If you read my steps for how to make your own reproductions, you might think that it’s pretty easy to make a good looking reproduction.  And, for things like forms, tags, and cards, it IS pretty easy. In order to get an accurate product, I often need to purchase the item itself.  For something as [...]

One of the most frequently asked questions that I get asked is about where I get my graphic files and how I make things.  Here’s a crash course in how you too can create your own WWII paperwork. What you need – glue, a metal ruler, a computer, a printer, a razor cutter / paper [...]

Are you struggling to repro paperwork? If you’re like me, you end up spending hours searching for just the right font to make WWII signs, etc.   A mis-calculation on font choice can end up having the whole thing look like it’s hot off your laser printer in 2011 instead of looking like it’s hot [...]

Provenance is a big deal with originals.  Who was the soldier?  A lot of collectors want to know the name of the soldier, his unit, and all of that important information.   However, buying named militaria can backfire on you if you don’t know anything about the items. There are many ways that WWII veterans [...]

As more and more reproductions are produced, the question of how to tell an original from a repro is often overlooked. Of course, the quickest way to prove something is original is to put it under a black light.  Older cotton threads won’t glow, while newer cotton threads will. We all talk about black lighting [...]

When I first started reenacting, OD green paint seemed to be the solution to everything.  De-farbing = spray with OD green paint.  While I’ve moved on from this typical newbie trend, I’ve found that a good OD green paint is great for a lot of things, especially wood projects where you want to give the [...]

A big shout out to my Facebook friends for showing me this link www.wishbookweb.com.   If you’re doing a civilian impression, you know that period catalogs are the holy grail of research.   These catalogs are absolutely incredible.  I’ve been trying for years to buy them on ebay for a decent price.  But now, I [...]

During WWII the average coffee ration was ONE pound for every five weeks.  That is, unless you were unlucky enough to be a soldier, in which case you were most likely boiling your coffee in a sock, assuming that you could get your hands on the stuff.  The Germans were so hard up for coffee [...]