Things are becoming a bit clearer, at least I think.
To me it seems the classic Red Flags are much closer to early 1f than to any pre-war NKVD parts.
Which means - they were probably not made with pre-war spare parts but - at least largely - with post- war newly designed and produced material.
Think about it - the brass shutter box without engraved dates, the non-magnetic film plate without holes, the milling of the knobs, even the vulcanite, everything seems unique and remained the same even after they relocated back to Kharkow.
Also if I remember correctly we are told the spare parts evacuated from Kharkow and tools never made it to Berdsk so they had to re-engineer everything in 1945-46. This saves us from explaining why seemingly mostly b/c parts but no d/e parts were used for the classic RF as one would expect. What if these are not early FED spare parts but newly made?
If the blunt-edged top plates really are unique they could be early attempts to machine these parts until they managed to return to the exact specifications. You even see tool-marks on some of them.
Look at what I found, I think this is substantial:
serial ___ top plate _ finish _______ anomalities
200146 _ blunt ____ coarse chrome
200161 _ blunt(?) _ ?
200209 _ blunt ____ coarse chrome
200333 _ blunt ____ ?
200347 _ blunt ____ coarse chrome __ coarse vulcanite
----------------------------------
200535 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome
200600 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome
200680 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome ?
200898 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome ___ 1d
200977 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome ?
201668 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome ?
201702 _ sharp ____ shiny chrome ___ 1c
More additions would be welcome!
It seems we have 2 versions of the Red Flag top plate
a) up to 200347 - unique blunt edges at speed dial, very coarse chrome
b) from 200535 - more or less normal shape of top plate with finer chrome.
I haven't looked at the dents around the disconnector in detail but things are way less chaotic or random than they seem once you only look at the RF with the classic features.
So my current theory:
RF was produced in Berdsk (Princelle's passport, photo of cameras in Berdsk)
http://ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1782013_fed%20photo.jpgNo (or few) camera parts and next to no workers ever made it to Berdsk and no FED cameras were produced during WII.
In 45-46 they started from scratch, reconstructing all the parts and tools, some not in the same way as previous models (rewind knobs, film plate, probably shutter box). At the beginning they redesigned the top plates with blunt edges and had problems with chrome. Either they later received unengraved spare top plates or - I think this is more likely - they got better tools to better reverse-engineer the original ones.
They made the majority (Princelle at least tells us about a passport for 201280) of RF at Berdsk.
After returning to Kharkow either some late RF were assembled or - more likely - they made early 1f with the parts they still had until they ran out. Then they started to produce later 1f with the new machining tools in Kharkow, substantially changing the look of the cameras.
Questions to answer:
.)What are significant differences between RF and early 1f?
.)Is there a difference in pre-war brass shutter box and RF / 1f?
.)Is there a difference in pre-war top plates, late RF and early 1f?
.)Where did the lenses for early RF / late RF / early 1f come from?
The classic type (a) with blunt edges seems to have c/d lenses, later lenses in the wiki have 4 digits like on 1f. But we need more lens serials for that.
I already asked Alexey but got no reply To bad, he has so many interesting cameras and lists on his page #200026 (coll. V. Khalatov / Russia). I'd like to see a picture, it is said to have a strange coarse vulcanite like 200347 and some early 1f. Who else could be asked for details about their RF?
Also the Berdsk thread seems highly relevant to the RF and early 1f topic and should be linked here.
https://ussrphoto.com/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=362
