i have a 34r ike jacket i bought for£15, so shop around, you never know what you might find.
(yes it is an original, dated 1944)
Probably so cheap due to the tiny size 
Anything bigger than a 40 attract premium prices both class As and Ikes
If you get it at Beltring, you'll have the accumilated knowledge of all the re-enactors there, so they'll get you looking right 
Cheers Webby, that's the plan. Gonna hold off and make sure I do it right.
Or better still, get it at Beltring!
Would concur, if you're going to belters, you may as well get it there. Besides potential for bartering, you will have a field full of experienced reenactors to question about items of kit/uniforms
Well, although the plan was to get it at Beltring, I couldn't go this year. 
But couldn't believe my luck when one turned up on E-bay starting at 99p!!!!! It only jumped price in the last 2 minutes, so ended up paying £34 including postage for a brand new one. 
Just gotta get the rest of the dress uniform together now.
Okay, I've seen a fair amount of bits in the SOF catalogue that are 'supposed' to go on the dress uniform, I then checked google for pics (not too successful) and then checked BOB to see what they wore (I believe the wardrobe dept done a good job getting it right, but am not sure), and I'm a bit confused now. Was wondering if any of you fine fellows would have some good referance sites / links/ etc to help me out?
Bare in mind that SPR and BOB arent exactly right. SOF's idea of the dress uniform is wrong for how it describes it.
Basically, the idea is to get which part of the war you're going for. My dress uniform is late war, so that all of the awards would be on it. Apparently things like the lanyards were awarded, but not given to the soldiers until well after war had ended.
In the SOF catalogue, the guy looks like blackpool illuminations, but the description incinuates he is off to the local dance states-side. Whereas in actual fact, all of the campaign medals wouldnt have even been awarded / even happened by that point.
If you want to go for a realistic impression, you'll probably only need to concentrate on the following to begin with.
Unit patch
Service stripes / hershy bars
Rank
Buttons
Unit related paraphanalia.
What exactly are you looking to do.
THis is my post-war 82nd airborne tech 5th grade uniform. But it's meant to be very post war.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=7893&p=130138#p130138
Cheers for that dude. I'm looking to be early impression for the airborne (which is kinda late war overall I guess), so it'd be the light blue and white cap badge sorta thing. As for the bling on the SOF guy, I don't wanna go nearly as decorated as that!! I will be going for a look of dress uniform, still during the war. Lanyards, no? That's good to hear, so I'll ignore them.
The para jump badge, with the 506th oval, the shoulder eagle, combat infantry award, EM collar insignia, a couple of service stripes, the unit citation, and that's about it. If that works as a decent during war look, then I'd be happy there. Dunno about putting the ribbon bar on, as they do look good, but I never like bunging 'personal' awards on my uniforms unless they are common, and at the lower end of the glory scale . So maybe purple heart, good conduct, and american defense?
So I'm guessing that the 'curahee' bages on the SOF guys lapels are totally not needed then?
no idea, if you have a look on google, I found the guide for the 82nd AB quite easily
Is it an officer or EM uniform?
If you're looking for early war (post normandy) look, I'd go for your para wings on the oval, would get the one without any stars on it, as I believe they were a late war addon.
101st patch
Rank
1-2 hershy bar for private, prolly looking 2-3 hershy bars for high ranking sergeant or that sorta thing.
Combat infantryman award, which is 30 days in combat.... so would have been awarded by the end of the Para's engagement in Normandy.
make sure you have the Officer / Enlisted discs on the top brest of your jacket.
I wouldn't go for a purple heart personally, unless you're portraying a particular person. Theres a big debarcle on whether we should have 'real' awards on our tunics that vets may and probably do still have and have fought for them. Personally I wouldnt wear one because I wouldnt want to take anything away from somebody who actually got awarded it. Entirely up to you at the end of the day, it's your uniform!
Presidential citation would be ok for post normandy too.
Cool matey, cheers again. It is indeed EM, no rank I'd be going for, and as much as adding the ribbon bar might make the uniform look good, I'll not bother if theres even the slightest chance it will get me into some raging debate.
EDIT: also, with the jump wings, is it a better idea to avoid the 'I did jump at normandy' arrowhead wings, or will that be less likely to get me into 'you've not earned the right!!' sorta debate? Like I said above, I wanna keep it simple as I can, but pretty much good for the Easy company look (yes I know, I'm a film whore!!). I know I can get all the bling described above, and NOT do the arrowhead, as that's me doing a 'replacements' load.
