Mystery cammo

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Mike, I have seen a snow smock converted to a grass tufted camo suit. It was done by a member of our living history group. (Kozlov; it was Martin ask to see it. ) He wore it to an event and I think everyone thought it was "real" until he said he made it himself


Cheers, Ade.

[Wesley's Dad]

Converted Winter Suits

Ade,

I think the fraud is an easy one to pull off against the present wisdom regarding these suits. Glad your mate is honest about it. Most of the conversions that I have seen have been "mint unissued" and even included the small carry pouch (also dyed green) that is issued with the snow suits. Of course it is possible that I am passing up good suits, but I tend to smell a rat with these. Particularly given that I have run across 7-8 of these in the last 3 years or so. Too many to be real in my opinion, good wartime camo is a real pain in the rear to locate.

I was offered one that I suspected was converted and then given the extra mile by adding a little wear and tear... and worn down grass tufts of course. Still, in my opinion it was a converted snow suit.

Mike Baskette

[csodagyerek]

russian grass suit

below is a link that shows some soviet uniforms. among them a grass suit. my suit could be a fake but it shows usage so I do not think it was faked. Who knows? anyway the suit on this russian sight looks the same as my suit. so here it is for what it is worth
http://rkka.ru/uniform/files/i_arm.htm

[Wesley's Dad]

Yes, I am familiar with that site. I think your comment "who knows" is key
here. Few people really do, and they don't seem to be very active in the
information sharing part of this hobby up to this point. IMHO this site is
great for the general appearance of Red Army uniform and kit, but doesn't
offer much to further a detailed discussion unfortunatly.

The body armor worn by the model in the assault engineer recreation seems to be missing some details such as the prominant rivet heads on the breast plate, and I strongly suspect it to simply be a prop. So who knows what else may be "props" in those images, is any of the camo original? Similarly, the known wartime pics shown on that site and in other referencesr do not reveal
any key details.

I know I sound like a super skeptic... when it comes to Soviet camo I suppose I am. My time on both the collector and dealer side of this collecting genre has made me so. For me, the lack of general knowlege regarding the make up of these suits, limited wartime images with useful content, the ample supply of suits available to the collecting community that are like the snow suit, the example in the Shalito book that is not like the snow suit etc. seem to add up to circumstantial guiilt in my eyes.

I am certainly not the final authority by any means, maybe there were more than one version, maybe they are real... or maybe they (ones like the snow suite) are fake and the creators are leveraging our ignorance to make a sale????

Mike Baskette

[JonB]

More detail on "mystery cammo"

Afternoon all,

Thanks to Kozlov, my enquiry on another forum has been considerably answered by members here. I'd just like to add an update of further information that has come to my knowledge.

A concrete example of the "parsley" suit exists in the Muzeum Oreza Polskiego in Kolobrzeg, Poland. They helpfully provided the following details about their exhibit:

Made 9th October 1953 by Spoldzielni Pracy Mazowsze z odp. udz. in Warszawa, for the Wojsko Polskie (Polish Army). It was given to the museum by the unit using it in 1966 (I'm hoping to get info on the unit).

The jacket I have originally had brown plastic 4-hole buttons, khaki herringbone tapes and a dark green 2mm mesh veil.