SoF bargain? *shock*

From experience, most of their "bargains" are because it's wrong - need an expert to confirm this particular item, though. (i.e. not me!)

I think I'm just going to buy it anyway. For £20, I can afford for it to be wrong, and I have one or two bits to get from there anyway. I'll post some pics up when I get round to ordering it.

i bought some usa webbing that was wrong, the colour was slightly out, but a few rolls in the mud sorted that out

worth a punt id say

Aye SOFs first runs normally mean wrong colour. Thats not too bad for webbing cos you can wash it and as Mr Porta points out you can dirty it up. Clothing tho is a different barrel of mackerel especially if its cam stuff cos you cant re dye it.......

Ordered it today, so should get it tuesday. I'll let you know soon as if it's OK, or what's wrong with it...

Aye SOFs first runs normally mean wrong colour. Thats not too bad for webbing cos you can wash it and as Mr Porta points out you can dirty it up. Clothing tho is a different barrel of mackerel especially if its cam stuff cos you cant re dye it.......

Hmmm, just thought about what you said before. If it does turn out to be the wrong colour, whereabouts could I go to get it dyed? The SoF stuff is usually wrong in the first run, and this is a wool Lufwaffe tunic, so I'm wondering if it's fixable...

Ooer mate...I wouldnt want to try and dye Wool.......you either chuck it in the machine or in a bath...but as its wool I dont think thats advisable!! Then theres the prob of matching colours up! It may be ok mate..if its lighter then its battle worn and old!!

have you ever thought about uniform and equipment colour???? in seven years in the regular army i dont think i ever saw 2 items the exact colour, and i know for a fact that in ww2 they used what they got, all from different manufactures and different batches. if you look at colour ww2 pics, you will find a wide and varied selection of colours for the same items. webbing parts made in nottingham were a different colour to webbing made in manchester. factor in wear and tare and the mix of new and old and it gets even more varied. i wouldnt worry about it mate, buy the thing for 20 quid, if its really crap dont buy another lol.

mailto:contactus@atthefront.com

look at this site i think it says it all.

Its true there were many different manufacturers of all uniform and equipment. All were slightly off in colour and as I mentioned wear and tear will make it look different. What isnt acceptable is if its glaringly obvious if its a modern dye or the colour is WAY off which it often is in the replica world. Just look at SOFS US webbing equipment for instance it was totally the wrong colour...there never was webbing that colour by ANY manufacturer ever!!

In my time in the Forces I cant say I saw much that was different at all..only differences from age and amount of washing!! Thats because the amount of manufacturers are a lot less now than in WW2.

Some items can be rescued by washing dyeing etc etc but certainly not wool jackets....it will turn out a right mess.

For £20 Id say give it a shot but if its wrong and you are going to buy another its going to cost you more obviously!!!

Dylon but its very trial and error for feldblau, but having dyed a variety of PW german wool YOU can dye wool. However its far easier to achieve KM blau than it is LW, and to do LW you'll have to dye it and strip the colour back through bleaching.

PS agree completely with scaley, even original items are not identical (as in period look at the WAF website/forum and you'll soon see)

Yup...Dylon is the way...BUT what actual shape would the jacket be in after doing it?? Youve got to be very careful that you dont lose the shape of the jacket.....otherwise you will end up looking like you are wearing a potato sack!!!

After all this discussion it will probably be a spot on jacket!!!

Look forwards to the pics as for £20 sounds good.

Pics of 2 fligers to show colour difference-which one is correct?

Go look at the Wehrmacht awards forum, you need to register if not already a member. No idea on the tunics you have up above this post (as in where they originate/if they're repro) but I have a Swedish Fleigerbluse (original just not german and saved me dying ) that was converted for my flakhelferinnen impression and it is the same blue as that of the tunic on the right, the female kit was slightly darker when you see the originals that are still about. I aslo use Swiss airforce trousers (again originals but not german so worthless) that I converted to the Flak trousers. They are more the colour of the tunic on the left.

Repro ones sold by all and sundry are all in the same blue as that of the tunic on the left but unlike every batch being virtually the same shade due to modern fabrication techniques in the 1930s/40s there was more variation as dying techniques, % of wool in the fabric, availability of materials used for dye, use of recycleable fabrics mixed in with the wool, how much if any non man made materials were added in the fabric process to make the wool stocks go further and blah blah blah (cos no doubt I'm boring some now ) were all constantly changing not only factory to factory, but in house, hence the huge variation in original items not only seen in collections but when you look at photographs/film footage .

Oh and the dark blue field cap wouldn't be LW, thats definately too dark, original items in that colour of the M44 cap were used by the Kriegsmarine, Reichsbahn, Reichspost and Tram network staff.

That set on the right is now my set, already badged up etc... Wish I'd known this before - looks like another fortune is in the offing...

Kav stick a picture up of your current badged tunic please.

Oh and its not a total loss, but as said you need to look at originals, and think about the issues of the fabric (yes its a smidge anal and sad) but you'll see there were darker blue ones as well .

This one is betwixt the two on the previous page
http://www.germanmilitaria.com/Luftwaff ... 05356.html

This one is darker like the one on the right but not as dark
http://www.germanmilitaria.com/Luftwaff ... 04559.html

As I said the repro ones are all pretty much like the one on the left - you'll note I didn't say it was right or wrong, merely that I know those I've worked on (Che's/Dels/fandanglos tunics) are all of the lighter blue shade )

Am sure I've seen lighter ones on WAF not sure if you'll be able to see these if your not registered as chances are you might not as lots of the pictures are saved for registered members viewing only (hence I mentioned that on the previous page) and it doesn't take two minutes to do a search and see originals but as I'm nice heres a couple from that website

A not so dark one
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... iegerbluse

A whole post on the tunics with varying colours
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... iegerbluse

and I could post more but yet ya finger out of your bottom and do it yourself and you'll see what I was trying to get at on the previous page.

I could post more but get ya finger out of your bottom

Yeah do research, or it'll cost ya kavster

I bought the hat and fliger together off Ebay a while back as Luftwaffe.

Didnt get them from here but it looks like this one-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WW2-German-Luftwa ... m153.l1262

I'll stick a picture up this week - I'm not suicidal about it, to be honest if the colour isn't 'right' I'm not too worried - I'm not a re-enactor!