How do you spot "amoeba" pattern overall fakes?

[kiwicollector]

I brought a 2 piece amoeba pattern cammo overalls from a collector in Estonia 10 or so years ago. How can you spot of these are fake or real?

This is the best photo I have of it at present, will take better ones this weekend

[Wesley's Dad]

Fake Amoeba

Until I saw what I saw at the Show of Shows in Louisville, KY last February, the fakes were fairly easy to dicern because they were printed on much too heavy of fabric. Real Amoeba material is whisper thin, almost disposible like, with the over print pattern bleeding through 90-100% to the inside. If your suit is of a sturdier cotton material and the pattern only bleeds through like 50% or so, it should be considered suspect.

There are some new fakes out there that have nailed the material weight in my opinion, but the bleed through of the overprint is still the tell-tale sign. It was these fakes that I saw at the SOS this year.

Mike

[Kozlov]

The reason why most of the "fakes" are heavier weight material is that they are made for re-enactment purposes and therefore need to last more than one use!

[Wesley's Dad]

Fake Amoeba

The reason why most of the "fakes" are heavier weight material is that they are made for re-enactment purposes and therefore need to last more than one use!

That... and the fact that these are rare enough that few potential customers (particularly in the west) have actually held a real one to compare and know the difference. At the Show of Shows next spring I will look and see if the fake Amoeba I saw has been improved upon in the last year and will report what I see. If modern dyes allow the same results on the new fabric I saw being used on the fakes as wartime dyes did on original suits, this is going to get a lot harder for everyone.

[Wesley's Dad]

Amoeba Side Bar

Interesting side bar regarding this Amoeba pattern.

This photographic evidence shows that these suits were still being used out of military stocks until at least the early 1960's. The machine gun is the postwar PK and the vehicle an early version of the BTR-60. A postwar wheeled APC. These open topped versions were fielded from 1960 to about 1965 or so.

The PK gunner in this shot is clearly wearing an Amoeba smock. Now I do not personally believe they were made after WW2, but if these flimsy suits were being used by troops on manuever during the cold war, this can only have increased their rarity.

Mike

[Kozlov]

Oh definitely Mike! The same is/was true of all the other cammo coveralls. The klmk stuff is not "current" but units of the MVD still use it today. (and I don't mean new made gear in the same print either)