Variation in US uniforms?

[Adam106]

I've just upgraded to version 2.0 and is it just me or has the variation is US infantry uniforms been changed?

Before the upgrade there was a mix of greener Herringbone Twill uniforms and the normal khaki / brown shirt and trousers. This variation provided interest and a nice detail - has it been removed? Can I get it back?

Cheers

[Rocky Balboa]

Were you using any mods before the upgrade?

[Adam106]

Nope, no mods before upgrade - but there was definitely more variation in uniform in version 1.0..

Does the new uniform selection feature have anything to do with it? Were some uniforms removed?

[Tashtego]

I've just upgraded to version 2.0 and is it just me or has the variation is US infantry uniforms been changed?

Before the upgrade there was a mix of greener Herringbone Twill uniforms and the normal khaki / brown shirt and trousers. This variation provided interest and a nice detail - has it been removed? Can I get it back?

Cheers

I have version 2.01 and I use these mods.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Adam is correct.

1.10

2.01

The variation is still in 2.01, but is so subdued that it is barely noticeable. In the above 2.01 pic the green jacket is on the right, khaki on the left. I think. It's really hard to tell them apart.

[Battlefront.com]

Hmmm... yeah, there was no deliberate change made to the uniform variety. My guess is the new shaders affected the end visual effect in a way that's difficult to tell the difference. I'm going to guess it is more/less an issue for particular cards.

I'll make mention of this and see if we can tweak things. We definitely like the variation in uniforms to be noticeable.

Steve

[Fernando]

Some quick notes about US uniforms in Normandy:

1. Sometimes HBT uniform gartments were used (including the well-known camoed ones). However you rarely see HBT shirts on the pics. OTOH the HBT pants can be seen sometimes. They are easily noticeable because they had cargo pockets on the leg sides usually loaded with a lot of stuff. Those pockets were placed higher in the leg than the paratrooper pockets, but they are very noticeable because the "M41" jackets were shorter than German Feldblusen or US Para jackets and those pockets were bulky when stuffed with items, as it was most of the time. Thought the HBT pants can be seen in the wartime pics taken in Normandy, you can see less and less HBT pants as the campaign goes on until no one is shown. HBT items had a mid/dark green shade. There were some variations, but as a rule the early lighter green (a nice one IMHO) became a less appealing darker one mid/late war.

2. Standard uniform for infantry in Normandy was Field Jacket O.D. (the so-called "M41" jacket by collectors), wool shirt and wool pants. Wool items had a visible brown shade with a small drop of green added.

3. US units landed in wool uniforms in Normandy. Only 8th Regiment from 4th Division (the 1st wave Assault Regiment) landed in impreganated HBT uniforms in Utah. It is not known by they were ordered to wear the HBT uniform (over the wool one BTW) while other assault units (i.e. those landing in Omaha) did not.

4. Shade of "M41" jackets is not well-known by most people because they are used to see replicas, reenactors and, worst of all, movies, but they are NOT used to see ORIGINALS. It means there is a wide array of colors in the reenactor/movie market nowadays which was not the case at the time. Sturm does cheap M41 jackets but they are made in WRONG colors, usually too dark, in the wrong shade (too much brown or gren) or both. OTOH ATF copies are more expensive but in the correct shade. Reenactors fade their uniforms in wildly different degrees depending on the maker (there are Chinese copies as well which fade to God-knows-what) so the result are varitions which don't correspond with originals.

5. M41 jackets were made in O.D. 3 which is a light khaki color with some green added, specially after the war started. There were variations (slightly more greener, or slightly sandy) but the shade was pretty consistent and the green "drop" on the shade was always present so it is difficult to tell those variations appart from some distance. The real differences came with fading. Those jackets usually fade to a noticeable lighter sand/brown shade. However, remember US troops in Normandy got new uniforms before landing, not heavily worn/used ones.

6. Tankers got HBT coveralls. That's the reason CMBN tanker uniforms in 2.0 wear brown wool pants and green "ones" (the green "pants" are not pants but the legs of the coveralls), but infantry wore wool pants most of the time. It is WRONG to show green pants everywhere and it is wrong to show them without side cargo pockets.

7. Field Jacket shade must be subtle, noticeable if you close to them, but not as much as seern in the 1.10 pic. In that pic almost everything is wrong. All pants seem to be green (= HBT because wool NEVER had that shade) and variations among Field Jackets is too much evident. In fact some of them are way TOOOOOOO dark. They look like reenactors rather than real US infantry.

8. There are not a lot of color pics taken at the time and most of them have a wrong shade (too green, too red or too blue), so the only way to check the correct shade of the jackets are checking ORIGINALS. I have got 4 or 5 Field Jackets in my collections and there is some useful info for those not having access to originals in the At the Front vendor page as well. No one of my jackets is heavily fadded and no one is iddentical to each other, but they are pretty consistent regarding shade. They blend together from some distance so you must close to them in order to be able to tell apart the shade nuances.

In short, the 2.0 uniforms are correct and have been done that way on purpose. They have been done taking into account originals (I have got 4 or 5 Field jackets, wool pants, HBT shirts and pants, M43 jackets etc. which I bought for more than 24 years of collecting life) rather than replicas, reenactors and/or movies. Books are also very useful as well, though you must be aware pics, even modern ones, may have small shade variations which may slightly distort the real shade of the gartment.