DDR Shoulder Board Branch ID

[Daniel]

Hello everyone,
I have some East German shoulder boards with two shades of red. Some I believe are artillery while the others seem more of a scarlet colour. Could it be stasi? or a different manufacturer of artillery boards. I have quite a few of them, all either being the light red or a scarlet colour. It seems hard to differentiate between them. Does anyone know whether this is a entirely different branch or not?
Thanks in advance,
Daniel


My camera didn't seem to pick up the different shades as well as in person.

Regards,
Daniel

[reneblacky]

It is difficult to capture, but here's my Stasi ones for you to compare with.

[Daniel]

Thanks René, I am guessing my scarlet ones are Stasi. They look closer to your Stasi example then the artillery examples I have seen. Thanks again for the help.
Regards,
Daniel

[Daniel]

Here is a few different rank types of the same branch for comparison.
Top Row Stasi
Bottom Row Artillery

Artillery is definitely a much brighter red.

Regards,
Daniel

[reneblacky]

Cheers Daniel great comparison, I never got around to grabbing an artillery pair for myself.

[Blitzvogel]

Stasi boards have a darker red color while artillery ones have a lighter red color. Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish though. Things like aging, discoloration, and manufacturer like you said can affect this...sometimes it gives me a headache!

-Joel

[Watchdog]

Stasi boards have a darker red color while artillery ones have a lighter red color. Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish though. Things like aging, discoloration, and manufacturer like you said can affect this...sometimes it gives me a headache!

-Joel

They can be hard to tell apart for sure.

A top tip with any colour rendition issue (not just cloth items but things like cap badges and medals etc) is to photograph against a white background as a coloured background often causes "colour bleed" and influences the way the subject colour shade appears

Regards

Mark

[Daniel]

Thanks for the tip Mark, here's a better one on a white background.

Regards,
Daniel

[Blitzvogel]

Good idea Mark. Looking at this new photo, I think the left one is definitely artillery while the right one is stasi.

-Joel

[HARRY THE MOLE]

A quick shot of mine for comparison...

Cheers,
Steve