Another Luft DD m40 helmet good or bad?

[Ralph A]

Jury's out on this bad bad boy!

"One out of one experts agree"; the adler has been uncovered, and the shield is not factory applied.

Agree or disagree? Let the games begin.

[Ralph A]

Closeups of the decals

thus,

[Ralph A]

Interior,

for kicks. Comments welcome here, also, if you feel so inclined. Thanks!

[william r match]

Ralph,

The Luftwaffe eagle is very similar in appearance to a very good one that I applied to an M42, documenting the sequence for curiosity purposes and self education. The detail at times on your adler is brilliantly white in contrast to the aging of the Tri. shield.

Also I do not like the damaged area surrounding the eagle but yet not affecting the eagle composition.

Is it also not the case that DDm40s are very rare!

Personally, there are too many red flags for my taste.

Regards,

Billy

[Ralph A]

Excellent.

Thank you Billy. Anyone else? Where's my men?

Anyone want to try and stand up for this helmet? I have no word from the dealer on this piece yet, but intend to ask him to comment a little later on. I wonder if there could be any good explanation for the obvious discrepancies?

Other comments? Corroboration? Agree or disagree?

[JuanS]

What is the clue to identify if the decal ( in this case the national shield )was factory applied or not?
Is it because is a M-40 shell or it is the looks?

I am trying to learn

Juaneek:

[Ralph A]

Not to end this discussion prematurely...

...but here is the reaction of the dealer, who is more than willing to take the helmet back:

I would also like to learn more about this.

To answer Juan's question in part, yes, any M40 with a national shield should be suspect. 1940 was when the shields were supposed to have come off, making it vary rare to find one that was 1) actually double-decalled at the factory and 2) where the soldier didn't remove it himself due to the decree to do so.

The shield was supposed to be removed for the reason that enemy sharpshooters found it a great little aiming point.

Right?

As far as this helmet goes, I always suspected the eagle; never the shield. It just looked weird with all that scraping. I understand however that this in itself is no big deal.

But I couldn't (and still can't) tell if the national shield was applied in 1940, or 1990. It looks good to me.

But that's for the experts, who look, look, look, handle, handle, discuss, read, study, study, handle, etc. etc. until you just get a feel for what a good one looks like.

The responsible dealer, when he saw my closeup pics said "I must have been drinking. That shield was definitely added later...".

The helmet is going back, and thanks to the dealer for the integrity in immediately acknowledging the error and being so good about it.

You never cease to learn in this hobby!!

[Perry Floyd]

Good deal Ralph...
Notice how both decals looked like they traveled down two different paths...more than likley they did.