Replecing Kit
'Small time' collector or not, why go to all the trouble to get the BD Tunic and badges correct and then not care about the equipment? Anyway, replacing the water bottle and the entrenching tool helve is not all that difficult. The correct helve should run you about $25.00 and there have been quite a few of them turning up for sale in Toronto area recently. Correct water bottles may be a little harder to find, few are dated but take note of the colour of the felt covering and the colour of the enamel bottle (blue) in the one that I posted and if you find one like that you will be okay. Water bottles go by mark designation, with Mk V and Mk VI being the ones you will see in use in WWII. Yours appears to be a Mk VII (with brownish/greenish enamel) which shows up with WWII dated carriers but these water bottles are post-WWII British. There are lots of the Mk VIIs and they show up everywhere as WWII but they are not, cost of a WWII water bottle, again about $20.00.
I'd dump the post-WWII cup, you really do not need it, and be suspecious of any being sold from WWII as they are near impossible to find.
You really should mark your made up tunic somehow so that when it passes from your collection to someone else's it does not gain the cachet of an 'original' badged BD tunic.
Nice uniform set-up, happy hunting.
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