Advanced Digital Magnification (ADM), comparisons of Heer decals. Good vs Bad.

[KradSpam]

I just got home with my new toy, a 20 - 400 x digital microscope. After 30 minutes of checking out my bellybutton, various components of a meal (chicken looks like a complex limestone cave system at 400x I discovered), and a dead spider, I decided to do something a little more useful that might interest a few of you.

Below are some comparison shots of a fake decal, and an original from an EF M35. There are obviously many types of fake Heer decal, and several variants of original. With this in mind, this exercise is merely to show the traits of originals and fakes. The fake here is a comparatively good one, it is layered construction with real metallic elements and quite convincing black fields up close with the naked eye.





At 20 x the dotted pattern that gives away modern printing techniques is very apparent on the fake, as is the jagged saw-tooth effect on some lines. This is most obvious under the chin of the eagle, and along the wings.

The good one.

And the bad one.


A few more shots of the good one at 20 x



And one of the bad.



At 400 x the differences are quite striking and the bad one really falls down. The fake has a chunky, irregular appearance to it's pulver, almost like tin foil that has been scrunched up. On the other hand the original is relatively uniform and smooth. The metallic elements have been ground to dust before being used in the decal, and has none of the 'chunk' seen in the fake.

The bad one.

And the good.


I hope this was useful to some of you guys, it was fun to do .

Cheers,
Andy

[Lidman]

Cool pics Andy, useful and educational information too
These USB microscopes are a great tool for the collector, I have to get one of these !
Cheers.

Brad.

[ObKrieger]

I'm going to have to invest in one of these...

[geelong]

when you talk of jaggerd tooth print and doted, does that mean real decals where flexographic printing where the fake ones are ink injection or plate printing.

[KradSpam]

They are great guys, I have been playing with it all evening I think soon they will be a very standard bit of helmet collecting kit, other fields of collecting of course will benefit also.

The tricolour here from my DD Quist Lufty looks cool. I've found myself roaming the house looking for magnification fodder.....

[kylesbullets]

Gnna get one of these and a black light for myself on Christmas

[octavian]

Can you tell me the exact type of microscope you got? I am sure interested in getting on of these, because you have shown excellent items for reference. This type of analysis blows many other techniques out of the water. They have their uses, of course, but this is damn intriguing!

[geelong]

i wounder if it could see the different paints, say mondern to older led based paints for camo helmets looks cool i think this will change the way we look at helmets.

[sandgroper]

The best thing I have bought in a long time is one of these microscopes! The photos are amazing mate, you really can see the jagged lines on the fake eagle, hreat stuff!

[KradSpam]

Modern inkjet printing causes the dotted pattern I believe yes. I'm not sure what the giveaway of plate printing would be, it would be closer to an original than an inkjet I'd think. I'm not familiar with flexographic techniques? Doug did a pile of work with these, he will likely know the ins and outs of different printing methods and their fingerprints. There are many threads on GHW using ADM.

Some older fakes might have similar printing methods to an original perhaps, but luckily the older ones were graphically crap on the whole, and helmet decal to maker correlation is much further along these days.

The exact scope I got was this one, from Maplin in the UK. £39.99 down from £49.99. Bargain I say

http://www.maplin.co.uk/usb-digital-...ication-286566