3 Kriegsmarine Badges for review

[Madashel]

Here I have a minesweeper, high seas, and destroyer badges for expert review. I believe them to all be good but I am just making sure.

[BubbaZ]

Hi,
All three are original zincers IMO. No issues with Hobacher Minesweeper and Schwerin HSF but JFS Destroyer cauld have been refinished on the obverse.
Cheers,
Hubert

[Benedict]

All nice originals and the WH marked minesweepers are pretty uncommon.

[Madashel]

Thank you guys for the info. I figured they were all good but it never hurts to find out from those with a more qualified opinion than mine.

[John R.]

All period examples. John

[Martin W]

Hi,
All three are original zincers IMO. No issues with Hobacher Minesweeper and Schwerin HSF but JFS Destroyer cauld have been refinished on the obverse.
Cheers,
Hubert

I agree with Hubert here.

The bow waves on the Destroyer appear to have a silver wash applied ??

I have not seen the waves "highlighted" on an original JFS before.

Cheers,Martin.

[Madashel]

Here is a more detailed picture of the front of the destroyer badge. If it has been "touched up" could the paint be removed without further damaging the piece?

[swjXE]

Here is a more detailed picture of the front of the destroyer badge. If it has been "touched up" could the paint be removed without further damaging the piece?

The paint can be easily removed without damaging the badge.
It appears that the wreath may have been painted too.

[BubbaZ]

The paint can be easily removed without damaging the badge.
It appears that the wreath may have been painted too.

It looks like the gilt on the wreath as well as silver and dark paint on the waves were applied postwar.
Here is my JFS for comparison with original finish.
Cheers,
Hubert

[Madashel]

What would be best for use to remove paint from this badge? acetone? Paint thinner? Or is that something best left to an expert? I am mechanically inclined so I think I could do it but I am not familiar with the pitfalls of doing this with a badge. I would hate to damage it trying to remove the applied paint. Thanks for any suggestions.

[swjXE]

What would be best for use to remove paint from this badge? acetone? Paint thinner? Or is that something best left to an expert? I am mechanically inclined so I think I could do it but I am not familiar with the pitfalls of doing this with a badge. I would hate to damage it trying to remove the applied paint. Thanks for any suggestions.

I'd start with acetone and one of those green military gun cleaning brushes that look like a toothbrush. You can actually soak the badge for a while in a glass bowl. If that doesn't work try lacquer thinner and last resort try paint stripper. I've never personally had any of these attack any kind of metal or plating, although if this badge was painted originally you might remove the original paint if you soak it. If this is the case use a slightly wet q-tip only and be careful (go slow.) and try it first on the back or edge in case it goes wrong. I can't speak for the citrus paint stripper though. I've never used it. Wear gloves and do this outdoors. This is just my own personal experience. No guarantees expressed or implied.

[Madashel]

Well that was easy enough. the paint came right off with acetone. If the wreath had any original paint on it it was very little if any. It appeared to be completely repainted at one time. You could see when they painted it they got some paint on the sides and a tiny bit on the back as well. If you look closely at my original pictures you can see they got out of the lines on some of it. Well it has no paint at all now. May have ruined it's value some but it was already not original before. I think they used watercolor paint or something because it was giving up easily. I figured nazi paint would be a lot tougher than that.

Were there some of these that had no paint or did someone strip this one and repaint it before?

[Madashel]

I searched around and found that there are some of these that either did not have a paint applied or it was all worn off already. Maybe some of them had poor quality paint to begin with and it did not last. I am going to put this one on the e stand at a bargain price if anyone is interested in it.

[swjXE]

Well that was easy enough. the paint came right off with acetone. If the wreath had any original paint on it it was very little if any. It appeared to be completely repainted at one time. You could see when they painted it they got some paint on the sides and a tiny bit on the back as well. If you look closely at my original pictures you can see they got out of the lines on some of it. Well it has no paint at all now. May have ruined it's value some but it was already not original before. I think they used watercolor paint or something because it was giving up easily. I figured nazi paint would be a lot tougher than that.

Were there some of these that had no paint or did someone strip this one and repaint it before?

Many zinc badges had a very thin plating and it's very common for it to just disappear over many years. Nazi paint was very tough. I don't think your badge was originally painted. I also don't think you hurt the value.

[Madashel]

Destroyer badge with repaint removed.