Worn and Torn Uniforms

[Martin63]

Can anyone help me........I have searched high and low for tips or / and tutorials on how to make uniforms look torn and worn, in particular those figures, that are POW's or have been fighting for a long time, or even just ripped lapels etc. 

Can anyone help at all, or point me to a good tutorial please?

[Black Knight]

Use small pieces of torn tissue paper glued on as torn material

Paint the under colour to suit, ie flesh or shirt, and paint the top colour a lightened version of the uniform colour, with a darker shade under the fold of the 'torn' material

[Rob G]

Replicate the loose portions with tissue paper, kitchen foil, epoxy putty - pick your poison. For a tear, you'll get away with just using paint, especially in 1/35. Larger scales may need to have material removed to represent the lower surface. Then as Black Knight says above, paint to suit. As always, look at photos and try to replicate what you see.

[Martin63]

On 9/27/2024 at 11:43 PM, Black Knight said:

Use small pieces of torn tissue paper glued on as torn material

Paint the under colour to suit, ie flesh or shirt, and paint the top colour a lightened version of the uniform colour, with a darker shade under the fold of the 'torn' material

Thanks mate, I'll give that a go..

[Martin63]

On 9/28/2024 at 12:59 AM, Rob G said:

Replicate the loose portions with tissue paper, kitchen foil, epoxy putty - pick your poison. For a tear, you'll get away with just using paint, especially in 1/35. Larger scales may need to have material removed to represent the lower surface. Then as Black Knight says above, paint to suit. As always, look at photos and try to replicate what you see.

 

Hi Rob, Thank you It's worth a go, appreciate it.

[Peter2]

When I entered the keywords "torn uniforms on model soldiers" into Bing, I didn't get much directly relevant to the question, but some may find it interesting that it showed a Reddit asking why US troops' uniforms in Vietnam often appeared worn or torn looking, while on the Great War Forum there was information about the repairing of uniforms recovered from dead British WWI soldiers, a practice I had never imagined. The Forum recounts an anecdote concerning one of the women who volunteered for the repairs duty discovering medals sewn into a uniform. The Forum states:

"The uniforms were repaired in a war time established sub-section of the Royal Army Clothing Depot (RACD) at Pimlico, in London.

You can read about the depot here:  

http://davidshistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/development-of-army-clothing-factory.html. During WW1 various outstations became necessary to cope with the unprecedented expansion of the Army, the most famous of which was at Olympia, also in London. Tailors 'cutters' trained and qualified at the RACD, as did the regimental tailors that each battalion was established for."

[noelh]

In  Vietnam,  given the tropical environment the uniforms degraded quickly in the field. Plus there was the  difficultly in resupply. So no surprise US troops looked a bit worn. You can see something similar with the US Marines in WW2.

 

I think in WW1 it wasn't just the British who recycled uniforms. The Germans did so too. It wasn't just the dead, wounded soldiers uniforms were removed as well, patched up and reissued or turned into blankets.