ww1czechlegion
Well-known member
Hello,
I ended up purchasing a helmet after it was recently discussed in this thread: http://www.pickelhaubes.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9429" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I thought it might be worthwhile to open a new thread, since adding to the old thread would probably not generate much for new looks, or comments on the old thread. Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that, and doing it this way.
This helmet has certainly seen better days, and was probably heavily "kid" played with over the years.
The person I bought it from works with buying estates, and cleaning out houses. He retrieved it from a dumpster (and some of us might say it should have stayed there :-$ :-s )
The first thing I did was to remove the stupid leather strap that was on the helmet along with the two small red hard plastic "rosette" disks that some of us pointed out in the numerous comments in the first thread that member Joe H. had posted for us. The helmet looks a whole lot better without that garbage that was on it in the first thread posting. I'll add that it wasn't fellow forum member Joe H.'s fault that the incorrect strap and stupid little red plastic disks were on the helmet side post mounts. He simply only had access to the photos the seller had provided to him.
I seriously cannot begin to count the number of M15 helmets that I have seen over the years that have had the metal fittings "repainted" with a grayish or silvery-gray color paint. Why are there so many out there like this??? :-k
And the paint has been on the metal fittings a long time. From my extensive experience studying paints on lots of faked things (as well as original items) that people tried to consign while I was working for a couple of years at the old Manion's Auction House in Kansas City in the 1990's, I would estimate that it has been like this for some 40-50 years, maybe longer.
After taking the frontplate off the helmet, the backside shows the original leather tabs to hold the guard star in place, and there is a perfect gray-green original finish intact on the backside of the eagle. Nice to see, when compared to the sickening silvery-gray color on all the fittings.
The eagle has been on the helmet a long time, as seen by the accumulated dust behind the frontplate.
The markings on the underside of the back visor seem to suggest this might have been a "J R 100" helmet to begin with.
All the metal fittings are magnetic. Front visor needs to be entirely re-stitched. Back visor has glue traces in the center of the visor, where it probably had broken stitching as well in its past life.
Alan
I ended up purchasing a helmet after it was recently discussed in this thread: http://www.pickelhaubes.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9429" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I thought it might be worthwhile to open a new thread, since adding to the old thread would probably not generate much for new looks, or comments on the old thread. Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that, and doing it this way.
This helmet has certainly seen better days, and was probably heavily "kid" played with over the years.
The person I bought it from works with buying estates, and cleaning out houses. He retrieved it from a dumpster (and some of us might say it should have stayed there :-$ :-s )
The first thing I did was to remove the stupid leather strap that was on the helmet along with the two small red hard plastic "rosette" disks that some of us pointed out in the numerous comments in the first thread that member Joe H. had posted for us. The helmet looks a whole lot better without that garbage that was on it in the first thread posting. I'll add that it wasn't fellow forum member Joe H.'s fault that the incorrect strap and stupid little red plastic disks were on the helmet side post mounts. He simply only had access to the photos the seller had provided to him.
I seriously cannot begin to count the number of M15 helmets that I have seen over the years that have had the metal fittings "repainted" with a grayish or silvery-gray color paint. Why are there so many out there like this??? :-k
And the paint has been on the metal fittings a long time. From my extensive experience studying paints on lots of faked things (as well as original items) that people tried to consign while I was working for a couple of years at the old Manion's Auction House in Kansas City in the 1990's, I would estimate that it has been like this for some 40-50 years, maybe longer.
After taking the frontplate off the helmet, the backside shows the original leather tabs to hold the guard star in place, and there is a perfect gray-green original finish intact on the backside of the eagle. Nice to see, when compared to the sickening silvery-gray color on all the fittings.
The eagle has been on the helmet a long time, as seen by the accumulated dust behind the frontplate.
The markings on the underside of the back visor seem to suggest this might have been a "J R 100" helmet to begin with.
All the metal fittings are magnetic. Front visor needs to be entirely re-stitched. Back visor has glue traces in the center of the visor, where it probably had broken stitching as well in its past life.
Alan
