What do you think of this m35

[Brian C]

Hi!

What do you think of this helmet!
For about 20 years ago, I found it in a friends fathers garage. He told me that his father played with a lot of things from the war when he was a kid. He lived (and lives) in Denmark, close to the german border, and after the surrender, many soldiers simply throwed things on the ground.
Well - I've had the helmet in my possesion for about 20 years in a box, not giving it much thought.

Just recently, I read that old ww2 relics are getting collectible - I did some google search, learning that particular ss helmets are wanted and sometimes very expensive. (and often faked)

I have tried to figure out as much info as I can about my helmet.
It's a M35, Waffen SS with Camouflage paint, think it's called Normandie.
On the liner ring, I can tell its been manufactured 1940, I also read R.P. ???
On the shell the number se64 and 216 is stamped.
Sadly the liner is a bit damaged, but its complete and the chin strap is there - on the tip it reads Reichel I think!

Regards Brian

[Eric Zentner]

Fake decals the ss is known as a round bottom fake dont like the camo paint either sorry.

Eric

[CARL]

Hello Brian and welcome to the forum,

As Eric says above, unfortunately those decals are fake. Regarding the numbers and letters inside...as the actual helmet may be genuine...the SE64 relates to the factory where the helmet was produced (Sachsische Emailleer und Stanzwerke, Lauter) and the size (64 is medium, the most common size produced-about 10,000,000!). The second number, 216, is the batch or production number.

Regards

Carl

[SteveR]

I believe Eric is correct.

[cricketchris1944]

No good Eric is correct bad decal fake camo.
chris

[ObKrieger]

I agree with Eric. This helmet was probably an original no-decal M40 that definitely received a fake camo paint job and a fake pair of decals. There might actually be an original decal under the fake paint and decals!

[VolksJager]

Good call Eric, this is a made up job on what look to be an original Heer lid. The inside of the helmet looks to have the original finish and liner and maybe the original chinstrap to, though it looks a little thick to me. In my opinion it would be a good idea to strip the fake paint job and decals as you might find the original finish underneath, but it certainly isnt SS.

[davejb]

I agree with all the comments, one obvious way to look at it is the fact that the decals have been placed over the fake camo, it could have been a little harder to tell if the camo paint had been applied partially over decals or if it appeared they had been dug out, but i would be tempted to strip the camo off and try to get to the original paint

[Brian C]

Thanks for all the replys!

Sadly it's a makeup - but it's ok, I'll just leave it as a decoration item in my gameroom! (it would just have been more fun, knowing it was a genuine ss;-)

I can only count for the 20 years it's been in my posession - what happend before that is hard to tell.
It looked exacly like now, when I got it 20 years ago, I was told that it have been in my friends fathers garage for years, and due to the fact that it was just laying around and I could just keep it if I wanted it (for free), I hardly belive they did the camo paint and applied the decals - seems like there was no motive or interest.
I dont know exacly where they got it from, other than the story in my first post. But they definitely did'nt buy it as an ss helmet, just to throw it in the garage and give away.

Frankly I'm a bit surpriced that it has been tempered with, but your arguments are valid. I just wonder when it was faked and by who!
I know that it must have been more than 20 years - probably more than 25 years ago - were the helmets even collectible at that time, and were the decals available then.

Regards

[davejb]

Yes they were collectable and unfortunately fake decals have been around a lot longer than that, you could at one time buy a complete sheet of decals of every branch of service for around 50 pence, i bought my first sheet about 40yrs ago