M33 on Estand

[Dennis S]

This is a post war refurbished helmet with post war rivets.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=939884

[Semovente]

This is a post war refurbished helmet with post war rivets.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=939884

Who 's he kidding !?....

[Dennis S]

Who 's he kidding !?....

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as most don't know the nuances that can make a m33 helmet post war refurbished .

[Ironcrown]

I use to call such helmets "scratch & win" because sometime you can find original wartime paint under the postwar finish. It's a hard work but sometime you can get a nice wartime helmet from them. However, I never pay more than 50€ for these scratch & win projects, and I must be always sure that there something left under the brown paint. In this case I don't see any, just live metal under the scratches, so to me this helmet is almost worthless. I'm sorry for the seller, this is my humble opinion.

[Dennis S]

I use to call such helmets "scratch & win" because sometime you can find original wartime paint under the postwar finish. It's a hard work but sometime you can get a nice wartime helmet from them. However, I never pay more than 50€ for these scratch & win projects, and I must be always sure that there something left under the brown paint. In this case I don't see any, just live metal under the scratches, so to me this helmet is almost worthless. I'm sorry for the seller, this is my humble opinion.

I have done the same .....found a blue yoke and arrows From Group Fleccas Azul once but the problem with this one is the rivets are definitely post war models .

[Ironcrown]

Not a great problem if the price was lower and there was something left underneath. Even a shell only but with original paint and some trace of insignia may still be good.
But not in this case!

Good shot the Blue Arrows helmet !
I was lucky with Realy Carabinieri helmets, I found some with nice insignias

[Jean-Loup]

Are carabinieri items popular? I always assumed not.

[Ironcrown]

Do you mean if are collected or if are common?

Carabinieri must be considered as an élite corps. Original prewar uniforms are not very easy to find, and there are many collectors around who look for these.
On the other hand, helmets of Carabinieri Reali are not that rare. Many were kept in storage after the war and survived, either in black and green. These were often repainted in kaki and reissued. With a good restoration job sometime you can recover a nice wartime helmet from a cheap postwar one, but of course you must be a bit lucky and have some handcraft experience

[MarcoPennisi]

Are carabinieri items popular? I always assumed not.

Quite sought after , on a par with collectibles of Alpini and Bersaglieri. These are the more popular Army branches in Italy, I dare say, also because of the distinctive accoutrements and military traditions.

[Ironcrown]

An example, step by step...

[Ironcrown]

[Ironcrown]

[Ironcrown]

Another one.
This was refurbished postwar with postwar liner and rivets but...

[Ironcrown]

... The shell retained 2 layers of wartime grigioverde paint with the remains of two Transportation Corps insignia

[Ironcrown]

A last one!
Consider that each helmet required some weeks of work.
It's a long job, very tiring and frustrating