noodle3

"or am I missing something else" depends on how close to screen acurate you want to be I guess

Like the guy's said I would also aviod the Norwegian style MP40 pouches as a template Stolla Wien's Are beautifull pouche's but there are too many inconsistances from what's on screen to a stolla wien pouch, in my opinion. But I would use them as a base pattern to start from

Thanks for the interest, as for progress I think it's more of one step forward, three step's back. Here's the lid as it stands today, I'v quickly thrown the trim, tip's & cap's on just to give it balance. sorry for the poor light but the paintwork's still a little creamy in color. this is a rough example of how it look's with the first stage paint application done. Personally I'm very under-impressed with my work so far, so most likley will strip it all back again over the weekend. **** my won impatient's

I think that would be my initial look as well if that happened to me. Then I'd go into rage mode rage mode!!! when you have two near empty tin's when you should have gone out & bought one full tin, DA DA DA DAAAA

Here are a couple of update pic's, there is a lot of distortion with the digital camera squashing the helmet , if anyone has tip's on taking pic's with a digicam, please educate me So Here's the frown hole's that have been opened ala STS, although there is only so much that can be done as the lid come's wonderfully assembled & hole's precut. Here's the earcap's relocated & trimed on the squashed looking Lid! Here's how I apply the first stage of latex, using a pencil to get the desired outline shape of the flaky bit's then small brush to fill in the body. & here it is waiting for me to go buy more paint Again, please feel free to comment if the changes are OK, I just find sometime's when you look at something for long period's it all seam's to dissappear & vacancy set's in

So Here's the lid getting redone. Thanks for all the suggestion's & comments fella's So next time: 1 Paint run down towards right trap. I've tried loads of different techniques for the stripe's which is where everything went to a full repaint, but will try that Nico. Thanks for the link's Daetrin but the masking tape lifted the paint when I tried it, maybe it was down to my own inpatience 2 Trim earcaps With the earcaps Joe, do you mean the body of the caps where it forms around the cheek tube need trimming down? 3 Cut out the frown gap's to resemble STS I'l post progress of the different techniques I use but it's mainly Mike great work & tip's I'v borrowed with the finer details from TM's suggestion's If anyone has other comment's on getting it closer to STS please post

After seeing the other fantastic work on the forum I thought I'd have ago myself. Using Mike's Techniques I think everything went really well, untill it came to the tube stripes. then thing's went pear shaped from there. If anyone has any suggestion's & or recomendation's please do post as the whole thing is getting redone again, due to my incompetence with the tube stripes

Thanks for the update Joe , even though it is unfortunate

Is there anymore updates on this? It was looking like a sweet Lid

Thanks Ripcode I've looked everywhere for that, patience is a virtue I managed to strip everything else off the thing, I just never figured that endcap bit out.

great pic's, just make's me even more gutted that I never got to go , hopefully on the nxt troop though

Here is some usefull information, hope it helps. http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=40568

any comments suggestions for improving the neckseal are now welcome, If anyone has any questions please feel free to post or pm. happy trooping

last up add the velcro to the seem of the neckseal & run a stitch down the back, this will hold the slik,canvas & fleece toghether at the back of the neck. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... velcro.jpg tidy all odd's & ends up so you should end up with something similar to the pics in the links. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... ntview.jpg http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... heback.jpg

now adhere the velcro (soft) to the rear of the neckseal this is just to hold the whole thing temporary, where the seem is & turn the whole thing upside down, seem facing you,. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... velcro.jpg taking the silk with the long cut pointing away from the neckseal seem & towards you, start to sew onto the neckseal where the small gap was originally left beneth the first (bottom rib), sew through the canvas & onto the fleece this will hold all the assebly together. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... hesilk.jpg closer pic but appologies for the poor quality light due to the three different blacks being used. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... fleece.jpg next take the other velcro and adhere it to the rough side of any spare leather you may have and trim as you like, this isn't cannon but it's the simplest way to sort out the open seem at the back. other options are as many as the imagination can deliver, but I expect hard work if you choose other options?. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... eather.jpg

