Thats...alot of painting 
Looks absolutely fabulous tho !
Thank you Rokeim!
It was a lot of painting, lol. It took me 4-6 weeks, from primering to weathering everything start-to-finish. A lot of that is b/c of all the small parts I had, multiple layers, and masking though. I gave it 1-2 days to dry between each coat. I don't want to repeat this, lol.
As for weathering soft parts, I wanted them to fit in with the armor, but not look quite as worn as the armor itself.
I used Jacquard Acid Dye to dye the Nomex flight suit (was desert tan, more yellow than it is now) and a mohair girth belt. The acid dye didn't take to either one of them quite as well as I had hoped, even though I followed the instructions for stovetop dying. I used a whole box of fabric softener sheets on the flight suit, to "remove the stain-resistance"... who knows if it actually worked.
For all the leather, vinyl, etc. I scrubbed them with Steel wool to tone down the gloss.. then scrubbed them with the Xacto knife (side to side) to add scrapes. Then I made random short slices in all directions for knicks & dings.
I tried not to tear many holes in the suit, as I was afraid of fraying over time.. but you can use liquid No-Fray to help with that, if you decide to do it. No-Fray can darken the color in the exposed areas though.
I rubbed the elbows, knees, etc. of my flight suit and parts of my girth belt between the tires of my car, leaving some dark tire grime.
I laid out all my soft parts and interchangedably misted Flat Black and Flat Brown spray paints. I lightly misted all of it in black to dull down the color, then misted more heavily in more common areas with both colors. It looked a little too much like paint on the vinyl, so I rubbed it in the grass to spread it.
After those paints dried, I rubbed all the soft parts in the dirt real good. It toned it down some, but probably wasn't necessary. I let it all sit for 2 days, then threw it all in the washer on Cold delicate with no detergent. Then I threw it in the dryer on Delicate with a LOT of dryer sheets. This removed all the gritty dirt and made it smell good.
