When did you start to collect/what or who influenced you to do so?

[aussielad]

...good stuff Panzer..love the stuff we get handed down from our war time relatives....that navy scrap book is worth everthing because of the history it tells from him...very lucky mate to have a personal relic like that...im Aussie but certainly have always had a thing for the U.S. navy stuff...ive got a couple of WW2 named navy visor caps and this commanders uniform im trying to do reserch on...

[Bill T]

WOW Aussie! absolutely love your collection, very impressive! The commanders uniform and visor cap is one SHARP "get up". It sticks out quite nicely among your other various uniform displays. I bet it will be a fun journey researching your commander. Although I learned my lesson about contacting family members while researching Ike Jackets....the immediate family (son) of the vet asked me to sell his Dads Ike Jacket to him after I dug up some info from his last name and serial # inside the jacket.(also came w/ his obituary panflet). I ended up sellin it to him since his Dad (the vet) died only a few years prior. Turns out his step-mother sold all of his fathers military things after he died and he was pretty upset. So after a few conversations I sold it to him for what I paid for it, which wasnt much. So now I strictly research instead of contact unless need be. Have fun and thanks for sharing!

[reneblacky]

I started when I was 4 after watching "The Battle of the Bulge" my folks where shocked when I started speaking some of the German dialog! soon after I got my first Aussie helmet (at the time I thought it was British)
Here's a shot of me (right) at the age of 7 with my first US helmet and my friend has my para liner (no longer have and gave it away to another friend's kid years ago regretfully)

[banksy]

Hello

My intrest started at about 7 when I went to a local wood and would pick up old shot gun cases 3 years later and I has 300 in the 3 year period a local game keeper gave me different small calibre rounds to add to my collection and my biological father was a hunter so he would also add bits and bobs then I would go round fle markets and pick up webbing and canisters all the small chep things I then overnthe next coupal of years built up a good collection of helmets and clothing then at 13-14 I sold the lot to start a collectioj of guns now I'm 18 have 10 guns and a lot of ordnance medals ect ironically I never brought another helmet again slough I still keeped a few good ones !

Just also like to say great thred

[jimpy]

I blame my late grandfather for getting me into militaria etc.
He was a serjeant/tank commander in the Grenadier Guards in WWII and I remember him going off on his Reserve Training committment in the 1960's so there was always an amount of military kit around whether it was uniform or webbing etc!
He also bought me my first Airfix kit, (Churchill tank in HO/OO scale), when I was about 4 years old and the modelling and militaria bug has stayed with me ever since, I'm 49 next birthday!!

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[M18922]

I started collecting six months ago ( I know ;D ). i really just got the bug about 2 months ago. got into this webiste about a month or bit later. and have learned many things. I dont know how i got interested. and then i saw a swiss 1918/66 helmet at an auction. (if you see any posts saying its czechslovakian or german its becasue i didint know at the time ). I heard from people (my dad and his mates) say that around my age we all get interested in ww2. But mostly just a faze and then you start getting interested in other things.

[Nailo]

I started around October of last year, one of my history teachers had some gas mask which i was never able to identify fully as he has taken it down this year. But, I saw that and it just sat there and he wore it around when talking about WWII subjects, got me interested and bought a gas mask of my own, started with that and looked around, finding out that militaria is available and expanded mostly into soviet militaria. Been hooked for roughly a year now.

[Usagi Yojimbo]

I started collecting six months ago ( I know ;D ). i really just got the bug about 2 months ago. got into this webiste about a month or bit later. and have learned many things. I dont know how i got interested. and then i saw a swiss 1918/66 helmet at an auction. (if you see any posts saying its czechslovakian or german its becasue i didint know at the time ). I heard from people (my dad and his mates) say that around my age we all get interested in ww2. But mostly just a faze and then you start getting interested in other things.

History, you are young enough that you can gather a large collection of stuff over your lifetime and watch your value go up. You have plenty of time to grap those great deals that come along from time to time and you are smart enough to learn about your hobby and you will know what's good!

I started and stopped on my helmet collection. Life interferes with my spending cash, lol. I've always liked this stuff, but its only recently that I've taken it seriously and decided to educate myself. I like British gear. One day I realized that I knew little of WWII outside the few books that I read, but they were all about American forces, so I grew up thinking we pretty much won the war single handed Well, I bought a book about El Alemein and the Brit victory there and at the next gunshow, I dropped $170 on a Enfield rifle (which I deer hunt with) and that was how I got started. I'm particularly interested in the Army Commandos, and hope to start getting more stuff on them. However, that will have to wait until the economy improves. Right now I'm sticking with helmets, but hopefully, I'll branch out soon.

[banksy]

i think its a great hobby ! and an investment for the future !