Post by Dracul on Oct 24, 2015 8:44:32 GMT -5
Just an idea I have.
I know that most post war Soviet field belts and Y suspenders were made by taking canvas or nylon webbing, and I guess, melting or somehow fusing, rubber on to one side of it, to give the canvas/nylon a leather look. I've heard this been called "leatherette _______" before as well. This is what I'm talking about:
Now, what if we applied this same concept to the E. German nylon belts to give them that leather look?
No, its not perfect, and its definitely for loaner grade impressions. Since I've been gathering German loaner kits, I've found that the cheap $10 E. German leather belts are all out of stock, and where they are in stock, they sell them for over $20 in any medium - large size (I've even seen them go as high as $60), and while the nylon belts are cheap and plentiful, I can't find a good spray paint to use to give them the tropical look. Every belt I've painted, reacted differently, and now I have a range of different shades, all from the same spray can! This is why I'm considering what 2nd Bat does, and just spray paint them black, can't get much variation with black, but he even told me that the leather look would look much better. And in all honestly, leather (Austrian) Y suspenders connected to "tropical" belts kind of look weird (but I do acknowledge that towards the end of the war, a Soldat wouldn't have much of a choice).
Anyway, only process I can think of to do something like this, is to take long strips of higher grade Marine Vinyl (the stuff without a sheisty fabric backing, and luckily a single yard will be 36 x 54 or 60 inches), and using a heat gun or a clothes iron to melt it onto the belt. While a yard of Marine Vinyl is usually $30 a yard, you can do a lot of belts for that amount.
I also thought of using rubberizing spray and plasti-dip, but those are rather expensive...
Thoughts? Suggestions?
I know that most post war Soviet field belts and Y suspenders were made by taking canvas or nylon webbing, and I guess, melting or somehow fusing, rubber on to one side of it, to give the canvas/nylon a leather look. I've heard this been called "leatherette _______" before as well. This is what I'm talking about:
Now, what if we applied this same concept to the E. German nylon belts to give them that leather look?
No, its not perfect, and its definitely for loaner grade impressions. Since I've been gathering German loaner kits, I've found that the cheap $10 E. German leather belts are all out of stock, and where they are in stock, they sell them for over $20 in any medium - large size (I've even seen them go as high as $60), and while the nylon belts are cheap and plentiful, I can't find a good spray paint to use to give them the tropical look. Every belt I've painted, reacted differently, and now I have a range of different shades, all from the same spray can! This is why I'm considering what 2nd Bat does, and just spray paint them black, can't get much variation with black, but he even told me that the leather look would look much better. And in all honestly, leather (Austrian) Y suspenders connected to "tropical" belts kind of look weird (but I do acknowledge that towards the end of the war, a Soldat wouldn't have much of a choice).
Anyway, only process I can think of to do something like this, is to take long strips of higher grade Marine Vinyl (the stuff without a sheisty fabric backing, and luckily a single yard will be 36 x 54 or 60 inches), and using a heat gun or a clothes iron to melt it onto the belt. While a yard of Marine Vinyl is usually $30 a yard, you can do a lot of belts for that amount.
I also thought of using rubberizing spray and plasti-dip, but those are rather expensive...
Thoughts? Suggestions?
