped of the plastic stahlelms. Not perfect, but for loaner kits, I think it works. 

Which one of these are the real helmet? 

Is it this one? 


Or this one? 



Obviously anyone who owns a real one can tell, but more importantly! Will you be able to tell in the heat of battle? The fog of war? And I think that is whats important, too.