The oldest faked helmet?

[Mike Bollow]

Gentlemen -

What (to the best of your recollection) is the oldest QUALITY faked helmet you ever saw? I don't mean one a kid did in 1966 with cracker box decals, I mean a SERIOUS attempt to alter a helmet to fool people. Thanks!

Mike

[CWP]

As early as the beginning of the 1950s, kids were applying original decals to original helmets for a flashier look while they were playing Army. Collectors were undoubtedly doing the same thing for a different purpose. Through the 1960s, German helmets were sold at shows from big boxes full of helmets. Nice liners and nice decals were what people were looking for so helmets were made up to meet demand. Kids and bikers were repainting helmets, some of this altered stuff was played with and suffered all kinds of abuse and now would show "honest combat wear." It would be impossible to figure out when the first messed-with helmet was passed off as all original. Perhaps before the end of the war.

[Suber]

In light of recent threads I can honestly say that I am happy to stick with Army or Luftwaffe decals or not helmets. I find they are much less risky than the camo counterparts. I think it has become readily apparent that someone with good modelling skills can pull off a nice camo job.
I do beleive that statistically there are many more fakes out there than the real deal unfortunately.

BTW as any good modeller knows, EVERY RLM color can be found in any hobby shop.

[mr slug]

During the mid 1800's in the UK, Roman and medieval Knights helmets became very fashionable to decorate the homes of victorian Gentry. It did not take long to run out of originals, so a cottage industry sprung up overnight to supply the demand ! It is thought that many helmets in museums are not quite what they are supposed to be, but later 19th century fakes !

Fakeing and ageing lids is nothing new !

Regards Mr Slug.

[SMP]

Walt Disney started his career by faking German camouflage helmets for the rampant souvenir trade that existed immediately after WW1. I kid you not !! Shame he never signed any.


"Americans continued leaving France in the postwar months, and little work remained for the Red Cross motor pool. Disney was reassigned to a canteen at Neufchateau, near Nancy. During long hours of idleness, Walt got out his pad and pencil and began cartooning. He mailed cartoons to Life and Judge, America's two leading humor magazines; all were returned with polite, printed notes of rejection. Composing a letter to his high school magazine, he illustrated it with a self-portrait and impressions of soldiers and prisoners-of-war he had seen. He drew posters for the canteen and caricatures for the soldiers to send home, and he decorated the canvas top of his ambulance with an alluring female. Borrowing a Croix-de-Guerre from a French officer, he painted a replica of the medal on his jacket; others at the canteen admired it and paid him to do the same on their jackets. he teamed up with an enterprising Georgian who had established a souvenir industry. The Georgian realized the desire of homeward-bound doughboys to collect mementoes of the war-especially those soldiers who had seen no combat. When the troop trains stopped at Neufchateau to change engines, he went down the aisles selling German helmets he had collected on battlefields. One day he noticed that Walt had painted his footlocker in camouflage colors. "Hey, Diz, can you paint me a snipers helmet?" asked the entrepreneur. Walt obliged, and he aged the helmets with quick drying shellac, earning five francs apiece. The Georgian rubbed the helmets in the dirt, shot holes in them, attached hair to the jagged edges, and sold them on the troop trains at inflated prices.











Regards,
Steve

[Perry Floyd]

There was a market immediately after WWI for WWI camo's, this is true. They are the oldest fakes done with correct period paint and are as old as the originals. Not so with WWII era helmets.
The scarest and best fakes are the post-war applied original decaled helmets, using original helmets.

[RonR]

[quote=SMP;2141045]Walt Disney started his career by faking German camouflage helmets for the rampant souvenir trade that existed immediately after WW1. I kid you not !! Shame he never signed any.

Steve,

I believe we have located one of Walts creations.

Profile view:

[RonR]

Left side view:

[RonR]

Right side view:

[RonR]

Front view:

[RonR]

Top view:

[RonR]

Donald closer:

[pfschgo]

What agreat helmet! Faked or not, great art!
Paul

[Ken B.]

That certainly does have a certain appeal to it.
Kinda sharp looking.

[Dan P]

I generally don't like helmet art, but this one is great looking! I'd love to have one like this! Kinda reminds me of aircraft nose art.