Impulse buy!!!!

[moaning minnie]

Should i be worried?my hand painted decal looks a bit home done in comparison with the ones iv'e looked at on websites,here's one thats just turned up on ebay, they all seem to have large transfers and division numbers etc,im starting to think that maybe my luck wasn,t that good after all,regards minnie.

[Jerry B]

Time will tell minnie, though you could see in the original pic that the AFS logo looked handpainted and the textured paint looks like it might be an army lid, though it might just be rusty.

When is it due to arrive?

[tinlid]

I don't think I would go for that one, AFS letters with the NFS area No29, does'nt sound right.

[moaning minnie]

Look jerry here's another one!!!!im seeing transfers,humbug,by sat hopefully,Aaron ever since you said these lids are RARE there popping up like slugs,regards minnie.

[tinlid]

the NFS ones are quite common, but AFS are really rare because they were disbanded in 1941. So most of those AFS hemets would have been overpainted.

[moaning minnie]

Hi guys,have been doing some research,AFS formed in 1938 amalgamated into the NFS in june 1940,then was simply known as the NFS,seperated in 1948 back to the AFS and NFS.London AFS grey painted shells.outside of london green or brown painted shells.the question is how to tell whether the markings or transfers are wartime or postwar?you cannot go by the helmet+liner date as they may of been used elsewhere during the war and then re-issued postwar into the AFS,so is there a book or website to show differant examples of ww2 AFS and postwar?very confusing stuff me thinks,regards minnie.

[NCA]

Re : post 11.Unusual combo...To me the AFS looks *too* artistically rendered.I may of course be very wrong here!
29 is for Preston Fireforce.
Also..is that helmet pictured rimless?It looks like it?

As for telling wartime from postwar?Dont know.The only reference to firemans helmets i have is in 'The National fire service drill book'.There are four pages of black and white line drawing of helmets in there.

[tinlid]

The helmet is a BMB raw edge dated 1941 which was the last year of the AFS before it became NFS. I always thought the post war Firemen helmets were painted black post war with the county emblem on the front.

[moaning minnie]

Cheers guys sorry to sound like am raving on a bit,but im new to our own wartime stuff,so Aaron i presume these rimless ones were the early 1940/41 production to save on steel?and were ONLY issued to home/aux services?never front line combat correct?and i thought M1'S used to be complexed,boy did i get it wrong,regards minnie.

[tinlid]

BMB only produced these raw edge helmets for sometime in 41 & only for the home front, quite a few of them you do see with the NFS decal on.