Perfect Fake Helmets?

[ZigZag]

As w/ any antique, painting, sculpture or helmet, their exists a market for fakes. I love art and paintings and their are many examples of fake Vermeers, Rembrandts, Van Gogh's etc.. that I have read about.

With that being said, their must be individuals who are creating perfect fake helmets. Unused decals are available and I am sure that some of them can be applied to a helmet today which could be impossible to determine, correct?

[DougB]

They fake tunic buttons to Hitlers underwear. That said an astute collector can usually determine real good fakes from authentic. As for using real decals many of them today split as they are also 70+ years old as well as having folds or creases in them. Bill Maertz is your man if you want a top end restoration done unfortunately his customers do not always show the before and after. A fellow named Rex / Ruffin also will paint up a very authentic looking camo for about $150. I bought one to study and his camos usually are done in a "certain way" that you can recognize once you've studied them. There is one I posted here of his a while back.

As well a pristine decal should be on a matching pristine shell and also should have the correct decal to shell relationship and the age of the decal matching the correct model of helmet (ie you won't find an early ET SS decal on a late war M42 hkp). No decal M40 and M42s are the shells most susceptible to a real decal postwar applied.

[bigmacglenn]

I haven't seen a fake German helmet yet that could be considered a perfect copy...Most are one-lookers for an experienced collector who's had originals pass through his hands over the years...in my opinion.
cheers, Glenn

[4md]

There are definitely helmets out there with post war applied original decals. Hopefully you can pick them before you buy, if you know the red flags

[sargetom]

Interestingly enough I remember reading somewhere that Walt Disney, who drove an ambulance in France during WWI during his free time would paint the camo patterns on captured german helmets for soldiers. Now how would you ever tell these from the original!

[bigmacglenn]

I've never seen a helmet that was deemed painted by Walt, but there were prescribed regulation camouflage patterns that had to be followed on WWI German helmets, such as a black border between colors...A soldier couldn't simply paint over his helmet using his imagination...
By the way, Disney was too young (16) to enlist in the Ambulance Corps and didn't get to France with the Red Cross until after the war for the "clean-up"...he transported sugar and beans instead of wounded men...It's said that Disney would paint helmets and his friend would put bulletholes into them to sell them as sniper-kills...
cheers, Glenn

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Interestingly enough I remember reading somewhere that Walt Disney, who drove an ambulance in France during WWI during his free time would paint the camo patterns on captured german helmets for soldiers. Now how would you ever tell these from the original!

The big black ears were a give away! Seriously though,the further back in time any helmet was tampered with,the tougher it can be to spot as a fake(providing it was altered in the correct style/paint/decals etc).But the subtle differences will be there. Leon.