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    Building the perfect medal bar....


    Chris Boonzaier

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    OK,

    This next one is largely Dave Danners fault...

    He posted an unusual national defence medal that he had picked up somewhere along the line and I though "WOW!!" thats a neat one!!!"

    I read somewhere that it was one made by the company Arthus Bertrand when the medal came out. The govt then siezed the dies and now only the Paris Mint may make them. On the French forum I saw a few guys were actually issued these or had them from early on.

    They seem to be very scarce... and so it was of course the one I wanted.

    The figure is taken from the side of the Arch of Triumph in Paris...

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    Hi,

    no, the national defense is awarded according to a system of points AND length of service.

    The overseas medal for operations (Usually in the ex colonies).

    You can have the DN without the Overseas, but usually when you have an overseas you also get the Defense national.

    (The DN can be taken away if the recipient is a bad boy)

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    • 4 weeks later...

    Arrrrrrggghhh!!!

    Just after having found my dream DN... I find a better one....

    A matt Bronze color....

    I'm lookinf forward to seeing how this turns out. My medals are scattered about as I received a few after my service. Oddly, I don't feel too much love for my medals like I do the ones I collect. :unsure:

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    Guest Rick Research

    WHY would anyone make a medal with a woman screaming to get a duck out of her hair? :speechless1::speechless:

    Chris that dirty dull one makes her look like she's got a horned Viking helmet... with a duck on it. YUCK !!! :catjava:

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    WHY would anyone make a medal with a woman screaming to get a duck out of her hair? :speechless1::speechless:

    Chris that dirty dull one makes her look like she's got a horned Viking helmet... with a duck on it. YUCK !!! :catjava:

    It is an odd looking medal... Almost as bad as many of the US medals or African medals...

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    • 2 weeks later...

    OK,

    here is the front row mounted on a "Ball bar" with the ball bar for row 2 above it to show what they are like

    Super looking. I like what you are doing. :cheers:

    Chris, I am on a continuous search for those bars with the bars for single medals. I collect WW1 and colonial medals and have several French uniforms. If you now of a source for period bars please let me know.

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    Here is the second bar ready.

    On the left, the really ugly gilt of the medal has been improved with gold plating. the colour is exactly the same... but looks a tiny bit "better". somehow 5% less glitzy.

    Medal 2... nothing can be done to make this better :-( There seems to be 2 designs, both are terrible, I shall have to wait until a third and better verson is made.

    Medal 3, had a cheap "Antique bronze" varnish on it. Removed to allow the medal to develop its own Patina.

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    Now, the "Kuwaiti insult"...

    Hard to do anything with this piece of cr3p. best would have been to have awarded nothing at all... ou know what they say..."If you cannot say something nice, say nothing at all...."

    Anyway, the damage is done, so I will include it on the bar, but not like it was awarded.

    Say all you like about "Well, they did not make it themselves...."... I dont care, before you want to award something, it seems only natural that you do a bit of quality control? (arguments about this in the relevant thread please, not here ;-)

    Sooooo.... what do we have.... a cheap antique silver finish, a sharp bar rthat cuts through the cheap paper thin ribbon... hmmmmmmm....

    step one.... clean allll the gunk off, till we reach base metal. The thing is supposed to be silver right? So silver plate it and let it develop a patina.

    I thought of getting this cast in a better quality but the price was more than the medal was worth to me.

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    I have reinforced the ribbon by adding some good quality ribbon to the inside, hopefully it will prtect it from the pointy bars...

    I understand the Kuwaitis were ripped of by some Italian firm when they ordered this, but surely they should have asked for some samples before giving the go ahead to start churning them out?

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    Last step..... the Saudi medal....

    Quality wise it is not bad... it is a symbol of medal making in the modern industrial age... not making them at the mint, but by a company that seems to specialize in key rings...

    I assume the problem I have with this, is not that is intrinsically cheap, but that it somehow LOOKS cheap, and ultra modern.

    I wait here with baited breath as on my recent tour to South East Asia I inquired about having one done in silver. Here in Europe that was waaay to expensive for my pocket, but in Singapore it was more affordable.... so I keep my eye on the postman......

    Watch this space....

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    Last step..... the Saudi medal....

    Quality wise it is not bad... it is a symbol of medal making in the modern industrial age... not making them at the mint, but by a company that seems to specialize in key rings...

    I assume the problem I have with this, is not that is intrinsically cheap, but that it somehow LOOKS cheap, and ultra modern.

    I wait here with baited breath as on my recent tour to South East Asia I inquired about having one done in silver. Here in Europe that was waaay to expensive for my pocket, but in Singapore it was more affordable.... so I keep my eye on the postman......

    Watch this space....

    Chris, have you finished building your medal bar?

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    Allow me to coin a phrase :-)... or two....

    "Ego bar"... The medal bar created when your ego does not allow you to settle for off the shelf awards... which are just as good. I dont think ANYONE other than a collector would be able to tell the difference between any of these and an off the shelf bar.

    "Industrial age medals"... Modern stuff.... like the Saudi and Kuwaiti, and French commemorative and TRN.

    At some stage we moved from "Medals from the mint" to "Medals from the factory"... the best way to follow this is the difference between the early Outre-Mer medal and the later one....

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