Black Heer helmet Volksstrum?

[Dom]

Hi here is a helmet I took a chance on. I expected it to be rubbish, I was trying out the seller to see what their stuff was like. However when I got it the decal struck me as having a good chance of being genuine. What does not come out in the picture is that the black background of the decal has got the sort of crazing you expect from a genuine decal. Is it a possible volksstrum helmet or has someone just over sprayed a heer helmet or is it just a fantasy helmet?
Cheers
Dom

[Dom]

A close up of the decal.
Cheers
Dom

[Dan P]

Original ET eagle uncovered from post-war black paint job would be my opinion.

[prussian.guard]

the hard works been done for you,all you need to do now is remove the rest of the black paint and you have a nice heer helmet

[ROBB]

It doesnt look uncovered ,I would say a late war flak helmet possibly .Rob

[Jan B]

Is it possible to see a picture of the inside please?

Cheers

Jan

[Dom]

Hi thanks for all of the above. It is an ET, it is at work at the moment. I did not want to give the wife all weekend to moan at me for buying a new helmet so willo bring it back on Monday and take some photos of the inside. I thought maybe the helmet was a czech fire brigade helmet but I do not think the decal has ever been painted as it is crisp not faded like the decals you see that have had paint scraped off them.
Cheers
Dom

[Ty Smith]

The post war painted Black helmets were almost impossible restore to the originial finish. In such, my thoughts are this is either a post war painted by some kid around the decal or a WWII period painted black helmet. If Period painted I doubt it was a flak unit as most of those were Luft divs.
Eagle looks good.

[Jolly Roger]

IMO it looks like the eagle is on top of the black paint, I would give it a thumbs up!

Regards,

Ben

[jerryrehr]

Dom; I'd keep it as a period done paint. Not all camos were bright and "pretty." It would go in my collection as such. Jerry

[phild]

Rarest of the rare, night fighting camo pattern....just kidding.

My opinion is the decal in not uncovered, the black is period German military applied and it is one very nice and scarce helmet.

Army did have a good number of flak units, I don't know if this black finish was used by any of them or not. I know that it would look great with a Blk Pz wrap uniform and I tend to believe that at least some of the Heer black painted helmets were made up by and used by some of the PZ units.

[Dom]

Hi thanks for all the positive posts. Ill leave it as is. It looks somehow right to me and anyway all I would end up with otherwise is a helmet that looks like it has had a layer of paint scraped off it.
Thanks again
Dom