Hauptmann

Out of curiosity, what are the signs this Partisan Star 1st Class is a fake? Were they only made with screwbacks or were there pinbacks like this? No makers mark? I currently have no specific references on Yugoslavian awards so have little to go on except the various forums, etc. Dan

Hi all. First off, many thanks for your wonderful comments. I deeply appreciate it. My apologies Brian for not getting back to you on your PM's. I'm honored that you decided to place my work here. Although I'm very proud of it I didn't really think it was anything super special as I know many others have restored these over time. My friend Tyrell helped me with it... both of us being comparative strangers to the Enfield series although I'd read about them, seem many photos and actually knew a good bit more about them than he did. But he has a great knowledge of milsurp rifles in general and so between us we managed to sort things out and get her all dressed up in her WW1 duds. She's also a great pleasure to shoot, especially now that we've added a bit of weight with the full stock set as well as the longer buttstock. I've kept the original wood... basically the buttstock and the bottom forestock which as you've seen in the photos was cut down right at the barrel band. But I strongly believe everything should be kept together. If more bubba's had done that when they sporterized these they'd have been extremely simple to put back into their original condition with few exceptions. Sadly most such parts were probably given away, or popped into spares boxes and lost or thrown out over time. A real shame. I feel I know enough now that if another similar example of one of these... any model, were to come my way for a good price I'd not hesitate to pick it up if I could afford to and put it back to it's original military condition. Thanks again to everyone and please, if anyone is working on one of these and has questions, please feel free to pm me and I'll do what I can to help or point you to where you can get some excellent advice. God bless, Dan

Hi all. Sorry it's taken me this long to get back to this and post pics but once again work at the "gulag" has kept me from living my life or doing anything enjoyable for quite a while. Other than getting the stock pieces to match a bit better color wise she's pretty much done. Well that and getting hold of the proper shoulder strap and proper WW1 period oiler. Anyhow, hope you like her as much as I do. God bless, Dan

Many thanks everyone for the help so far. I have gotten a few things in... stock set should be in later today. I just finished up putting on the rear sight assembly save for the pin which I've got coming in along with a slightly longer buttstock, as well as the hand guard front cap and two screws for same. It looks SO much better with the rear sight back on it. Can't wait to put on the stock and see how she looks as well as when the rest of the parts arrive. Once she's done I'll take and post more pics of her all dressed up in her finest. Will still have to get a sling for her but probably can't do that for a couple weeks or so. Will keep ya'll posted. God bless, Dan

Any idea what the strip or plate behind the front sites/nose cap is called? I just got a stock with all hardware except that and the barrel band/swivvel which I'm working on now. But in the pics the guy shows the stock parts put together and there's a gab where that plate or whatever it's called seems to go. There are the matching two holes for the pins that hold it on. I've circled the area in this pic: This is my stock set (sellers photo) where I've circled the same area. You can see it needs that plate... but I've no idea what it's actually called re: being able to find one for sale. Any help deeply appreciated! Gotta run... off to the gulag again for another 10.5 hours. Dan

From what I can tell both the receiver and barrel are matching numbers. I think I'll need the complete rear site, rear site protector, nose cap, barrel band as well as the bottom and top forestock pieces. If anyone familiar with these can think of anything else I'll need, as well as any of the screws, etc., I'd need for same please let me know. There's tons of info out there but again I'm a newbie to these and have been looking at and reading so much that it's all starting to get muddled up in my head. One of the few pieces my father left behind when he took the bulk of his collection up north (was all stolen from the estate) was his bayonets one of which is the match to this rifle... mine being marked Australia on the grip. Will post pics of that as well soon as I can. It's an SSA Scheme Enfield (Standard Small Arms) which I understand are a good bit rarer and more in demand than standard SMLE's of the time. This is also the * version which means simplified for faster/cheaper war production, ie: getting rid of such things as the magazine cutoff and the volley sites as well as the brass disc on the butstock. I'm trying to learn all I can about these and hope I'm able to do justice to this old girl and bring her back to her glory days. Will post more pics as soon as I can. Dan

One of my birthday presents... and my first and only Enfield save the two band one from the American Civil War. Sadly this one has been sporterized but I plan to restore it back to it's original WW1 appearance as I can afford to. I'm totally new to this area of Milsurp firearms so any and all comments and/or help would be deeply appreciated. I'll add more pics after I give it a good cleaning and can get out my scanner to capture some of the markings.

