Hessen Antique Bluse and Mantel

[Marcus]

Has anyone out there purchased either the 1915 "Bluse" or the overcoat that Hessen is now selling? I'm interested (as are others) in a review of the products. If anyone purchases one or both of these items, please speak up and let us know how they are.

Thanks,

[Weller]

One of our newer members, Nick, has purchased one of the trench coats. I have asked him for detailed pics of the overcoat for us to look at. Hopefully this will happen soon.

Sean

[Tripower]

I asked Dan about the Hessen overcoats this past weekend. He said that it was decent except the buttons need to be repainted. Hopefully he'll add to this thread.

[Kruger]

I have one in the mail otw. I will post a review by next week.

[Marcus]

Bluse or overcoat?

[Kruger]

Overcoat

[Kruger]

Here's my initial review:

The coat is very heavy, and will keep anyone extremely warm on frigged nights.

The bad: The collar is the main weak point of the overcoat. First, it's the wrong color, and is more of the WW2 bottle green. The cut is wrong and is too small.

As mentioned earlier, the buttons are crap and will need to be repainted. At first I thought they were plastic. Also, to me the overall cut of the coat seems wrong. The armholes on mine go all the way to my ribcage. This doesn't seem to be the trend with most coats of the era, as they are usually flush against the armpit, giving greater mobility. Personally I would hold off on getting the coat until these issues are fixed.

[Marcus]

Buttons continue to be a challenge for most Asian makers for some reason.

The collar color may not be totally wrong. When I was putting together my aviator uniform, I used this site a lot and I noticed a couple photos of a tunic and overcoat that had more of a bottle green color:

www.kaisersbunker.com/feldgrau/tunics/

Well, at least you'll have a nice warm jacket. Would you say it's heavier than the Sturm wool?

Dumb question...did you try it on over your tunic?

[sturmkatze]

I got a new M.15 Bluse and a Mantel. I am very happy w/ both, especially the Mantel.

On the Bluse, I redid the collar hooks (still not happy, but used long Amish hooks and is better). The color is okay, but since there was no "one" color for German stuff, it's okay. Not the color I prefer, but is okay. One side hook broke w/ in a couple of hours of use (from Friday night), so I got my Kamerad to replace them w/ original side hooks. I have some original back hooks that will go on it soon. Button's color IS too forest green, but so what, paint is cheap--better than a Bluse w/ farby-ass crown buttons on it (or worse crown CALVARY back hooks on an infantry Jäcke). I replaced the shoulder buttons w/ real ones too. As soon as I buy 2 more, the pockets go... Minor things. Again, I am pretty happy. It's even long enough, unlike other vendors who's jackets look like Silly War artillery shell jackets

On the Mantel, I DO plan on resewing the buttons, but would really like to get either real ones or some of the ones GWM sells--GWM has EXCELLENT buttons.

P.S. Herr Holt, the Mantel IS bigger and quite comfortable over the Bluse!!

[Marcus]

I received one of the new Bluse as well. I like it overall except for one issue. The hooks and belt ramps are too low on the coat I got. As is the equipment belt would ride across my tail bone vice the small of my back. It's significantly lower than the model shown on the website:



I hope that mine is just a fluke and I can exchange it. If not I'm going to try and source some wool from Hessen or Chen and replace the back flaps to make them longer. That will put the hooks/ramps where they should be. I've done this once and it's not that hard...just need wool.

[fischer]

Hello All

I recently purchased one of the Mantel's from Hessen (with the sell and free shipping, could not resist) and need to repaint the buttons. What is the correct color and where does one find it?

Thanks in advance.

fischer

[hwolf]

Hi Don,
The big issue is that the buttons on the Hessen Mantel have a bad gloss shine to them. Originals should be matte. To repaint them, you can use either a medium feldgrau paint color or more commonly a medium brown. Most original buttons I've seen were a medium brown in color.
Dan

[fischer]

Hi Dan

Thanks for the help...

Best Regards, fischer

[sturmkatze]

Dec 26, 2010 18:32:43 GMT -8 hwolf said:

Hi Don,
The big issue is that the buttons on the Hessen Mantel have a bad gloss shine to them. Originals should be matte. To repaint them, you can use either a medium feldgrau paint color or more commonly a medium brown. Most original buttons I've seen were a medium brown in color.
Dan

Dan, I've had and fooled w/ numerous original buttons and they were shiny, at least not a flat paint. Like Helmets then, the paint is more a semi-gloss... besides, once you wear them, it all kind of scratches off anyway :-Þ

I agree about the brown colour. I was going to drop by GWM possibly Monday (ain't living in Chambersburg vs. Foresthill great!?) and will see if he has one w/ a lot of paint. I'd like to try and get a good match to a commercial colour.

[hwolf]

I think that saying they were a "semi-gloss" is a bit of a stretch. The originals had a VERY slight shine to them, more matt then semi-gloss by modern standards. The original War Ministry Manufacture cards I have seen show this as well.

But all this is very stitch nazi of us. The real point of this thread is that the buttons on Hessen's Greatcoats are ridiculously shiny. Let me know if you find a good source for the paint.
Cheers
Dan