Any other thoughts, the responses made so far are divided as kids camo or possible navy Vietnam era. Any other help would be great. Marty
Any other thoughts, the responses made so far are divided as kids camo or possible navy Vietnam era. Any other help would be great. Marty
Fortune favors the brave 644th td
G'day Marty,
I've seen and handled a lot of shells mate, but have not had one like this. I will give my opinion on the paint, of course there are so many possibilities, one can only speculate. I don't want to say a child/amateur has done this. If we consider that the chinstraps appear to have been on the shell for a while, and the 'child' did not splash a drop on it - That's pretty impressive. I am a little confused by the white(?) paint on the inside of shell, it does not match the rest. The paint appears more modern in application and could well be a reenactors shell, but the colours do actually resemble closely some paints I have seen both on WWII and VN era shells. Perhaps even a test for lead may help determine the age of the paint? Paint with lead content would generally age it pre-1978. These shells were camo'd (sometimes poorly) by the US army and other nations throughout the second half of the century, and as Rene has said, during Vietnam (although not as common due to the issued camo covers). I would exercise a little caution before removing paint and possibly a little history.
Chris,
Thanks for all the info and help, I will just leave the helmet as is. I found the same helmets you posted, some are similar Like mine and I really like the stripe helmet, that took some time to paint. I may should have left the stripe on the helmet but it was added after the camo, if real it may have been added for training exercises, just a guess.
Marty
Fortune favors the brave 644th td
Hi marty,i can't really add much with regards to the shell,but the liner alone is easily worth double what you paid for the entire set,its a nice Firestone and supporting original factory OD paint.sorry can't add more.
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