Guys... just wondered but if one had to make a choice between The Iron Time (Assuming the 2nd edition fixed the errors and added new material?) or the two volume set... which would be the one to go with? Many thanks! Dan

Well, been quite a week so far. Shattered my wrist at work Friday night... but God is making up for it. Just as Norm predicted so long ago this Bravery medal is coming back home to me. It's been to Canada, England and now I can't wait for my baby to be back home again. Gotta run... hurting and having to hunt and peck at the moment. Miss ya'll!!!! Dan

http://vevo.ly/hfFPIC

How about this one? Many thanks! Dan

Any thoughts on this one? I have two... variations? Enamel colors are different. Will have to scan the other one later if any interest as at the moment I can't find any on my system although I'm sure I saved the pics from the auction: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/7389-russian-train-or-subway-medal/?hl=train Dan

Oh, does anyone have any idea on a fair price for one of the Railroad mileage badges? This is the only picture I could find a while back and I cannot remember where I saved it from. Many apologies to the owner who I pray won't mind me using it as an example: I have a chance to get one but neither the owner nor myself have any idea of what such badges are worth. I don't have any pics of the badge I'm trying to get. So just hoping for a rough idea at this point. Thanks!!!! Dan

Great badges guys and mucho thanks for the additional info. Any way someone could translate the titles of the books I posted in #79 and #83? Trying to find copies (hopefully for cheap) and hard to find without the titles. Many thanks! Dan

Ministry of Transport Engineer badge: Sadly missing the screwback nut... hoping one turns up at some point. Dan

Very cool! Deeply appreciate the additional info on the keys. I'd never seen any till I saw some that Chuck has in his collection... and then these fell into my lap out of the blue. Thanks!!!! Dan

Beautiful! Definitely something you don't run into every day... and really nice that it's a complete set. So do you use them or just have them for display? I always like pieces I can actually use... like pocket watches which I also collect. But with dishes and such I'd be so afraid of any of them getting broken. But they'd sure make for great conversation at any meal. Dan

I also have all the Excellent Railway Worker badges save two... with one of those pending which will leave me needing only the Excellent Signals badge to complete the set. Once I finalize on the second to last one and it arrives I'll do a group scan front and back and post them. Stay tuned! Dan

Also added these since my last update: 150th Anniversary of St. Petersburg-Moscow Railroad medals:

I know this isn't an award... but it's now part of my Soviet RR collection so hoping ya'll won't mind if I show it here. This is a key/tool set used by Conductors on Soviet passenger trains. Dan

I second that suggestion. I've done so on a couple of other threads today. Once the pics are gone so is much of the educational value, not to mention seeing what specific posts refer to. Also, I need to say this. I've made a number of purchases from Linas. He has been an absolute pleasure to deal with, the pieces have been totally authentic with no problems and I would not hesitate to recommend him as a seller. Saying this, as with all things in our hobby and any such hobby in general... a potential buyer/collector MUST learn all he or she can about the items they purchase. Get references and study them. Join and participate in forums such as this. See items in other collections, museums, etc. Drink in all the knowledge you can. Sellers are NOT infallible. They can come into possession of fakes just as we can... especially if they do not have a good knowledge base in that area. If they purchase a large collection or a grouping and there are some items included they have little or no knowledge of and they put them out for resale. It happens. If the potential buyer has good knowledge of what they collect the hope is they can not only pass on said item but can let the seller know what they have. I've done this in the past. Sadly, not all sellers which to hear it... but many do and willingly pull the offending item(s) refusing to sell off fakes. Or they repost them stating that they are copies. Many collectors also refuse to accept a piece they have is fake... it means they've been had, taken... whatever you want to call it. It's embarrassing to many but it shouldn't be. It's all part of the learning curve. We've ALL been taken at one point or another along the way. It happens... lessons learned! We all know the old line "Let the buyer beware"... and it's true. We must remain ever alert to fakes. I myself have and do buy the occasional replica to use as space fillers... items that are far beyond my budget and always will be, or items I could never obtain... say a Soviet Order of Victory. But I do not in any way condone the sale of such items as originals. A replica or copy quickly becomes a fake when used to defraud. We just have to continue to educate our fellow collectors and yes, sellers/dealers, the best we can and hope it makes a difference. I think it does. Keep up the great work! Dan

