Cap Badges Anyone?

Nyles

Nyles

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Just wondering if anyone else here collects cap badges in addition to milsurp firearms? I have a decent, although currently incomplete, collection of WW2 overseas cap badges of the Canadian Army. I plan on remounting it soon to make better use of the space and display more logically.

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Awesome collection.
I have done the same thing with unit specific WW1 insignia. I used a piece of OD wool from an old well worn WW2 shirt as the backing. If you can find same the display will look better then expected.
Check on the units of the Canadian Divisions if you want to arrange them that way.
Oh, BTW, then you can start looking for the division formation patches then the unit patches then...aw hell, that's how it started for me and still has not stopped.
 
I had originally intended to display them by higher formation, but the only complete set I've amassed as yet is C Force, and two badges by themselves doesn't make a good display. I've also considered doing a single display by the order of precedence, but then I'd need to accumulate the badges of the units that didn't have overseas battalions as well, and where does it end?
 
Nyles said:
I've also considered doing a single display by the order of precedence, but then I'd need to accumulate the badges of the units that didn't have overseas battalions as well, and where does it end?
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Welllll...It doesn't end..trust me!!!
What started in 1970 as a cartridge collection of 8 rounds developed into a militaria collection including firearms, ammunition, uniforms, insignia, photographs, documents, equipment, rations, etc. etc. Now numbering well over 4500 artifacts.
Check out the link to see how far it can go.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=47635
 
Sorry about the lighting, its dam near midnight in a not-so-well lit apartment.

This was given to me by my Father in law, not sure if it is his fathers, but his father did serve and had lots of cool stories (some of them he was punished for...) as quarter master for an advance unit that set up positions for guns that were still on their way.

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Can anyone tell me anything about it?
 
RCE (Royal Canadian Engineers) Cap Badge. I believe the GR signet is for George Rex or King George. Very similar to the current Engineer cap badge except there is now a Beaver in the centre.
Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense = shamed be he who thinks evil of it
 
Alonzo said:
Welllll...It doesn't end..trust me!!!
What started in 1970 as a cartridge collection of 8 rounds developed into a militaria collection including firearms, ammunition, uniforms, insignia, photographs, documents, equipment, rations, etc. etc. Now numbering well over 4500 artifacts.
Check out the link to see how far it can go.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=47635
Click to expand...


Fantastic displays Alonzo. And impressive shooting trophies too! Congrats.
 
Boonie hat badges would be a cool collection, I don't know of anyone doing them and I think they're pretty inexpensive.... Manitoba regiments would be fun too.. there are alot of defunct regiments that would give you lots to collect.
 
Since I'm on a break from spending money on guns for the time being, I thought I might resurrect this old thread just for fun! It's actually a little surprising to me to be reminded of just how shoddy my presentation used to be!

Here's what my WW2 Canadian overseas badges look like now, with the collection (mostly) complete and with a little more effort put into displaying them. I learned a lot putting this together and my later displays are a little more polished. It's now organised with the support services up top, followed by cavalry (armoured) and then infantry regiments more or less according to the order of precedence, I think I did make a couple of mistakes in there. Infantry regiments which served as armoured units are grouped with the infantry for conveniences sakes. I also put the Scottish badges on the bottom for spacing reasons. All I'm missing are the really rare ones - 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment, 8th Recce Regiment and 1st Provost Company (which was just the RCMP badge). I'll probably pick up an RCMP badge eventually but the others are selling for $1000 and up and if I'm going to spend that much on a hobby, it's going to be a gun.



I've also recently started buying badges for units that served in the home defense divisions or were broken up for reinforcements when they got to Europe. No real order here except for keeping Scottish badges separate again for spacing issues.

 
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BernDawg said:
RCE (Royal Canadian Engineers) Cap Badge. I believe the GR signet is for George Rex or King George. Very similar to the current Engineer cap badge except there is now a Beaver in the centre.
Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense = shamed be he who thinks evil of it
Click to expand...

Nope, cap badge of 'Royal Engineers', (NOT RCE - read the scroll). And it has oak leaf laurel where as an RCE badge would have a maple leaf laurel.
 
I also started collecting WW2 British cap badges a few years ago - just based on numbers that requires a few more frames than Canadian! Generally speaking I find the British badges are a little more expensive than the Canadian ones, I think mostly because they're more widely collected outside of Canada. For the same reason there's also huge numbers of fakes out there - there are certainly fake Canadian badges but it seems much less of a problem.

Regular army infantry badges - again more or less in order of precedence with the Scottish badges on the bottom - gaps are for badges I'm still missing, except for the one short row which is just due to the numbers not perfectly fitting the frame.


Territorial infantry badges - not so many of these as most territorial units were just battalions of regular regiments, not many had their own distinct identity. Not yet in any kind of order.


Armoured units, both regular and Yeomanry units that served in the armoured role. Again in no particular order other than the two patterns of Royal Armoured Corps badges up top. When I have enough that it won't look totally random I'll redo them in order of precedence.


Artillery, Signals and Engineers units and their associated Corps badges. Regular units always wore the Corps badge but a number of Territorial Infantry and especially Yeomanry units were rerolled after WW1 when the British realised they needed less cavalry and infantry and more support troops, but some of them got to maintain their old regimental identity.


Support trades, with the Royal Marines, British Army general service and RAF badges up top. Note the plastic economy general service badge - a number of badges were issued in plastic during WW2 but I generally stick to metal, I just wanted to have one representative plastic one and that seemed a good choice. The plastic Home Guard badge was actually intended as a lapel badge for female auxiliaries, actual Home Guard units were generally supposed to wear their associated county regimental badge but a lot of these apparently were worn as cap badges.
 
I like the Vandoos badge spot ;)

I have a Fusiliers du St-Laurent metal badge if you want it. Dont know much about the regiment, they are reserve and believe they were part of the home defense team and ended up sending people away as well
 
DT741 said:
I like the Vandoos badge spot ;)

I have a Fusiliers du St-Laurent metal badge if you want it. Dont know much about the regiment, they are reserve and believe they were part of the home defense team and ended up sending people away as well
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I actually have that one in my home defense frame, but thanks anyways! I actually especially like that badge, if only for it's semi-detailed SMLEs.
 
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