Battledress 1937 alternatives???

Well, I just want a set of battledresses for the weekend skirmish and not to wear to world war two events, I know the deal about the Greek and Australian bd's and was wondering where I can get a set of these for prices that are'nt over the hill???

If you're in the UK, Sabre Sales in Portsmouth are worth a try, they had piles of Greek style battledress in last time we went. They do mail order, but their website ( http://www.sabresales.co.uk/ ) is useless, so you're best off giving 'em a call on (023) 9283 3394.

If you're not in the UK, then ebay's probably your only real bet.

All of these are also difficult to get in modern mens sizes.

Your best bet however in the UK for these is sabre sales who as Evo said had both canadian and greek BD in last time.

49 pattern BD occasionally comes up cheaply and you can get it for between £5 and £50 a piece, its the right colour and fabric but the wrong cut but most folk would never notice TBH.

Your other options are 'denims', designed as work wear they were occasionally worn in combat in Italy and i one or two cases normandy, you can get 1950s sets of this quite cheaply and its more or less identical to wwii pattern. I paid £11 for a large sized 1952 denim blouse and about a tenner for a pair of trousers of similar vintage on ebay.

Final option is repro which range from cheap and crap to close to original.

You get what you pay for here and really will have to pay at least £60 a piece for anything thats as hardwearing as genuine BD.

(other cheap options like khaki drill and jungle greens exist but probably no good to you if you're doing NWE)

ye, I was wondering about sabre sales and if they stock it because I emailed them a while back and they replied saying that they did'nt have any in stock but obviously they have now got some in. I will give them a call tomorrow and see what they have, will also have a look at the Chatham dockyard militaria fair which is suposedly meant to have some bargains there.
Thanks for the help guys.

With sabre there is no way at all they can keep ttrack of their stock.

There are three full flats, a massive basement, a webbing room, a garage and the shop itself crammed with kit.
To find the good stuff you have to g there in person and climb a mountain of mothballed BD.

Here's a set of NZ BD as it looked in WW2. This is actually post war, but manufactured before they changed it in the early '50s to a greener colour with a blouse which incorporated the open collar (the pw buttons look farby as though). Even so, it is still a lot greener than the shade of brown which British BD came in though, right?

Your photo is quite blue so colour evaluation will be problematic and subjective. Side by side is always the best way and preferably first hand.
Anyhho - a 'corrected' version of photo which, to my eyes/monitor/brain doesn't look too green...

Your corrected version of the image is how it looks to the naked eye. Could I reasonably wear it for a Brit impression? I'd always kinda ruled it out.

I'd have said so... I've certainly seen a lot worse worn as Brit!

What about the trousers, what pockets do they have?

They had a side pocket, moved to the front leg. No dressing pocket. I'm considering having a go at making one on Laura's sewing machine, it'd be easy to get an old pair and use them for that and some of those patches that people use to avoid badging the blouse.

Sounds good to me!

Cool, it would be nice to have the option of doing Brit as well as NZ without buying a new BD set.

Good point, this is for airsoft rather than reenactment and for now I should focus on getting a mock dressing pocket fitted. Would a converted chest pocket from a BD blouse be a good basis for a dressing pocket?

Nah... I'd just use a piece of serge from elsewhere, the blouse pockets aren't much like them.