Spanish M65 OTAN F1 - Military Police Model

[Opex]

Nice shell. The liner with mine is very fragile. It must be made of a plastic that degrades over time. It's possible some ex-US liners were used in M65s, I think. So you could put a white painted postwar example in until a Spanish one turns up. Best Regards,

Hi JBR,many thanks for looking, and that's a great idea!

I have many US liners,so I may unite the the shell with one of these liners until I manage to pick up a Spanish one.

US liners were used in the Spanish Navy,so I don't feel too bad popping a post Vietnam US liner in!

Thanks again,kind regards.

[JeepCreep]

are the magnetic?

[Opex]

are the magnetic?

Hi , not too sure to be honest but I would assume they are ,as the metal appears to be low grade steel from memeory, I am curious why you asked about this magnetic property

[JeepCreep]

Hi , not too sure to be honest but I would assume they are ,as the metal appears to be low grade steel from memeory, I am curious why you asked about this magnetic property

trying to decide if a helmet a few of us ran into is one or not

[Opex]

trying to decide if a helmet a few of us ran into is one or not

Hi Jeepcreep, the helmets do not have a rim or any stamps , and even though I have not compared the Spanish shell next to a US version I suspect from memory they are pretty much the same, as I am aware a US Vietnam era liner fit's very snugly...hope this helps out.

[JeepCreep]

Hi Jeepcreep, the helmets do not have a rim or any stamps , and even though I have not compared the Spanish shell next to a US version I suspect from memory they are pretty much the same, as I am aware a US Vietnam era liner fit's very snugly...hope this helps out.

i know all that, but the helmet in question is bare metal and no bales... it has some odd numbers carved into it (not a heat stamp) but others are arguing that its a prototype or unfinished American M-1 im set that it is a Spanish M65 with no bales or paint and it was explained that it is non-magnetic so i was curious if these one were as well

[Greg Pickersgill]

Here's an M65 I acquired recently. The shell is apparently normal, seems like the usual Spanish product, with rim and with those massive chinstrap bails. Painted gloss white so no markings of any kind. So far so normal. Inside of the shell shown here -



The odd bits are on the liner. Again white, as you can see, but slightly surprisingly it has a chincup fitted to the liner chinstrap. As it seems probable that liners were often used without the steel shells this seems like a sensible user modification.



More unusually there is a sort of strange 'pop-stud' thing on the rear. I haven't seen this on any Spanish helmet liner before and I have no idea what it may be for. It seems to have no relationship with the liner fittings at all.



Also, perhaps unusually, the FEDUR makers mark is not in the crown of the liner, but is embossed along the inside edge near the chinstrap rivets. Hard to photograph white on white, it reads FEDUR - ARIAS 14 - ZARAZOZA.



Anyone with any knowledge of this? I've checked all the usual webpages and there's nothing similar. Is it perhaps an early production liner - or a late one? I don't know.

The liner, side profile view and rear -




Later addition - I've just been prowling around the Spanish version of Ebay (Todocoleccion) and found several of these Military Police M65s. The double chincup - one on the shell and one on the liner - seems to be quite common, going on that sample. More excitingly I found one shell that has an unusual 'pop-stud' (can't think of a better description) in pretty much the place where it would mate with the similar thing in my liner. Can this possibly be some way of securing the two elements together? One that wasn't really successful, given it appears unusual?

Pic here borrowed from a Todo listing -

[austromunga]

Nice M65 Greg!!! and a nice puzzle to solve too!! bonus!!!

[JBR]

A great find Greg! Apart from the features you mention, there's one other that strikes me - the liner shell doesn't appear to be breaking up, as mine is! It looks like thicker plastic, in the pics anyway. I'd bet (but not much!) that yours is an earlier version. Todocoleccion is an interesting and useful site - haven't tried buying anything on it yet, though.

[Greg Pickersgill]

JBR, I do certainly suspect this is an early liner. I have a couple of other military FEDUR liners and they have rather different characteristics. And you are also right about the liner being more substantial; the others I have and have seen are distinctly more fragile and sometimes broken in places. I get the impression that FEDUR may have started off with a quality product which was degraded by cost issues. I have a Spanish collector contact to whom I will refer all this - it will be interesting to see what he can contribute.

TODO is *full* of good stuff, especially (obviously) Spanish helmets that rarely come on the market elsewhere. The problem is that almost no-one accepts Paypal and as we all know bank transfer is a bit of a thing for us here in the UK, whereas everywhere else it is taken as normal, cheap (or free) and easy.