Welcome to the forum Paul, great to have you with us. Unfortunately, I have no expertise in this Bavarian area but I am sure that our resident Bavarian collector James Le Brasseur and others will help you out.

Yes no wonder why the latest generation have married so called “commoners” or at least lesser nobility. Even the Crown seems to have read Genetics 101. It’s all good though, carry on!

PS: For some reason I find that when I visit Festung Schnurr, I drink too much. When this covid shit storm is over I hope to be able to visit Das Bunker once again!

I agree, the M15 wappen or spines were soldered first then the finish was applied. Regarding this loop issue, use a dremel tool to remove all oxidization-from the old solder. Apply flux to the legs of the loop place in position, apply heat using a small butane torch. The old solder should melt aroun...

Yes truly a unique connection between the Germans and the Brits going back to George the 1st, can’t speak English, Geo.3rd. loses the Americans, Queen Vicky marries a Minor German Prince, has so many daughters and has to then marry them all off to European royalty and ends up with the Kaiser for her...

A couple of comments regarding what I see....the screw posts seen on the back of the wappen are original and the reverse details look good to me. The front has been heavily polished over time. The scales to my mind are also original. Note that the scale ends match the unique M91 Cav posts.

Many thanks Kris on behalf of my fellow Canadians and a Happy 4th to my many American friends and blood kin.

Wow indeed! Congratulations Sandy, a very cool item.

Yes we bought Leopards probably 40 years ago right T? German engineering at it’s finest and they were also shipped to Afghanistan as support for our troops if memory serves.

I have even “very carefully “ used this product to remove rust from a rare M15 wappen. You do have to watch closely and not leave it on too long but it does work.

Very nice I have never seen the two piece uberzug before.

Excellent post John as always. This obviously took a great deal of time and effort, my thanks!

Well...I weigh 35 pounds more on a good day from when I was 30, too much good food, good drink and a slower metabolism which comes with age.. Good for you aicusv, though probably, a loss of muscle which weighs more. Old age is ok but it really sucks when health problems arise. Getting back to WW2 an...

At this point in time, I should confess, that I have probably 20 years ago, made a repro of an OR's tschapka liner. It was not a great copy, as I had no original example to follow, I just had the tschapka in front of me that needed a liner. I used paper to make a template of the liner from the shell...

James....best to specify here....brass fittings or grey steel M15. Officer or Ordinary Ranks? Welcome to the forum.
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During WW2 when my father...RAF, RCAF was promoted to Flying Officer, he was given a special allowance to buy the appropriate custom tailored officer uniform and headdress. Fortunately, I still have these pieces. Many CN aircrew flew with the RAF until RCAF squadrons were built up in the UK.

You could install the silk part but not the calfskin sweatband which of course, has to be cut to match the shell.

Sold !

Great, thank you so much Bruno!! You have provided a beautiful example of what I was trying to describe. So...you can see how the stitching ends at the visor trim, you can also see how rounded the liner edge is, which is created by the cane strip inserts mentioned previously. The liner at the front ...

I bought this helmet at the SOS 2018 in order to restore it. I put it up for sale reluctantly, because it has the clearest marked named/ ownership on an officer helmet, that I have ever seen in 40 years of collecting. Most times, if there is any name at all on an officer or OR's helmet it is written...

PS...I did a repair on a Garde tschapka of Alan's which included a restitch of the liner, check that out in the restoration section if so inclined. Years ago, I also replaced a cardboard top on an OR's M95 tschapka mortar board bought from Manions. I used thin leather then lacquered it, the piece wa...

I can handle the front visor restitch, no problem as I have done three successfully but the liner is very complex. The rear part of the liner actually has cane srtips stitched in along the fold line to give a more rounded look. Then you have the curve in the shell which accommodates the ears...the l...

The tschapka liner is unique, to my knowledge,there is no other helmet liner like it. I have made replacement haube liners but would not even know where to begin on a tschapka. Anyway Coert keep us in the loop and good luck.

Very good Amy, please, never ever call yourself dumb, all of us guys are very lucky to have a female collector here with us, especially one who has such a large collection which can provide examples when we discuss things. I continuously make mistakes in my responses to certain posts here and I appr...

