Fake Tail Section and Swastika?

[Andy Saunders]

Ruy

You raise some good points!

1) Swastikas and markings were sometimes (if not often) somewhat "crude" and not as clean-cut or perfect as one might be led to believe from period photographs. I am not sure, per-se, that the crudity or otherwise of the marking helps us a good deal.

2) I accept a huge multitude of types were operated by the L/W including foreign types. However, as far as I can thus far tell this does not conform to any of the "standard" types operated.

3) The number should certainly be a clue. I have been through all my (international) indexes of known part numbers, factory stamps etc and found no match yet. It does not conform, either, to anything I can find on German types. The paint, rivets and construction just are not right for a German aircraft.

For me, this is just not "right" and years of colllecting, researching, buying, selling and handling items such as this tells me by instinct it is not the real article. I have had more than a few such panels through my hands - fake and genuine - and own three "real" ones. I would also like to smell it!! My bet is that it smells strongly of modern acrylic or oil based paints. Wartime German aircraft/paintwork do have a quite unique odour.

One possibility is that it is an old film prop, or from a film prop aeroplane, and the vendor may have genuinely believed it to be real.

However, the fact that it was latterly cut in two reinforces (for me) the belief that it is fake and the vendor knew full well that it was!

In the final analysis the buyer/owner of this item(m) must decide. For me, and without even seeing it, I know that I wouldn't touch it.