World War II on the Web

This section is devoted to warning fellow collectors of known reproductions as they are discovered (here in Germany). If you know of any other copies making their way around the shows, feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll post it here.

A collector in Australia sent me this information: I recently supplied a movie company with some WW2 US kit for a movie being done here called "The Thin Red Line" with Woody Harelsen in it. Anyway they made up about 700 sets of infantry herringbone twill uniforms, boots and helmet liners. These don't have repro on them and will be sold into the market late this year to raise funds to go back to the company. I think they also did copies of field gear but am not sure.

This info was passed to me by a fellow collector in the United States: There is a dealer in Germany that is offering Waffen-SS double decal M40 helmets for $950 each. They are described as having 99% color and decals remaining, some have pig skin liners. He says they were found in Holland. The shells are original, while the decals are cheap copies, along with a post-1945 liner and chin strap. The shell also has some sort of brown coloring applied, which washes off with nothing more than water.

There are two repro vertical hangers making their way around the shows in Germany, one black, the other brown. Both types are made in the correct manner as the originals, and have an RBN or RZM number stamped on the obverse vertical section. The clips in all cases are apparently old originals.

There are bogus Army officer's daggers being offered for sale with blade inscriptions etched with "In Rememberance of My Service Time on the General Staff". I've seen three of these, each with a light yellow grip and aluminum fittings. They also have Holler trademarks, but with "Berlin" as the city, instead of Solingen.

Another item that keeps popping up is the Espana foreign volunteer sleeve shield. They're roughly hand woven on Luftwaffe blue-grey wool, and may have a heavy black paper backing applied.

Reproductions of every type of protective award case have been out for several months now. Probably every case made for the Luftwaffe badges is out there, as well as many of the Kriegsmarine. They are made to the same specs as the originals, and several people have been artificially aging them for resale as the real thing (with an appropriate badge, of course).

At the Stuttgart ISA show held 29 - 31 March, 1996, there were numerous bogus Tank Destruction strips going around. One dealer had a box literally overflowing with them. They are characterised by the tank having a short barrel as on the original, but with a silver washed brass finish.

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