Belt buckle painting

[valkyrie895]

Hello all,
i have an original belt buckle (heer) with no paint on it. i don't know if i should paint it or not. If so, what color?

[Hoffman Grink]

Do NOT paint it. It is a historical artefact and you completely devalue it and it loses its context in time. Buy a repro to use in reenactment and leave the original in its original condition. Unless of course you don't give a shit about the man who wore it.

[Jaws]

I agree. I have a "original" golden/yellow buckle (Kriegsmarine I think) and it never see's the light of day. When I have finished with it, it will be donated to a museum.

Regards,

Gary.

[Salacious Crumb]

The golden KM buckels where retired in 1940, from then on they had to be gray. but they show up sometimes on pictures.

I know it can be sometimes difficult to find a good and cheap copy in steel! I was looking for one some time now on the militaria fairs in belgium... I found 3: 50-100-125 euro for repro's!!!
while originals where 40-60 euro NUTS!
At the end I contacted a friend who retired the hobby and he had one for 20 euro

It seems you can easier get a repro aluminium Kopelschoß of museum quality then a deacent steel one here??? strange...

[Sheikh Al Stranghi]

Yes it's true, nowadays you have to be lucky to get one, or you have to buy it in the USA.

[Grabenkater]

I still wear an original, but I own a couple of the high quality replicas being made in Eastern Europe. These occasionally pop up as originals with dealers here in the US, but typically they only fool the over eager.

I added a web tab to one of my replicas and I have had several offers to purchase it as an original.

Are the replicas that hard to find in Europe?

[Sheikh Al Stranghi]

Shops are usually out of stock, if they even carry them at all.