Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

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Jagdpanther
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Re: Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

Post by Jagdpanther »

askhati wrote:Jagd, if I look at that HBT one you posted, I'm seeing the following:

- Heer M40 tunic, HBT (pleated pockets, scalloped pocket flaps), with the following changes
A) different buttons (easy to change, as they are fixed in with hooks)
...Are those the KM anchor-and-rope buttons, but in grey? Thought they only came in gold.
B) squared-off pocket edges (will see how hard this is to change)
C) fake French cuffs (same as above - might be easy to do, or not)
...The fake cuff is basically just a slightly protruding seam there, right? Doesn't look any fancier than that.

Everything else is just a matter of insignia - eagle, litzen, boards - and can be easily added.
Yes, agree with A/B/C above. The one thing to point out re "A)", the buttons are slightly different to the normal gold ones, in that not only are they painted, but they have a "pebbled" background, unlike the "stripy" background on the gold ones. I made a KM Coastal Arty wool tunic by converting it from a Heer M40 wool tunic, and when it came to the buttons I just used the normal gold ones and painted them, not realising until after that originals were pebbled - but it is hard to tell the difference unless right up close! But original "pebbled" background buttons are available, though quite hard to find...

You might also want to have a look at these threads which may be of use, one of which included a picture of the correct button and also have details on the HBT and other summer KM tunics, including the pre-war moleskin ones (and also my wool KM tunic "conversion"):

viewtopic.php?f=88&t=17190

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=15655
askhati wrote:A quick comparison of possible donor tunics:

Image

The M36 Officer's tunic, in HBT (from hikishop) would seem to be the closest bet:
- change the collar
- unpick the pockets, and redo them with diagonal corners
- change all the buttons to gray KM ones
Yes, agree with that, although the real French cuffs on the Officer's tunic above are obviously more elaborate than the fake cuffs on the KM tunic. I thought of making one of these a while ago and was thinking of using a Heer M40 HBT as the donor tunic, and (as well as the other changes) cutting the cuffs off approx 16-17cm from the end, folding back the cut end of the cut off cuff until the cut off cuff was 15cm long then sewing it back on to the rest of the sleeve to make the fake French cuff. Obviously you would lose 2 or so CM of sleeve length, but might work...
askhati wrote:Image

Image

This one is even closer - just the bottom pockets and the buttons need to change. The upper pockets are fine, and the fake French cuffs are there.

Hmm...
Yep, half the work is done for you...
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askhati
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Re: Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

Post by askhati »

For authenticity, you would want those fake French cuffs - but my reality is that, with our climate here in South Africa, I have my sleeves rolled up to the elbows even in winter. French cuffs, cuff titles, trade badges - they just don't get any sun here, because they are always rolled up and covered :P

Tried ordering KM insignia from Hessen Antique, but they refuse to ship to SA. What toss... Are there any other vendors that have the correct coastal boards, eagle and litzen? (also KM buttons, if possible)
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Jagdpanther
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Re: Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

Post by Jagdpanther »

askhati wrote:For authenticity, you would want those fake French cuffs - but my reality is that, with our climate here in South Africa, I have my sleeves rolled up to the elbows even in winter. French cuffs, cuff titles, trade badges - they just don't get any sun here, because they are always rolled up and covered :P

Tried ordering KM insignia from Hessen Antique, but they refuse to ship to SA. What toss... Are there any other vendors that have the correct coastal boards, eagle and litzen? (also KM buttons, if possible)

This is where I got my litzen and eagle from for my wool tunic:

http://www.landser.com/litzen.aspx

http://www.landser.com/coastalartillerybreasteagle.aspx

Another source of BEVO Eagle and also the wool boards (this is where I got my boards from)

http://www.re-enactmentshop.com/webshop ... ich/marine

Wood embroidered eagle (KM used both wool embroidered eagles as well as BEVO ones, unlike Heer who generally used only BEVO):

http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... en-backing

Trop eagle:

http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... an-backing

Buttons - not the correct type (don't know anyone who does pebbled ones - no repros exist as far as I know, but you might just stumble on some originals at a militaria show), but you could repaint these (3 sizes, I'd say regular 20mm best):

http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... ns-regular
http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... tons-large
http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... tons-small

Also do nylon ones (?!), bit odd, but wouldn't need repainting:

http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... grey-nylon
http://www.epicmilitaria.com/product.ph ... lack-nylon

Apart from this, some of the above items may be on ebay, I've seen repro KM litzen on there possibly the buttons too?
christiandbn
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Re: Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

Post by christiandbn »

askhatim

you seem to be having a hard time juggling between various heer tunics and LW ones. It's gonna involve a lot of fixing and patching things up afterwards.

Just a Question: How many of these uniforms are you looking for?
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askhati
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Re: Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

Post by askhati »

Only looking for one, have settled on the LW tropical uniform for now (needs the least effort to convert). I'm located about 700-800km inland, so I don't expect many of our MAR events where a KM outfit will be of much use :P

Of course, if someone was to make a green HBT version available for Northern France, I might be tempted to get one for our D-Day scenarios...
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askhati
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Re: Coastal Artillery summer/tropical outfit

Post by askhati »

Another question on the Kusten uniforms: what trade badges would you expect to find on them? I am aiming to portray a (junior) NCO, but I am struggling to find info on what badges to add to the uniform, if any.
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