All,

I am repeat washing my BDUs at the moment to soften them up and get them looking a bit washed out…

Any tips for how to weather them in? Including the helmet cover?

Thanks

Pete

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A02/TQ2.0.52141E1

"Errr... Roger that's a 2-1-6..."

Put them in a pillow case with some rocks and shake them up, or if you’re brave: put them in the washing machine

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AKA: Simon

For fake wear, I have used watered down white acrylic paint (just dip it or brush it on. It dries much lighter than it goes on, so don't worry if it looks like too much when wet.)

If you want the real deal wear with more control, a little 0000 steel wool can make quick work of it. I did the steel wool bit on spat helmet cover recently.

Im fading a brand new set of MAA 1pat. so far ive washed and dried the top on hot 10 times. i also left them out on the porch for about 5 days. i think the sun-fading will work but would take closer to a month per side. Currently they look good but still way too bright and new. the next step is to experiment with the helmet cover. im going to add a small cap full of bleach, run the wash so its evenly mixed, then add the helmet cover and let it sit for 5 min. before rinsing out. I will report back.

Before you try bleach, use a stronger detergent and HOT water, followed by HOT dryer setting. I wore both the old “analog” BDU and new digital MARPAT cammies when I was active duty and learned how NOT to treat your uniform very quickly. For the final wash, use a detergent that has no optical brighteners like All Free and Clear or something similar. Most laundry soap has UV brighteners that make the camo look kinda weird if you look close. You could always tell the guys who didn’t read the care instruction label because the black areas looked purplish-blue in daylight and I’ve heard air crew friends say they could be seen plain as day through NVGs.

As it happens a couple of standard washes and a wool cycle have worked wonders… they now like they’ve been used… unfortunately the tunic managed to turn itself back the right way after being put in inside out and the ship patch and rocker took a pasting but they look ok

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A02/TQ2.0.52141E1

"Errr... Roger that's a 2-1-6..."

which brand BDU do you have?
my MAA 1pat are incredibly heavy duty and hard to fade.

I’ve got Chef BDUs

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A02/TQ2.0.52141E1

"Errr... Roger that's a 2-1-6..."

washed my 1pat MAA top 34-40 times and it faded the hell out of them. looks very worn and almost match my 2pat, actually lighter then too pat now.