Hello all,
I have not posted here in around two years as I decided at that time to give the collecting hobby a rest for a bit. Recently however, I opened the old storage box to examine what I have and decide whether to keep what I had or get rid of it, and out of the box I pulled this assault gun jacket.
I remember I bought it about three years ago from an auction site fairly cheaply for no particularly good reason... I want to confirm that it really is a fake (hope springs eternal!) before I decide to get rid of it. Having been out of the game for a long time I really am out of touch with current thought processes.
Here are some more detailed photos (sorry about the quality)...
The outside is made from a rough blend of materials with a rough texture. It's fairly dirty and looks like it was worn. The shoulder straps are made from a similar but slightly different material. In the right light, I can see clean areas on the collar where the collar tabs would have been, as well as triangular impressions indicating at some point there were collar tabs on it. The buttons seem to be made of a plastic type material (bakelite??) but the main securing buttons down the front are made from pressed metal which appears to have darkened somewhat.
The lining is a stiff kind of ribbed material, I'm really not sure what it is, but it shows some wear. There are a number of straps etc for fitting around the waist. The "M43" is really what has got me thinking it is not real, as well as the particularly odd material sitting INSIDE the lining (between the lining and the exterior material). The grey interior lining is not sewn at the top end (purposefully interestingly enough) and the odd material can be viewed by looking through this unsewn area. It appears to be made of a canvas or some sort of woven material (looks like maybe the stuff hessian bags are made from??) and if that isn't odd enough, it has large printed outlined characters on it in orange. I can only read part of the characters, which appear to read "HANSE" in large outlined letters (I can't read any further to see what the whole word may read)... weird in that it is so obvious.
Most of these things point to "fake" to me, but as I said, hope springs eternal, no doubt you experts can confirm so I don't try to sell it without knowing what it really is.
Thanks in advance,
Brad
