Opinions on SS tropica totenkopf

[wolfcastle]

Hello. This was offered to me as being on Italian camo cap remnant. What do you think? Thanks alot.

[wolfcastle]

rear

[NickG]

I like it a lot!!!!

[wolfcastle]

Thanks Nick. I thought the totenkopf was good. I am not too schooled on SS camo but the pattern looked correct for Italian type. I have just never seen one that was not trimmed around the skull before being sewn to the cap. This one was obviously attached w/ the black rectangular backing still complete. Have you seen this before? Thanks!

[NickG]

Thanks Nick. I thought the totenkopf was good. I am not too schooled on SS camo but the pattern looked correct for Italian type. I have just never seen one that was not trimmed around the skull before being sewn to the cap. This one was obviously attached w/ the black rectangular backing still complete. Have you seen this before? Thanks!

A simple square application on camo caps was not unusual. Even cap eagles were sometimes applied in a simple triangular fashion.
The skull does appear to be in a "ribbed" material? ...compare with the one below,
which is a known original...has a "pixsel" texture...not ribbed.. So might be a problem?...
Sometimes fakers do put fake insignia on remnants of cloth to make these look more believable...
but the material does appear to be from the front of the cap with a seam in the back...
and the same thread is used for the application of the insignia as well as the cap construction...
based on these remains... so it all does look very convincing....
Lets wait and see what other (real) experts have to say. Nick

[NickG]

Its a good skull after all according to a prior post! Here's a match which was approved on waf earlier this year!
But I do like the non ribbed look better...

[bwanek1]

There is no question about he skull; it is a one-looker. However, it has no business being on that camo material. It is an attempt to pass a tropical off as a "camo" skull to the unschooled.

[wolfcastle]

Thanks. BTW, the skull was advertised as being a tropical one, not camo. The price (under 300 US) would seem to be somewhat in line with a cap removed tropical skull. Any chance that this is Italian WWII camo and not something off the rack of the neighborhood army/navy? Or are you suggesting that the skull and cap are both period original but "put together" by someone. Thanks

[bwanek1]

Thanks. BTW, the skull was advertised as being a tropical one, not camo. The price (under 300 US) would seem to be somewhat in line with a cap removed tropical skull. Any chance that this is Italian WWII camo and not something off the rack of the neighborhood army/navy? Or are you suggesting that the skull and cap are both period original but "put together" by someone. Thanks

Wherther the camo material is original or not, I do not believe there is any chance these two items were joined prior to the end of the war. The current seller may be accurately describing the TK as tropical, but, at some point in its history, it was added to this material in an attempt to pawn it off as "camo" and increase its value.

[wolfcastle]

ok. thanks

[sgstandard]

Tk

Agree that skull is good !!

[Ludwig]

Looks OK to me!

[wolfcastle]

thanks all for your input!

[NickG]

There is no question about he skull; it is a one-looker. However, it has no business being on that camo material.

So such yellow insignia are only acceptable on tropical caps? I know yellow arm eagles were intended to (also) be worn on (non tropical) camo uniforms...
so why not also on camo caps?
This well known image showing Kurt Meyer in Normandy wearing an Italian camo cloth cap, so it has regular gray on black insignia than.......?

[bwanek1]

I know yellow arm eagles were intended to (also) be worn on (non tropical) camo uniforms...

Nope.