2 campaign shields on one tunic?

[naxos]

I hate to pee on the parade but why would you assume the outlines were sewed on during the War?

Matt, I have to agree with John.

This tunic was worn-out either during or after the war. There appears to be no nap or discoloration left to indicate what original awards there were.

If you want to re-badge it you have to be very careful and sparse or it will look like lametta on a christmas tree

It is a nice well worn tunic just remove the badly applied insignia.

[afrikasandman]

Gentlemen,

I took a good look at it this morning and I am in complete agreement. The two awards were added at some point but there is absolutely no nap difference or fading to indicate them being war time awards. Additionally, there is some black thread on the inside of the tunic that indicates maybe another that something had been sewn on the sleeve at some point... what that could have been is anyones guess. Its a nice rebadged tunic with post war upgrades. I was not expecting the two traces of shields at all so that is what threw me off. I posted this thread as I had never heard of two shields being worn at once and that is what threw me off. I did notice it last night but it was pretty overcast and I didn't have a lot of time to look it over with the kids and the wife pulling me in other directions. That said its a nice tunic but I don't think its going to be staying. If it were just the replaced boards/tabs/eagle no biggie but I don't like post war hyped up items.. Matt

[Johnny R]

Sadly in the past collectors turned tunics into pin cushions to display awards etc. There still are some people doing this creating fantasy Frankensteins but not as many as the value of tunics has increased so much and faking is now a professional endeavor.

When I started collecting tunics in the 1970s people would literally just strip an original Heer tunic and sew SS insignia on if they wanted a "SS tunic".

The same thing happened to create "rare tunics" (many now thought to be original) for GD and other elite formations or rare units like Foreign Volunteers.

Some of the tunics have had things removed now that collectors are better informed to try and get them back to "mortal" soldier status and make it easier to sell.

[afrikasandman]

Johnny,

its sad that it was done but they also did the same thing with digging out those decals on camo helmets years ago. I guess I don't understand why you would really want to other than the $$$$$ aspect of doing it. To each their own I guess but its just not something I would do. Thanks for the thoughts and opinions gentlemen, always appreciated. Matt

[Johnny R]

The stuff was not that old then and there was a lot more of it floating around. A lot of collectors did not care like most do now about the history etc. Probably similar to Gulf War items now etc. Money really wasn't the goal, Army tunics were about 100+- dollars when I started collecting. One of my First tunics was an issue M36, I bought with a piped overseas cap and 4 sets of boards for 75 dollars.

People just made what they wanted if they could not find it and really not much was known about what was "correct". There were hardly any references. Faking stuff for money really started big time in the 1980s when things started getting much more expensive before that people would add CTs and campaign badges etc. but not like now.

[naxos]

Matt, I have nothing but respect for you as a collector