Where would be a good place to look for a german helmet with a reproduction liner or anyliner as a matter of fact. I 'm just trying to find one cheap for reenacting. Very gratefull for any help.

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"Front leaning rest position"
"Move"
"In cadence, exercise....1, 2, 3" (My favorite thing to hear at 5 in the morning.)

How big is your head? German helmets unlike most, come in different sizes. 60 is the smallest, 68 the largest. I have a 62, no liner, for sale. You would have to have a small head for this to fit you, most adults need at least a 64, I wear a 68.
Ebay is a great resource for finding cheap helmets to paint and tinker with. Great War Militaria sells repro liners, liner pins, decals, netting, and more to fix them up with. Unless you have a tiny head buy at least a 64 and dont pay more than $75-$100 for a scratch and dent you plan on painting. The best deals are Spanish helmets which come close to German helmets, but will not hold up to close inspection. I can get these cheap($25-30/piece) if I buy a lot, if interested email me. Also, the West Germans produced a post war police helmet. It is identical to a WWII helmet except it lacks air vents, and the liner doesnt use pins. The exterior is completely smooth, and its made of thinner material. Some guys pedal these on Ebay by popping holes in them with a center punch and superglueing thumbtack tops on to look like liner pins. If its too good to be true, it usually is. Anyways, these police helmets can be picked up in lots for $35-$50/piece(and you can punch the holes and glue on thumbtacks in your very own home, saving $50 [img]smile.gif[/img]

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It's a sick, sick world. I'm a happy man.

The number one thing to remember about buying helmets and other types of militaria is that there are so many fakes out there, its almost worthless to pay good money for supposedly genuine stuff, unless it bears authenticity notes from the Smithsonian.
Most people arent out to rip you off, they just dont know themselves. Perfect example, a friend of mine sees a 1918 Stalhelm used by the SS before the advent of the 1935/40 for $650 at a wargame convention. The paint and decals were well weathered, paint looked right and so on. He buys it on impulse takes it home and while checking it out finds out the liner is Norwegian. Not only Norwegian, but made in 1952(post war Nor liners are almost identical). He contacts the seller, who gets him in touch with a pawn shop, who gets him in touch of an auto mechanic, who talks to his uncle, who had given him the helmet. The uncle had found the helmet at a swap meet for 2 or 3 dollars in the fifties and in the early sixties had applied the decals, paint, and popped in a liner to display it in his garage. Stuff like this happens all the time. A reproduction 1918 SS helmet, in nice shape, is worth about $150-200. His is beat up, so it might fetch $75-100. If you are not a trained expert NEVER take someone elses word, dont buy expensive crap. I love the pawn shop stories, every helmet was brought back by someones grandpa as war booty and has a bullet hole in it suspiciously the same size as a philips screwdriver.
Its best to buy a helmet with no purported history, slap a coat of paint and some $2 decals on it and with a little wear, its hard to tell its a fake. And your not out a lot of money.
Oddball helmets are great to collect also, like Romanian, M40 pattern Hungarian, and Danish helmets. These are usually cheap but are far more rare, and to me more interesting than a Stalhelm I can buy right now with my Visa.

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It's a sick, sick world. I'm a happy man.

I almost bought a spanish helmet, but found out before hand that my reenacting unit doesn't allow them. I have to check on the size of my head. My history teacher has one in her closet without a liner and I"m trying to find out what size it is and if she will sell it to me, but it seems pretty hopeless. Thanks for all the info. I'm sure it will come in handy.

I'm sure that my head wouldn't fit a size 62.

__________________
"Front leaning rest position"
"Move"
"In cadence, exercise....1, 2, 3" (My favorite thing to hear at 5 in the morning.)

In a Greek market stall in Athens, I purchased a 'Tommy' helmet for around $30 and change. The seller told me it was a Greek helmet left over from Metaxis' rule, but it worked for me just the same. Even a reproduction is nice to have around.

Oh yeah, I have bought several reproductions. Mostly of stuff thats too expensive/rare for me to afford. And for the most part I cant tell one way or the other, so who cares, right? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 09 September 2001: Message edited by: talleyrand ]

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It's a sick, sick world. I'm a happy man.

You can also get good originals from Detlev Niemann of Hamburg for a good price and or from Helmut Weitze also of Hamburg, for a higher but pretty fair price.

__________________
Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Great War militaria
Old Guns
and others are in the States and save massive amounts of money on shipping(not to mention those Nazi artifact laws in Europe)

I can dig up addresses if anyone is interested.

[ 09 October 2001: Message edited by: talleyrand ]

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It's a sick, sick world. I'm a happy man.

Hey Neighbor ! Can U send me a couple of URL's to check out ? Not that I am that crazy about collecting helmets per se, but would like to look just the same as to what other goodies these firms might have to offer.

Thanks !

E

Actually the shipping from Hamburg isnt too bad--Detlev is honest about it. As for nazi artifact laws--ive never had any problems recieving anything I order from Germany. Detlev packages his stuff very well and looks just like any other package in the postal system.

Last year, I had a Zerstorer Abziechen mailed from Hamburg to Lake Konstanz without problems. This was so I could donate it to a Kriegsmarine museum. Since then I have had various medals, a sidecap, and a few other things mailed from all over Germany without any problems.

Actually, the laws are tougher in Switzerland believe it or not....

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Carl :

Can you post German sites for us here on the forum ? Might as well cover all the bases if possible.......

E

http://www.greatwar.com/ http://www.oldguns.net/

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It's a sick, sick world. I'm a happy man.

T:

Thanks a bunch ! I'll have a look.....



E

Trywww.weitze.net

I will try to go through my memory banks after my Drs appt today and see if I can find Kai Winklers site and Hermann and Hermann.

See you later today my friend

[ 03. June 2003, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Sweet !

Thanks to you guys Talleyrand and CArl for these links......super !

E

Welkommen, now just dont spend all of your allowence at one place.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Arg ! Don't say that Carl.......no seriously, you are very right. Too easy, let's see I'll take one of those then one of these and ? heck I've got the rest of the year's funds wrapped up into toooooo many books.

Cheers

E

Do any of you know where I could go to find out about military shows. So I can get myself a helmut. I'm having trouble finding them in my area.

__________________
"Front leaning rest position"
"Move"
"In cadence, exercise....1, 2, 3" (My favorite thing to hear at 5 in the morning.)

The MAX Show is held in your area of the country. Just two weekends ago as a matter of fact. This show has over 2,000 tables of militaria. You can find anything and everything there except for Hitlers missing left ball

Then you have a big show in California at around this time of year, I think its in San Diego. There are numerous smaller shows held countrywide. Houston has 4 big shows a year, with one in February that I hope to attend. This one is specializing on Military displays and will have vehicles there.

I hear the Eastern show at best--sucks.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Too bad I missed that show. I'm sure there will be another one. I'm gonna talk to some fellow reenactors and see if any of them have an extra helmut for sale.

__________________
"Front leaning rest position"
"Move"
"In cadence, exercise....1, 2, 3" (My favorite thing to hear at 5 in the morning.)

Wargame tournaments usually have tons of militaria also. If you get to the West Coast there is Enfelad(sp?) near Seattle in Feb or March and Spring Spears in Monterey Ca every year.

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It's a sick, sick world. I'm a happy man.

Erich, save what you can so you and I can buy the Messerschmitt coming up for sale thats in Switzerland, its only $1,000,000.

__________________
Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.