Well done Putmans, excellent collection you show us, with several interesting helmets.
That’s fine, but I expect him back by 10 pm curfew!I'm with zeb that canvas covered M15 is talking to me I could have sworn I heard him say he wants to come and hang out in my War Room
By popular request, here is my first one: a clothed cork ersatz picklehaube, which is one of my favorites. The more closely one looks at the details, the more interesting this pickelhaube is. To begin, it is a corked body with a 4 panel covered cloth, similar built to the Bortfeldt made ones; but this lacks Bortfeldt’s unique chinstrap design, has a metal front visor and rear spine, and an imitation leather trim along the rear visor. The fittings, while from a distance look like m15 ones, are actually brass made painted in field gray, which especially on the spike and spike base, are starting to wear out and expose the brass. It would have corresponded well with the cloth, which was a more gray color back then, as evidenced with removing the wappen shows
Of course, what also makes it stand out is its cloth chinstrap. This too, has a defect in that the buckles are completely different. The one on the left is brass made and has more rounded corners, while the one on the right seems to be made of steel or pained brass and has more sharper corners. The stitching behind the buckles is a similar design to the leather tabs on M18 chinstraps
I really appreciate your close up photos of the canvas/cork helmet. Excellent.