A great thread guys... but a humble suggestion: it might be a good idea to save the pics and post them as otherwise when the links die so do the pics. I'd love to see the cases mentioned in many of these posts but they're gone. For these to continue to educate and help collectors avoid such mistakes it would be good to still have the pics. Keep up the great work! Dan

Great thread! Would like to suggest though that if at all possible please copy and post the pics from auctions and such as once they are gone so are the pics. If the pics are still here members can continue to use them as reference. Keep up the great work guys! Dan

Hi Ruiz. Many thanks for the reply on this one. I'd actually dealt with them in the distant past but it had been a long time, I saw a bunch of new names on the staff and had no idea how things were now. Wrote to them and they promptly wrote back... and told me that the item we were inquiring about was out of stock but they'd let us know when they got any in. So I would not have any problem continuing to deal with www.shopbulgaria.com or recommending same. Re: Dyas Medals... have to comment on that one. My friend and I both sent emails throughout the month to them as well as a phone call (got message machine) and to top it off a couple of friends and fellow GMIC members tried calling several times and one even went so far as to drive over there. It was shut up tight. Nothing on the door or front to indicate what was going on. Messages and emails never answered. I pray it's not something dreadful like a death or illness or anything like that that is causing this. But if they're just not attending to business for no reason in particular then that's just wrong. Then re: Balkan Antiques. We tried multiple times to email them as well and never received a reply. My friend decided to go ahead and try ordering what she wanted on her CC and see what happened. Well, it goes through CCNow if I remember correctly... something like that... and all seemed to be a go. Got notifications the order went through, when it was supposed to ship, etc. Then next thing we know about a week later she gets notification that they didn't have the item she'd purchased and the transaction was cancelled... no money having been charged to her. BUT... they have continued to advertise the piece in question on their site. We have emailed and inquired as to why this is so if the item is no longer in stock... no replies and it's still on the site. It's an extremely sad state of affairs when one wants to make a purchase, has the money to do so, finds what is wanted on a site, makes inquiries, tries to order and this sort of thing happens. It's extremely unprofessional on the part of the dealers in question. They need to keep their sites updated. They need to answer inquiries, both by email and on the phone. They need to keep regular hours and I'll mention on the day my friend went over to Dyas it was on a day when they stated on their site they were supposed to be open and when they were supposed to be there. Must be nice to have so much money, or so much business that one doesn't have to really be concerned with actually doing what is required to run a business. Some of us actually have to work... and work hard for a living. When we choose to spend some of that hard earned money the least we can expect is good customer service. Had Balkan Antiques simply replied to our first email and said the item was no longer in stock... no problem. If Dyas had replied and said the same, or said yes, we have what you would like to purchase and we'd gone on to complete the deal... fine. But to just be ignored or to have an order go through then be cancelled like that... just very unprofessional. Sorry to not have anything good to say about two out of three of these. My friend and I did all we could to contact them as per the instructions on their respective sites... we gave them all the time in the world and then some and we've STILL not heard word one from either of them. Far as I'm concerned they're both out of business and the bodies just haven't been buried yet. Dan

Sorry it took me a bit but here are some close up scans. Hoping it helps. Dates on top and looks like Greek on the bottom. Many thanks! Dan