Well Alan, you are always quick off the mark!! :D You did guess the true meaning of the phrase but it is still a very cool song and worth listening to so please do. In some ways, it does explain the male existence :) particularly if one has a demanding partner. Wilcox, living the rock life, almost d...

Well, yet another reason for monetization so I can afford to pay to get these things fixed. Obviously, tech service for the forum will improve once we are paying a "professional" company to look after things. I am on pension folks as most of you know, so give me a month and we will get things rollin...

PS: The Baden private purchase bought at the SOS also needs to have the trim cut to make it fit so I will post pics of this as part of this thread. Last, I had tunes on while doing this..a great song by a CN artist..David Wilcox called "Laying Pipe" was in my head...check it out!

When looking at the fittings on our pickelhauben, the two weak points are the front visor trim and the rear spine. The worst is the visor trim, a thin strip of metal which wraps around the front visor to protect it. Most of our helmets of course, are made of leather and as such they react to humidit...

Thanks everyone, I will give advance notice when this is going to happen.

Ok Amy, we need to clarify a bit with this issue....are you saying you can not delete PM's? Email me the problem and I will see what we can do. To other members: The platform upon which the entire forum is based is a phpBB program. Whoever created this, posts upgrades every so often and naturally, w...

Incredibly rare items, congratulations! Thank you for posting.

Another example from Steve's collection: Officer Garde zu Fuss Arty, 4th Komp.

Massive Armies Sergei!! Your modelling and painting skills are obviously equal to your pickelhaube restorations. My congratulations to you. Coert, I watched an ex US Secretary of Defence on TV today, a man who had served both Republican and Democrat presidents. When asked what advice he would give t...

Well, at least I had the Kurassier, JzP part right!

I second Alan’s recommendation, in my experience, the safest rust remover for any Historical piece.

Officer spike from either a Kurassier helmet or Jaeger zu Pferde helmet. It is Officer because the OR’s tips are smooth not crimped. It appears to be white metal so it came from a helmet that had a white metal (neusilber) helmet plate.

Black felt.....softer on the skin. I could perhaps look at a chin scale rebuild

Generally, I try not to "rip off" little old local ladies but I know things can be different in MN. Just kidding BG :D ! My mind also went Masonic when I saw this wappen. Likewise, whenever I look at the reverse side of Uncle Sams' $1 bill. Perhaps there is also Masonic symbolism in the 3 hearts?? M...

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Thanks for being a good sport on this post Amy, feel free to post a photo of your favourite male escort!

Very nice, congratulations, excellent condition. You are very lucky to have the original chin strap with those neusilber fittings. One thing about wetting the leather top....the process does leave a white water stain on the inside of the shell. I have even tried distilled water but to no avail. Prob...

I like to deal with this cleaning discussion by simply saying....if you own it then you decide whether to clean or not to clean. For myself, if I have the fittings off then I like to clean everything once. I agree that originally, they were meant to shine and impress people.

Great photos Coert, thanks for posting. Obviously, a very rare type of strap,like you, I have never seen one like it.

Very good PG, you have dodged a bullet, well done! One of the foundation stones of this forum is for more experienced collectors to give advice to fellow collectors on "helmet purchases". I have been doing this for 40 years and I have made some mistakes, mostly by giving into "collector fever" :( . ...

Personally, I would cancel this purchase. The helmet is an M15 with polished/chromed fittings, the stag antlers are gone. None of this is correct, why waste your money? By buying something that has been messed with, you are just creating problems for yourself !

I had a Manions subscription and used to pour over their catalogs. Unfortunately, the quality of their militaria slowly deteriorated.

Any tschapka that I have ever worked on, handled or seen, has always had the traditional stitchless front visor. This piece already has problems as noted, so stay clear of it.

Very nice, the tall spike would certainly suggest a private purchase helmet. However, we have an OR's liner...another haube mystery?

Yes I am back up to 35 now....sigh! Still a ways to go before my high tide mark of 53! Small potatoes compared to your collection James. There is no known cure for Haubeitis.

That is a very unusual chin strap Coert I would appreciate you posting photos of it in our leather chin strap thread in the Pickelhaube Discussion Area.