Real or fake et /juttner ?

[real steel]

Interesting decal for sure. I picked this at a Max show about 10 years ago. Was applied on a CKL 64...lot # was 45XX. This was an anomaly for sure, looking with or without a loop, it looked fine. But a decaled M42 with that high lot # ?

We took it home & blew up some pics of it, thought maybe just a "misprint" the way the swaz has a "shadow". On closer inspection...a "checkerboard" pattern of printing on the outlines of wings & swaz. Which is indicative of post 1945 printing methods, so I was told by a printer. Soooo. got stuck with a fake ?. Question is, if this is a repro decal...why have we not seen more of them ? One would think they would be "Out there" & identified but 10 years later, we have not seen another show it's face. Could it be real, maybe late war depot or field applied ?

Any opinions ? It sure looks convincing

[MAP]

This one would raise yellow flags for me with that pattern you note. It's these tough ones that I think will split the crowd.

[Blackdog]

Hi, SP has one of these on germanhelmetvault, although its masquerading as a fake kriegsmarine. It has the same heavy dot shading and looks identical in design. The right squashed talon (as you view the decal) and the dots in the shading would have been a concern for me.

[Schwerpunkt]

These raster print decals are fakes for sure.
The ones I have seen were always applied on shells they should not be on.
In your case a No decal M42.
(They are also not an exact copy of any original decal).
I saw a German guy at Ciney 2/3 years ago that had 6 helmets with these , tried to sell them as original on original shells.
My guess is that this was a test "project" of someone hoping to score a lot of money by ripping of collectors. Maybe the design process was too costly to mass produce , in any case they are easily dismissable as fakes.

[real steel]

Okay...yes it is a fake !!

Ironically I bought this actually 9 years ago from a US dealer who frequents that "Ciney" show yearly. The helmet is long gone...thanks for looking & identifying as a "Raster" print. Never heard of that

[Schwerpunkt]

Okay...yes it is a fake !!

Ironically I bought this actually 9 years ago from a US dealer who frequents that "Ciney" show yearly. The helmet is long gone...thanks for looking & identifying as a "Raster" print. Never heard of that

Yes I figure these are Euro fakes. I think the first ones popped up on a UK dealer site around 2009.
I think the modus operandi for some fakers is to upgrade low end helmets with such decals and then move them as a 'collection' to dealers who unknowingly buy them as real.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi, as soon as I see anything with saw tooth or checker board printing I give it a very wide berth as those are not Reich period printing methods on decals. Leon.

[geelong]

decal looks like offset printing.
and the saw tooth printing Leon has mentioned sounds like flexographic printing.

[geelong]

interesting thread real steel. i think for me the penny has finally drooped on how the German heer and ss km decal was constructed. maybe all those years i worked as a printer. might have helped me in this hobby.
the luft decals still has me stumped tho looks like a different method.

[real steel]

Hi, as soon as I see anything with saw tooth or checker board printing I give it a very wide berth as those are not Reich period printing methods on decals. Leon.

Problem was...under the poor lighting conditions of a show hall, no camera to "zoom in with"...a cheap loop, poor eyesight...we never noticed the "checkerboard" printing until we got home. This was Ken I was with, we just thought some anomoly as far as 45XX lot # made it interesting.

It's not like it was noticeable. The pics I posted here are magnified much...one might not see this with the naked eye, we did'nt