Australian tanker's re-issue/ fibre-rimmed para helmet.

[SMP]

I believe these have been discussed before.
Thought you might like to know of one I saw recently. The extra hole in the back of the shell had been filled and painted over. The touch-up was well done and the paint match was almost perfect. Similarly the extra hole in the aluminium band had been filled and painted over with silver paint to hide the fact.
I must say the whole thing was well executed and required the removal of the liner system to understand fully. A few, small, tell-tale indicators were obvious, including "the look" and "feel", not to mention the silver paint that came off with a gentle scrape !
It is probably going a bit far to call this a fake helmet, but conversely I feel " restored" is not correct either.
Has anyone else been offered one of these ?

Regards,
Steve

P.S. the price was £750

[DJT]

The dutch dealer Westland has several of them. All post war converted by the Australians. I think he is asking about 1000 euro each for them. To me personally, they are not worth it and I would be extremely hesitant to buy one unless offered very very cheap. However even with the horrible post war conversion they are what they are. It just depends on a collectors acceptance standards. If you buy one, get it "restored" and it does not bother you, great. But I would imagine for alot of collectors myself included it would bother us. If they are selling for £750, I would say wait for a untouched original example to come along. You can buy them for pretty much the same price maybe even a little cheaper?

[Robert Jens]

The dutch dealer Westland has several of them. All post war converted by the Australians. I think he is asking about 1000 euro each for them. To me personally, they are not worth it and I would be extremely hesitant to buy one unless offered very very cheap. However even with the horrible post war conversion they are what they are. It just depends on a collectors acceptance standards. If you buy one, get it "restored" and it does not bother you, great. But I would imagine for alot of collectors myself included it would bother us. If they are selling for £750, I would say wait for a untouched original example to come along. You can buy them for pretty much the same price maybe even a little cheaper?

I don't understand you guys. When al look at the Forum and see the responds to the webbing chinstrap helmets every boddy seems to like. Most of them have post war Dark green Finish on them. These Aussi helmets have only one extra hole but most of the are in mint unissued condition.

I can remember the days that German collectors would only toucht mint Tunics with Original mounted insignia anything else was not wanted.

Look at the modern days wat kind of junk people are buying know and for what prices.
In my Personel Opinion I would not mind the extra hole You know for sure you buy an original helmet and and that is already not to easy these days. If you find a better one in the years to come the price will have gone up and you can still sell it with a profit. If you don't you still have a nice original piece. These Aussi helmets will also dry up like everything else and we all will say I wish I bought one when I had the chance and would not have been so picky at that time.

[Guy]

Hi Robert,


I take your point and to a degree agree with you. If bought cheaply these helmets represent good value for money but I dont call seven hundred quid cheap for a modified helmet!!

As regards the web strapped variants you refer to they are in a different ball park entirely! Good wartime examples can still be purchased for between £80 and £150 yes they may have had a nato external repaint at some time but for that price people are enclined to overlook a bit of modern ish paint. The same can't be said for a re-painted, re-finished, fibre rim with a bloody great hole in the back for the thick end of a grand .

I managed to pick up a fabulous fibre rim with Arnhem provenance last time I was in Europe for £750. Yes I have to work hard to make a small profit but the thing sold it's self at the seacond show I displayed it at. In short I agree with Des. Whilst people will buy these and as you say sooner or later they will dry up I would rather hang out for a really good piece at a similar price.

Yours, Guy.

[SMP]

Hi Guy,

Are you saying the Australian helmets were repainted when they were re-fitted ?
Also, I noticed the whole helmet was significantly lighter ( by 5-6 Oz ) when compared to other fibre-rimmed para helmets I own. Was there a difference in weight between batches, or do these Australian helmets use light-weight DR shells with para liners ?

Always learning,
Steve

[Guy]

Hi Guy,

Are you saying the Australian helmets were repainted when they were re-fitted ?
Also, I noticed the whole helmet was significantly lighter ( by 5-6 Oz ) when compared to other fibre-rimmed para helmets I own. Was there a difference in weight between batches, or do these Australian helmets use light-weight DR shells with para liners ?

Always learning,
Steve

Hi Steve,

As regards finish I have seen both original and repainted examples. to be fair the ones that Westland has are very nice and probably represent the better examples out there. As you know the reason for the third hole is that they were converted to web chin strap configuration for use in tanks. These were surplus airborne helmets and not DR or AFV variants. If the one you saw was significantly lighter perhaps the filled hole was a ruse and it was converted from something else, don't know but it's a thought.

Sorry not to have been much help.

Yours, Guy.

[lnijherald]

Hi Steve,

About the lighter weight; perhaps this is caused by the material used to create the rough non-glare surface.
On my helmet it consists of metal particles and maybe a fifferent, lighter material was used on different shells. I believe the Americans used powdered cork.

Luc

[Jim McCauley]

Greetings all,

I know I've asked this question before. Can anyone direct me to information concerning these Australian conversions. When done, photos of helmets in use, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards.

Jim

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Jim, I wish I could help but I have no info on these.


In regards to these helmets. I can see both points of view raised in this thread. Would I buy one? I would say "no". I don't honestly like the idea of them being messed with, never mind the price.

One question that does bother me is: These helmets were modified by drilling an extra hole at the back for the new chinstrap. So was that all that was done? Were the new chinstraps ever fitted? If so, where did all the replacement leather chinstraps come from? Did they keep the old ones? Or was the hole drilled and that was all and they simply sat in a store ever since?

Cheers, Ade.

[lnijherald]

Hi Ade,

The ones from Westland here in Holland suggest the extra hole was drilled but the webbing chinstrap was never fitted, and remained in stock ever since.
Regards, Luc

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks Luc. I did look at Westlands site a while back when we first talked about them but I could not recall all the details.

Cheers, Ade.

[Robert Jens]

Hi Ade,

The ones from Westland here in Holland suggest the extra hole was drilled but the webbing chinstrap was never fitted, and remained in stock ever since.
Regards, Luc

I bought mine long tome ago from Ozz. it came with leather straps and Web straps leather straps where on the helmet the webstraps where attached with a rope.

regards

robert

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Robert, thanks for the info: that is interesting to know


Cheers, Ade.

[Guy]

Great Stuff Robert, Thank you!

So; it looks like the hole was drilled and a set of web straps issued WITH each piece but left to the owner to fit them.

Yours, Guy.

[lnijherald]

Guys,

Any ideas why it was done in the first place? I mean why replace a perfectly servicable leather chinstrap?
Regards, Luc