I opened up this thread on ASAP to talk about the new comm find, I thought I would post it here also.
Note this post is for debating the comm only and not to disparage the work done by hero comm in any way. In fact, I am hoping that on reading this H.C can offer a few answers to these questions.
We are assuming that the group who made the so-called M.E fakes have not learned everything that has been posted on these boards over the years. I like most other builders here have added the details learned from over the years to my builds and we have to assume the forgers have also. With the type of work that was being done on the fakes of the day I would have to think that at this point in time we would be dealing with something that would look this good so we should chat about the details.
Good eye on noticing the moire ring front mount Replicator1701. But if we look at the known real comms on hero comm all of them are mounted from behind. However if we look at the ME in this photo and the BM from the RACProps site (Herocomm has stated they belive that hero is not an origenal one) we see both are front mounted like the Alpha comm. From the screen caps it may or may not be front mounted, no matter how many caps I take and blow up it looks like it could be front or rear mounted I honestly can only guess and am just going off of how all of the other know origenals were made.
Now I am not claiming this is real or fake and honestly think it depends like most props on the history and province of the piece. I have no horse in this race and this being real or fake does not benifit me in any way (Other than answering a lot of questions we have all had for a long time). For all I know John Dwyer himself could own this providing perfect Provence but with out knowing that we should examine not just what matches but what seems strange. I like a lot of you who build models of these know that if you can see a minute detail in a photo you can add it to a model.
What would it take to mod a more recent mark english comm to match up with recent information (as in the made at the same time or after the Makepeace comm was made). That one had all of the little shell tells and almost looked right on although the finish was not on the shells.
NOTE: I am not posting links of pic's to anyoneÂ’s site after my recent blunder but everyone knows where the pic's of these pieces are.
The knob plate was fairly close on Brains but you can see the evidence of the same yellowish white glue sticking out the left side of the knob plate on the B.M that is seen from the inside shot through the holes holding on the knob plate on the new hero.
Moiré ring may have needed to be replaced or not, ME did make them like that. It has been reglued.
The speaker grill would need to be replaced. Again you can see the old yellow glue under the newer looking J&B weld around it. I suppose it could have been knocked out during whatever disaster knocked the moiré ring off but I would think the knobs would have been displaced also if that happened. If they did it is unlikely they would have been reglued crooked exactly like in the photo, but maybe.
However, the lid solder and wire matched up exactly with photos.
But
"The back of both top and bottom shells between the hinge wheels exhibit what we would call an odd upward distortion, as if warped a bit from a nearby heat source."
Hmmm, possibly a pen torch heating up the lid wheels while the wire and solder joints or the lid were being modified to match a pic? Or it could have simply been a repair back when it was still being used.
Aging the hose would be trivial with some auto motive tar remover.
The stopwatch must still be available as they have one in the graphic that is used for the PARTS AND PLANS section of the H.C site.
The thing that seems to be a ringer for me is the matching rectangle in both the GJ comm and this one on the inside of the back shell. If it is not real that detail really makes it convincing. Someone would have had to have had a good look at the GJ comm or very good reference to match that.
EDIT: I just noticed looking at the photos of zeta and alpha that the interior of the bottom shell is painted a brown color on Alpha (you can see the paint line between the top and bottom screw holes to the right in the photo). Could have been used to cover up whatever was used (I see a few fisheyes that looks a little like spot putty) to add that detail. Any other ideas why that paint would be there?
Do not get me wrong this is one of the coolest comms I have ever seen photos of and H.C has done an incredible job of documenting it. However, to me there are still a few wild cards too it. Some of the best have been fooled by these and there are a few tells on this one. I am hoping that as the work goes on they will post some more information on province and some kind of vague history of the piece.