time for the polar fleece to be added, so place the fleece onto the front of the ribs so both rectangles are equal & sew a seem from the canvas side initially, into the groove of the tapering ribs. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... efront.jpg another pic from the front of how it should be coming along. Once sewn, trim any excess material off from the top of the neckseal with sizzors getting as close to the seem as possible. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... hidden.jpg once completed fold over the fleece so it will be on the neck side of the ribbed collar, no stitches should be visible & all the seem hidden. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... dfoldo.jpg

next step is to glue the foam cord to the leather strips, ensure that the 10mm is overhanging on the tapered end of the foam. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... eglued.jpg once dry, cut the tapered end again but not into a point as some room will be needed later to add a single stitch on each rib into the canvas. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... heribs.jpg finally for the ribs, glue them onto the canvas, longest first, with the tapered end facing inward & the round end up to the edge of the canvas. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... sglued.jpg

try get the ribs as close to each other as possible & if any glue descides to leave via the sides, using a soft toothbrush just brush away. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... ure038.jpg when all nine ribs are on the canvas get the small foam cords & cut slight spear/taper at one end of each strip, 2 cuts one each side is usually enough. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... ure001.jpg next get the leather strips & cut each strip about 10mm longer than each of the cords it is to be applied to http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... ure005.jpg

now the nine ribs are assembled it's time to key the canvas with the glue. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... canvas.jpg following the key, apply glue to the flat side of the rib, if glue gets everywhere the leather should be very forgiving & when the glue starts to dry just remove any excess by rubbing it off by hand. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... atedge.jpg now from the bottom of the canvas going up, start to glue each of the nine ribs to the canvas, try to use something round that the canvas will flop over & do not glue flat as this may cause problems with creasing also leave a small straight gap at the base of the canvas as pictured 1 to 2mm. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... allgap.jpg

now get nine leather strips and glue the rough side one at a time using a credit card or similar item to remove the air from the leather, once the glue is a little tacky adhere the nine long foam/rubber cord/rope to it. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... ure007.jpg If the measurements are ok there should be a gap between the edges of the leather creating a sort of flat edge, to the now rib. please refer to the second link for a close up. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... ure009.jpg

Top work TM, makes me proud to be British

lastly for the preperation we move onto the silk bib, fold the silk in half its length, then fold the fold in half, you should have all outside edges on two sides and both folded sems on the other two. with the sizzors 'nick the corner of the fold, this will give you the dead centre of the piece (where you head will fit through eventually) now lay the silk out and cut a cross into the centre, with the elongated part of the cross that will be on the back of the bib & will eventually attatch to the back of the neck seal. please refer to the picture in the link, as one pic can say far more clearly whats needed than I can manage at this time. also I would be reluctant to advise how large to cut the cross as we all have different sized heads so use caution here!!! http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... thebib.jpg prior to moving on to the assembly, if anyone has tip's or suggestions on improving this thread then please feel free to comment.

Now come's the time to measure up and cut the strips of leather. again the leather piece should be thin to give some flexibility to the whole thing. So using a rectangle of 420mm in length and 215mm depth appprox, measure as many strips you can from the 215mm wide which will be about 14 16mm wide strips in total, down the length as per the picture. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... strips.jpg

in continuing preperation, next rough cut the polar fleece around the canvas 420mm by 140mm (the strech in the fleece should go in the direction of the lenghth), all the overhang gets delt with later. here the pic displaying the cut in progress. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... fleece.jpg

Next cut the foam/rubber cord into 9 420mm lengeths, then cut another five length's each one shorter than the previous one by 60mm each time. Cut the final five length's in half. please refer the picture if needed. So you should end up with 9 pieces of equal length & 10 lenghts tapering down two at a time from 180mm to 60mm. http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u127 ... hecord.jpg the picture shows the first short length is yet to be halfed.