LW insignia for review

[Stepdale]

Hello,
Cloth is not my strongpoint, so I would appreciate your help in determing the authenticity of these shoulder boards, tabs and rank insignia. These came from an estate that had a lot of repros in it. Unfortunately I don't have a blacklight to check the fiber content, but hopefully the experts here can tell me if they are original or not.
Thank you,
Dale

First up is a pair of flight collar tabs. They are still sewn together and appear to be a bit larger than most I have seen - perhaps for an overcoat? They measure approximately 62 mm on the long edge and 50mm on the short edge.

[Stepdale]

A pair of (I think) medical tabs that appear to be the normal size for a tunic. I suppose they could be used on a tunic without it being too noticeable, but the colors are a different shade of blue and have different construction techniques on the reverse.

[Stepdale]

This flak board has a thick cardboard stiffener in it and appears to have once had the number 25 embroidered on it. The piping is not as dark red as most flak boards I've seen (it looks a little orangish) but I think it is flak.

[Stepdale]

Another flak NCO board. This one had a device of some type and a couple of rank pips at one time.

[Stepdale]

A signals NCO board.

[Stepdale]

The rest of the signals board.

[Stepdale]

These were together as a pair; though they aren't an exact match, I suppose they're close enough that it could be possible.

[Gene]

Nice little smattering of original insignia

[Stepdale]

A comparison of the piping - they look much different under the Ott light but when viewed in normal light and not right next to each other they would probably escape notice.

[Stepdale]

Thanks Gene, just a couple of more items to go.

Here's a rank chevron that's formed from a double length of tress that's folded over to make a vee - would it have been sewn directly to the uniform like this or placed on a wool backing first?

[Stepdale]

Finally, a rank tab for a flight suit, I believe for a senior NCO?

[Gene]

Flight suit sleeve rank is for a Feldwebel, basically an E-6

[Stepdale]

Thank you Gene!

[Fred Green]

Hello Dale,

Great selection of nice original cloth insignia.

The board with the numbers picked and stiff is for the 4 pocket luft dress tunic and is a private purchase piece by the type of piping and base material. The tress obergefreiter chevron is seen used with and without a matching cloth backing.

For not having a good background in cloth insignia you sure do have a nice selection of Heer and Luft insignia. Keep it up!!

Fred

[Stepdale]

Thanks Fred! These are just the items I culled out of all of the repros. If you look at the heer forum and the boards I posted there a few weeks ago, you'll see that I got most of those right except for the nicest pair of boards that turned out to be repros. Luckily I didn't pay anything for all of these, just got them in payment for my work helping the estate.