German helmet ?

[skippyroo1]

Greetings to all,

I received this helmet as a gift, I found no markings on this helmet.
What is your opinion on this helmet.


Thank you
skip

[theotherhomer]

It's a Spanish copy of the German Stalhelm

[4md]

agreed, im sorry but the decals are fake as well

[GIZMO8Z]

It is a Spanish helmet (Modelo Z?), which is based off of a German M42. You can tell this is not authentic for a number of reasons... To name a few, an authentic German combat helmet should have only three split pins holding the liner in place. The three pins should be located on each temple above the forehead, and then one smack dab in the middle of the back of the head (Your helmet has multiple split pins and rivets going around the helmet).

The liner in your helmet doesn't resemble an authentic combat liner, or a non-combat German liner for that matter. A proper liner should have 8 tongues with 5 holes punched through each of them. At the top of each tongue there should be an eyelet hole that a string would pass through to tighten the 8 tongues together to form a proper fit on the head.

The decals of your helmet are also misplaced (but they couldn not have been placed properly in the first place because of the presence of rivets directly under the vent hole). Finally, the paint job is just wrong. I'm not an expert on decals or helmet paintjobs, so if other members wish to expand on the explanation, I'll leave it to them.

[Greg Pickersgill]

To put it in very simple terms, if you scrape off the falsely-applied German decals you will have a rather good example of the original form of the Spanish Modelo Z or M42 helmet. Which is a good thing in itself as this particular model has never been easy to come by. I'm never entirely sure whether the grey paint is Spanish Navy or Civil Guard. One or the other. I'm sure a Spanish collector will set us right on this. Good helmet, worth having. Get those fake decals off carefully.

[GIZMO8Z]

To put it in very simple terms, if you scrape off the falsely-applied German decals you will have a rather good example of the original form of the Spanish Modelo Z or M42 helmet. Which is a good thing in itself as this particular model has never been easy to come by. I'm never entirely sure whether the grey paint is Spanish Navy or Civil Guard. One or the other. I'm sure a Spanish collector will set us right on this. Good helmet, worth having. Get those fake decals off carefully.

Well said! I thought the same, but I'm only used to seeing Spanish helmets with the more modern leather/ canvas webbing liners, so I wasn't sure!

[Sebastian]

A bad fake to :P

[Greg Pickersgill]

Of course what is really perverse about all this is that it would generally be MUCH more difficult to find a real original model Modelo Z than it would be to source a genuine Third Reich period M35-family helmet. A lot cheaper, certainly, but that only shows that not all rare(ish) things have high monetary value. There are quite a few genuinely hard to find helmets, but very likely they'd sell for comparative peanuts because *everyone* only cares after the obvious TR stuff or the fixed-bale M1, or whatever. I spent years looking for a Portuguese M64 in vg condition, and eventually it cost me about the same as an tenth of a WaffenSS decaled M40 or the like, which I could have bought in minutes if I was prepared (or cared) to spend that much. I'm still after a Swiss M18 in original green with the original chinstrap too...wonder if I'll live long enough...

[skippyroo1]

Of course what is really perverse about all this is that it would generally be MUCH more difficult to find a real original model Modelo Z than it would be to source a genuine Third Reich period M35-family helmet. A lot cheaper, certainly, but that only shows that not all rare(ish) things have high monetary value. There are quite a few genuinely hard to find helmets, but very likely they'd sell for comparative peanuts because *everyone* only cares after the obvious TR stuff or the fixed-bale M1, or whatever. I spent years looking for a Portuguese M64 in vg condition, and eventually it cost me about the same as an tenth of a WaffenSS decaled M40 or the like, which I could have bought in minutes if I was prepared (or cared) to spend that much. I'm still after a Swiss M18 in original green with the original chinstrap too...wonder if I'll live long enough...

I wish to thank everyone for their comments. Your opinions and diagnostic of this helmet has helped a lot. Sometimes net research alone does not do the trick. One occasionally needs help from people like you all who have en-devoured their time for this era. I am a young 'WW II" collector with not enough experience yet to find myself alone through this topic.

Thank you all again.
skip

[Walkwolf]

Please do not 'scrape' the decals off. There are other ways
to remove them that will not hurt the paint.........