British Desert Trousers.

Love these 2 due to their distinct colours-1 pair has a very sparse pattern to it and the other pair has faded to almost a white background.

Very Nice, I especially like the Large print trousers which are becoming scarce now!

Nice trews Rich, I have a set of sparse DPM, pity there is'nt more of it about

Didnt know there was such a thing until they arrived,just wanted a pair of bog std early desert trs for the collection.

Those sparse desert DPMs are very nice! The fading on the others is interesting as well.

Hi Rich ..Here's a pic of some of my GW1 sparse kit..enjoy

I learned about the sparse pattern when I wound up with a shirt. Not too long after saw a tiny, grainy picture of what appeared to be normal set with sparse body armor cover on eBay. As luck would have it, all three were sparse! Got them very cheap and then sold off the spare shirt. I've kept my eye out for more of the stuff ever since and haven't seen any.

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:I learned about the sparse pattern when I wound up with a shirt. Not too long after saw a tiny, grainy picture of what appeared to be normal set with sparse body armor cover on eBay. As luck would have it, all three were sparse! Got them very cheap and then sold off the spare shirt. I've kept my eye out for more of the stuff ever since and haven't seen any.

Steve

Steve, I am constantly scanning ebay for some more Sparse, but alas it is very thin on the ground!!

Easy Gee wrote:

CollectinSteve wrote:I learned about the sparse pattern when I wound up with a shirt. Not too long after saw a tiny, grainy picture of what appeared to be normal set with sparse body armor cover on eBay. As luck would have it, all three were sparse! Got them very cheap and then sold off the spare shirt. I've kept my eye out for more of the stuff ever since and haven't seen any.

Steve

Steve, I am constantly scanning ebay for some more Sparse, but alas it is very thin on the ground!!

So that means i have no choice of finding a shirt on Ebay now that everybody and their dog is after the damn bloody stuff

So, do any of you gents have the earliest pattern of dessie trousers ? The ones with the zip and button fly like the early junglies had ?

Dave

Bury_Dave wrote:So, do any of you gents have the earliest pattern of dessie trousers ? The ones with the zip and button fly like the early junglies had ?

Dave

Yep a whole set, and maybe only person to have ?

Set dates around 1980 , tropical trousers new, shirt new, para smock slight use and mkv helmet cover used.

Deserts that early ? I thought they were 4 colour back then ?


And never think you are the 'only' person to have a set of anything . You ain't !

I thought they were 4 colour back then

THink thats the set he might be referring to??

Then we NEED photo proof !

I think my mate Lee has a set of those, not 4 Pattern though.

Bury_Dave wrote:Then we NEED photo proof !

( I have 5 of these all new )


Tag says 1980


Full set I think anyways, the para smock is ultra rare from what I gather and maybe too the helmet cover, the jackets are fairly common but still rare and the trousers are quiet rare too.

This is all British kit, I know it's used a lot in Africa and middle east but this is made in England stuff.

A Sparse Jacket!

What does the label say?

Also your Para Smock looks identical to my desert one except the camo, same cuffs, zip, liner etc...

Tommo wrote:A Sparse Jacket!

What does the label say?

Also your Para Smock looks identical to my desert one except the camo, same cuffs, zip, liner etc...

I have no idea what the label says as its worn off , it's green that's all I can say. I picked it up a number of years ago for £10 used but not very used, camo looks new and I suspect label worn of with sweat. The sparse stuff isn't a set funny enough dispite the l/cpl being on both jackets, it's just how I bought them and a little luck.

I have in total
1 sparse smock,
3 sparse shirts 1 unbadged, 1 patched US style name tag and local made tank transporter patch, and the one in the photo
2 sparse trousers one named same name as the un badged shirt which was from a vet.

The para smock in the 4 part desert is the only 2nd I've ever seen and I'm guessing most on here have ever seen too. It's not a fake made in china copy or anything like that as I had my doubts about it myself until I got my hands on it. The cloth is a lightweight windproof type found on the early 80's SAS smocks. The camo print screens were only used on what seems a small run on the SAS windproofs. To me it's a more aggressive DPM print at the side of other DPM variants. The owner who I bought it off removed the badges and eperlets as you can see ghosts of wings and a DZ and the remains if the rank slides. The jacket to is a little sun bleached as the inside of the pockets has a bit stronger colour. So without doubt it's seen active duty somewhere but it's unlikely I'll ever find out.
Anyways for the £40 I paid for it , it was a steal and a very rare bit of kit not to mention awsome looking when wearing in ASDA !

Also will let you into a bit of a secret. When I bought the sparse set from a guy who sold it to me for £3 from RAF Hemswell market on a Sunday , I was going to make them American. Back in the early 90's choc chip camo was unread rare in UK where now its everywhere, I was going to magic marker the sparse with black squiggles !!!!! Thankfully I didn't as we all know these are getting rarer with time.

I was a bugger for doing things like that , when urban stuff started showing up I bleached some woodlands to make a set

Dont know what that helmet cover is but looks bizarre.

Following pic from a 1985 dated book.

Very cool picture !

Yeah the helmet cover I have is too big for the mk6 , the PASGT and the M1 helmets I own. So kinda figured the size and shape of the helmet cover looks like the fit for the normal soldiers turtle mk 3/4/5 which looks the same general shape. The print also on my cover predates the helmet cover in the photo, it has the feel of the 60's of 70's cloth.

I don't think the cover is from the middle east as they all tend to use the M1 or a copy of and I've tried and it's too big.

I think I will buy a cheap 80's period steel helmet and I bet it fits perfectly.

Some African countries used the Turtle series of helmets during the 60s and 70s but dont think they used this type of cammo?

Nice 4 colour !! Odd that the label says size 6 small on the trousers as they are a large reg .......

I remember seeing the 4 colour stuff once as some of the lads exercised on Bright Star (I think it was - it was a LONG time ago ... ) in Egypt. Stuff was recalled after and never saw the light of day again. Probably still in storage somewhere.

The smocks i saw were like the reference photo - no wool knit cuffs. Probably for ventilation. Curious that yours do have that. A clear label photo would have categorically proven this was issue - and British issue at that.

Nice stuff though and clear that you are very pleased to have it

Bury_Dave wrote:Nice 4 colour !! Odd that the label says size 6 small on the trousers as they are a large reg .......

I remember seeing the 4 colour stuff once as some of the lads exercised on Bright Star (I think it was - it was a LONG time ago ... ) in Egypt. Stuff was recalled after and never saw the light of day again. Probably still in storage somewhere.

The smocks i saw were like the reference photo - no wool knit cuffs. Probably for ventilation. Curious that yours do have that. A clear label photo would have categorically proven this was issue - and British issue at that.

Nice stuff though and clear that you are very pleased to have it

Yeah I agree with the labels but for some crazy reason most if not all this 4 part desert stuff has all be removed ?

All 6 shirts I bought as a joblot were all unpicked and a white card and string tag attached and hand wrote size on them. They were all wrote in size 7 and that rather then say 160/112 or 42", which again as you know is old pre NATO sizes.

I wonder if like the trousers clearly state small but display 92cm which is 36", I wonder if all the tags were faulty and cut out for that reason ?