Luftwaffe Flak Helferin impression

Frankly that Finnish tunic looks fine as is to me. The Hiki M44 tunic OTOH looks very, very odd!

Cheers
Martin

I would take the Finnish tunic's pockets off, move them down to the waist/hips, and then just add a LW adler on the right chest. Remove the shoulder boards, and you have a very acceptable Flakhelferin look going. You could even add one or two rank chevrons on the left arm, or even a specialist patch for a radio operator or aircraft spotter.

I would take the Finnish tunic's pockets off, move them down to the waist/hips,

Compared to the period photo, the Finnish tunics pockets are in the right position, it's the Hiki-Shop tunic which has the crazy low-slung pockets, which after doing a Google image search for photos of original M44 tunics, isn't correct - they should be up on the breast like the Finnish model. Could be because they've been tailored with a longer torso for a more 'modern' fit, and so have positioned the pockets the correct distance away from the new lower waistline, rather than position the pockets the correct distance away from the collar/shoulders.

The Finnish jacket with its collar open also looks exactly like the photo of the four Flak gunners.

If you want to put external buttons on, the simplest thing to do is just sew them on the outside and leave the original internal ones. If you make a tiny hole in the cloth for the back of the button loop thing to go through and sew them in that position, they sit flush with the jacket.

That is what I did on the slash pockets to convert my Swedish jacket into an M37, and it looks fine from distances over 6" away.

Same thing will work for the top jacket button if you want it to do up all the way, just put a hook on the jacket corner to clip it under the collar. Simples!

Cheers
Martin

I would take the Finnish tunic's pockets off, move them down to the waist/hips,

Compared to the period photo, the Finnish tunics pockets are in the right position, it's the Hiki-Shop tunic which has the crazy low-slung pockets, which after doing a Google image search for photos of original M44 tunics, isn't correct - they should be up on the breast like the Finnish model. Could be because they've been tailored with a longer torso for a more 'modern' fit, and so have positioned the pockets the correct distance away from the new lower waistline, rather than position the pockets the correct distance away from the collar/shoulders.

Apologies, should have made it more clear: the Finnish tunic, with the pockets moved, will look quite a bit like the Helferin bluse from my top (no humans) photo? It has the correct collar and the fly front, only the pocket locations need to change.

Unfortunately, in my case that really wouldn't work - the Finnish jacket I have is not made to go around a woman's hips

I'm a stitch-nazi, so I'm going to try to make a set (M44) from the old Harriet's sewing pattern for the M44 tunic and M43 trews. Hopefully I can tailor them better than the last sewing pattern of theirs I used and not end up with a baggy mess again. Just have to finish 2 or 3 ... or 4 other sewing projects first...

Also, Barry Lyndon sells EM single button LW m43 caps, Hessen Antiques used to have some but don't appear to anymore. The flak helferinnen had their own specific caps which differed slightly (something to do with partial leather sweat bands and the metal eyelets iirc), but for all intents and purposes were pretty much the same. And Militaria.net has some flak helferin sleeve patches that are a bit off, but I don't know of anyone else repro-ing them.

Also, Barry Lyndon sells EM single button LW m43 caps, Hessen Antiques used to have some but don't appear to anymore.,

If I'm right in thinking that's the guy who does Spearhead, they don't go small enough for me I will have to order from Richard Underwood, but even then it'll be 56cm when I need a 55cm ideally....

Any mods looking at this? Now that we have been talking about how to mod jackets, would this thread be better placed in the general Axis discussion area?

Any update for pics?