Daredevil

more cap shots / inside

Lets look at some of the details of the caps: Here is the "NKVD" officers cap: Note the high peak, the very poor quality sweatliner with no wear, the brim with no wear, the buttons with heavy rust ( though no rust marks on cap), the very thin and incorrect cap badge pins. Note the nice and bright "wartime" stamps. As soon as I had the cap in my hands I knew it was bad; if you have handled real ones the feel of the repro is obvious.

As I stated before, I do not think that you can claim 'fake' without having the uniforms in your hands. The seller on E of all these common uniforms, sets loaded with stamps, i'll refer to as "they". If i can mention them, please let me know. These sellers sell this type of uniform over and over again; sets from 1935-1945 loaded with these added stamps. Now i did not get to go over in person the air force uniform that started this thread, but its the same style from the same seller from the same auction from the same time, etc. So, am I drawing conclusions about this "air force" uniform based on the examination of these other 3 uniforms? yes, i guess I am. Rick is basically equating me with the E seller who sells repro set after repro set because I once bought s tunic that he had returned ( guess it was good enough for him for awhile) and then later sold it. The hundreds of good uniforms I have sold are not relevant. Odd logic, but to each his own. Below is my actuall "paws" on analysis of the uniforms from "them." Anyway, the pics they use on E raise alot of red flags, but I have never been able to actually handle any uniforms from "them". I have always thought they mixed real and fake items; I was wrong and will explain below. Recently though I have been contacted by 2 collectors who have asked me to sell uniforms they have bought from "them". In the first instance the collector did not send me the uniforms for inspection, but this time I was able to handle them. I will not show full shots of the uniforms, but will only use detail shots. Now, to the uniforms.....they are FAKE. No mixing (other than postwar pants), just bad items....these would not really fool an established collector, but I could see them fooling a novice, and the photos can be deceptive. What to look for: The uniforms all seem to share the following: 1. "they" fake easy to fake uniforms; no M1945 generals, but rather field pullovers, M1940, 43, etc. Higher ranks, but uniforms that do not require a huge amount of embroidered detail, etc. The most complex as of now seems to be a M1935 marshal. 2. They are "sets"; sets are very tough to find, and for officers and EMs almost never found. Yet, "they" always have sets. 3. Incorrect ,material on both caps and tunics / pullovers. Same for the caps, as soon as you feel one you can tell. 4. STAMPS STAMPS STAMPS! I have sold a huge number of uniforms and the number of real, surviving WAR TIME stamps I could count on my finders and toes; "they" have stamps on EVERY item; they are clear, detailed, bright and easy to read. Again, all to make the novice feel like he got a good wartime uniform. TakC pointed out that at least some of the stamps don't even make sense. 5. Overaged parts; like buttons that are caked with dirt on tunics with NO wear; caps with cap buttons that have have "wear and rust" on hats with NO wear. They are still new at this and they seem to either not age something (they almost glow!) or overage them. OK, lets start with caps. First, they all seem to have this high, "German like" peak (was the forger a previous german forger?). Here are three caps from "them"; not the identical peaks; the third cap has the wire taken out of it to look a bit different but it is the same identical construction, material, etc, as the other 2.

yes, the wings are on a navy tunic, which is correct for Naval Aviaiton. Also, though all of these wings were not supposed to be worn after 1940 there are examples of them still being on the M1940 and M1943 uniform( see Tod Rathbones site on WWII Air Force uniforms). So, these wings did not always conform to regulations 100%. The tunic itself is an M1943; either the insignia is repro and added to a good tunic, or the tunic came out ready for the new M1943 insignia, but wore the 1940 insignia for a bit. I agree with Rick that having in hand would be best for examination; as of now the only real mark against the tunic is the 'blue light' test. If the insignia is bad, I would like to know why; i am not saying its good, but if we are going to point out "bad" uniforms we need to be able to be specific ( thus going back to my first post in this thread). dd

