Just received this, was told it was a Post war experimental Airborne helmet?
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Pics not visible, link does not work...
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Hmm. The liner, bolts, and straps all look correct for this type of helmet. The apparent faked stamps don't bother me because that stuff happens to BRD pieces all the time. The bolts are in the right spots and recessed, so it seems to indicate the shell is correct. Color is correct for the earlier helmets, not the later types (which are gray)
The thing I don't like about it is the raw edge. I don't know of any types with raw edges. But there's quite a few variants so maybe some early ones didn't have the crimped edge reinforcement?
Or did I miss something basic and this is really not legit?
SteveComment
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Steve,
Hard to tell what sort of helmet we have here. I am not aware of any "raw" edged helmets made in this post war style. Not sure of the colour either. The first type were painted blue and later ones were a shade of brown that is hard to describe. Some blue ones were painted brown with sand added for a rough finish. I would tend to vote for a repro WWII Fallschirmjaeger here.
Regards,
GordonComment
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I don't disagree with the caution. The thing that gets me is all of the usual tell tail signs of a repro or cut down post war helmet aren't there. The liner, for example, has the distinctive two sized holes vs. the wartime (and repro) single sized holes. Even the BW size stamp is there as it should be. The shell has recessed holes for the bolts, so that doesn't lend itself to being a cut down helmet.
Color doesn't bother me too much because it could be correct or it could be a repaint (I have one that was repainted for SEK use, for example). In fact, it looks like it was brush painted.
But the raw edge doesn't fit! But I think I have an explanation.
It's pretty obvious someone tried to pass this off as a WW2 helmet. I say that because of the RBN stamp on the liner. Since the wartime helmets had raw or rolled edges, not crimped, I think someone cut the original crimped edge material off. This picture might even show some evidence of that:
If this theory is correct, what we have here is a legit Bundeswehr M38 type helmet which has been modified to create the impression it is a WW2 helmet.
SteveComment
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Steve,
You could be right but it would be a hell of a lot of work to cut the fold off the edge of a BW helmet. Mind you, with the cost of WWII Fallschirmjaeger helmets it might be worth doing. Since we are dealing with a picture we will probably never know.
Regards,
GordonComment
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If I were a dishonest person I would put in the effort. Taking a $300 item and turning it into a $3000 is not a bad return on investment of time! Also, "living history" people have a lot of passion for their hobbies. Someone might have modified this helmet before repros were cheap and easy to find because that's all he had to work with.
Well, I think that's my best guess... original BW helmet that someone butchered into looking more like a wartime example.
Steve
Originally posted by Gordon Craig View PostComment
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