Hello guys,

since I'm doing a group of german Fallschirmjägers passing by through a street in the undestroyed Rotterdam in 1940, I wonder how you are weathering/dirty your uniforms on figures with such a theme.

I thought of appliying a little pigment dust in earth colors on the knees, ellbows and boots. Do you think that might be reasonable in such a setting?

Unless he's been in combat recently, I'd keep weathering to a minimum, no more that MAYBE a littel dust at the cuffs and boots. If there aren't operations being carried out, I'd suspect his commanding officer or sergeant would expect him to have a pretty clean uniform.

With Para's it can go either way though. Usually you only carry what you jumped with, so it wouldnt be unreasonable to expect this would be the only uniform that soldier has, and that he may be eating, working and sleeping in it. While I agree that the uniform would probably be cleaner out of operations that in the heat of battle, I would say a bit of dus around the knees or elbows would look fine.

Given that the uniform has been pretty much lived in, most of the weathering can be done by adjusting the tone of the uniform at the painting stage.

A fresh uniform would have fresh strong colour, but depending on where that para has been, by the time he reaches the relative cleanliness of a town his uniform could have been bleached in hot sun, smeared with mud or soaked through daily...

thx for your comments.
i already thought about the same myself, but just wanted to receive a second opinion.