The wing on the white uniform is correct, it actually matches up exactly to a wing on P.219 of the Stepanov (and others) book on Russian Air Force Uniforms V1. I am not saying if it is a good or bad wing, but the design is dead on for what it should be (according to this book).DD

rick, even after all this though I would still buy your Militia general if you ever want to sell him : ) DD

rick, thanks for attacking me for re-selling a tunic that I did not think was bad at the time ( i no longer buy bits from that seller); i am not exactly sure what your point is other than to go after me because i made a comment about a uniform that does not belong to you, but was simply posted here. I did not even bring up issues about it until TakC noticed and pointed out the very iffy stamp; for some reason you decided to go after me because of that. I have sold to you in the past and you seemed ok with it, though now you attack me like I insulted you. I am really not sure where this comes from. As for the white tunic you claimed was bad I did not sell it to you and had I , and you were not happy with it, I would have returned your money. Again, I am really not sure why you decided to attack me for pointing out that the seller who is a well know Ebay dealer, has serious credibility issues ( has that been raised here before?). I am not sure I can mention the seller, so I will not, but i think you (and most) who is being spoken about. I am not sure why you took this as an attack on you and what you know or etc. I did not claim that this pilots uniform was bad ( though the point Takc made about the stamps is a great one; and why would you add bad stamps to a good uniform???) but i did claim (and still do) that the source has some very large credibility issues based on what is listed on their E site and what I HAVE inspected with my hands. The uniforms had very similar fake tendencies such as the buttons, the caps, etc. I recently had 3 of these uniforms in (2 pre 1943 pullovers and one M43 pullover) and was able to examine all of them, with my "paws" and they were all fake, tunics, hat, insignia, etc. (the pants were ok). I would be happy to post my findings here if i could upload the photos. Again Rick, I was pointing out that this large E-dealer has some major credibility issues with their WWII uniforms ( i have never found a defender of theirs) and that this uniform was from them and had some of those signs. I did not say the uniform was fake, because like you I would like to examine it with my hands ( the guy who contacted me only asked, he did not send to me this uniform.). Rick, you know a lot of great info on soviet items ( you are one of the best on insignia) but I am really suprised with the personal attack you made here when I brought up a very simple point. DD

On another forum serious questions were raised about the authenticity of this pilots uniform (and most, if not all, uniforms from a certian internet auction source/dealer). I was asked to sell this uniform on my list/site but declined because of the questions of its authenticity; i also declined recently on a group of uniforms that had orignally been from this internet auction dealer. They all had common signs ( amongst them the bad stamps). DD

i think the 1948 stamp is ok; it fits the age of the hat and I have seen others. The more common problem is rubbing away part of the '8' and making it into a '0' to fool some collectors into paying double for a 1940 NKVD cap rather than a postwar 1948 MGB cap.

NKVD, Double breasted, AND with silver embroidery and boards for administration of the NKVD; ultra-rare.

Thanks for the photo, much better detail than I could shoot!....can you photo the back of the buttons? any dates, or heavy rusting, or "holes"? DD

Yes, I know about the M1935 branch insignia for Red Army cavalry, but I have yet to see regulations where it was used for NKVD Cavalry Troops or NKVD Frontier Troops Cavalry Units. Not to say they did not, but I'd like to see the regulations for it (like the air units of the NKVD using the wings,etc.). Its logical, but a good set of regs showing the branch insignia of the NKVD would be cool to see. (have to wait for V2 of the NKVD CCCP books by Voronov and Shishkin). Are the rank and branch insignia bend back metal pins, or screwback on to the tabs? DD

also, the cap seems to be an M1924 version of the NKVD Frontier Troops cap; these were still worn in the 1940's by vets. DD

can you take a cloase up of the collar tabs and the reverse? I have never seen of or heard of special NKVD cavalry collar insignia, so it would be a first and i would love to see it close up. DD

Check out what was in the inside pocket of the Generals jacket! pre-1943 rank insignia, from when he first served with the Mongolian Army! I was taking it off the bustform after having "shot" him and just happened to check. Amazing! DD

correct, they were on the books, never granted, and then struck from the ranks. DD

OK, here is mine: The ranks of Senior Marshal of Communications Troops and Senior Marshal of Engineering Troops: what do they have in common, that together make them unique (from what I can tell) in the history of the Red Army? DD

I thought he had a black eagle on the nose of his La-7 but i might be mixing him up with another ace. DD

Yes, the ribbons are sewn on. I have had in many many Soviet generals of the same era and designa and this is up there with the better of those. DD

the cap is an unissued generals service cap with an incorrect officers cap device. The generals is two part, all gold. DD

Its named to Major General Maxiburad. There are 2 other school badge holes, or similar items. DD

ribbons

cuffs and ribbons. the cap is missing the chin cord. DD

Well, its the fiirst grey one I have had in. Its for a named general circa ealry 1980's. Very similar to Soviet. DD

Amet-Han Sultan (sp?). I think he died in a test flight in the 1970's. DD