Welcome to my M42 Worn Uniform Page

M42 Worn Uniform Example   M42 Worn Uniform

I have made this page to show how I have added the pockets to the rear of the DiD M42 jacket, ever since I saw the picture on the right of the altered full size coat. What kept me from making this jacket until now is the obvious fact, that I would have to cut up a spare donor jacket to allow me to get the pockets I wanted. Plus somehow I would also have to make sure that the factory stitching is kept in place as much as possible.

So after much thought about this I decided to use a spare Ricky Foster jacket I have for the pockets, luckily this coat is the same type as used for the Albert Ross figure, so the pockets will be a close match for the colour. The thing that I found out was that when the pockets are cut off the donor coat, it is important that the material that the pocket is sewn onto is also cut off with it. This way the factory stitching is kept in place, plus you have the material under the pocket to use to sew it onto the other coat.

These pictures show the donor coat with the edges of the pocket, that has to be cut around with a sharp model knife to get the it off the coat. In the first picture above left I cut around the square under the pocket to remove it, the middle picture above shows the top of the pocket. I cut through the coat just behind the edge making sure that I left a thin edge of the coat material, so this would allow me to sew the pocket onto the rear of the other jacket. This would also allow me to hide the stitches behind the top pocket edge. The other picture above shows the jacket with the pockets removed.

When the pockets have been cut out and the loose threads and edges trimmed up, you will have the separate one's as shown above. The picture above right shows the front and rear of the pocket, the square part on the back is the part that will be sewn onto the rear of the other jacket. Note: I am hoping that if I keep the stitches small enough when I sew the pocket onto the new coat, it will look like the pocket is held on by the factory stitching and not mine.

The picture right shows the removed pockets laid loosely onto the back of the jacket that I want to have the rear pockets on. I am going to pin them in place to make sure that I have them lined up correctly, plus that they won't move when I sew them onto the jacket.

I would like to thank Paul (.308) for the original idea about cutting the pockets off the jacket, because he has shown me how he has altered his figure's uniforms some of which can be seen here - Uniform Changes

And I must admit that when I first thought about cutting up a perfectly good jacket, just to get the pockets off of it and seeing the work that Paul had done with his figures. I honestly thought what a mad thing to do to a sought after coat, so I kept putting the idea off. But finally I am afraid that the need for the rear pockets on the coat got the better of me, so I took the knife to the jacket. Plus I have also realised now that I have actually done it at last, I now have another two pockets from the donor coat to use on another project.

This is a picture of the finished coat with the pockets sewn in place on the rear of the jacket. (The best that my lousy sewing skills will allow me to do...) Another idea that was passed onto me by Paul, was about using some double sided tape to hold the pocket in place whilst it is being sewn in place. I must say that I have tried it and it does make the positioning of the pockets easier to keep still.

M42 Worn Uniform Example

Some experiments I have done with simulating wear on the 1/6th scale uniforms is shown below, this was done with some fine sandpaper to rough up the edges of the tunic. The holes were made by cutting a small hole with my model knife, then I used the sandpaper over the top to make the wear that caused the holes.

Note: Because the jacket is the one I cut the pockets from, I wanted to see what result I would get if I continued to use the sandpaper on it past the slight wear effect I wanted. So the pictures below show what happens when I get carried away with the sandpaper.

M42 Worn Uniform

After doing my experiments with the spare jacket above, I now had an idea of what wear and damage I wanted on the uniform that I have on my figure. In the pictures above I have added some wear to the knees, elbows, collar, epaulettes, cuffs and the pockets. Note: The flash from the camera has highlighted the sanded areas more than they actually show on the figure, even though they are lighter than the rest of the uniform it just seems that in the pictures it looks like I have a mad half hour with my model drill...