Blue Division helmet.

[ricardo]

Hi. I present to you the Blue Division helmet.

[ricardo]

...

[Vocht]

If original, very cool and rare find!

[AndyM35]

Can we please have a closeup of the shield?

Thanks,
Andy

[ricardo]

.

[AndyM35]

Thanks Ricardo. Hard to say from this pictire as it looks like the same photo but simply enlarged we need closeup hi res images (like the one below) to be able to study the decal and it’s construction. It would be good to see a closeup of the other side in the same location as well to see if there was a decal on that side too.These helmets generally had a German army Heer decal placed there

Really hard to say much from this photo, but one thing I note is the distance between the top of shield and the air vent. If you study some of the original examples you will note that the top of the decal was much closer to the vent than a regular Wehrmacht shield.

What is the story with this helmet? Did you find it, purchase it? Did the seller tell you anything about it? Originals of these helmets are quite scarce, so it would be very interesting to see better photos.

We need hi res closeups like this:

[ricardo]

I am trying to do.

[ricardo]

The helmet came to me on an exchange, from a man who held in his hands many helmets of the Spanish division. Do you have doubts about the decals?

[AndyM35]

As I said, a lot of the the decals we see on these Blue Division helmets, sit very close to the air vent whereas it is much lower down on this one. Having said that, some decals were applied in the field so could have been placed lower or not straight.

However, we are not looking at a full decal, so some of the features used to determine originality such as the bottom of the decal etc are missing. These decals were known to have printing errors which can help to differentiate between original and authentic. It would be interesting to have a look at the decal area under magnification.

It’s hard to say either way as to it’s originality, but certainly this one deserves further investigation.

[ricardo]

As I said, a lot of the the decals we see on these Blue Division helmets, sit very close to the air vent whereas it is much lower down on this one. Having said that, some decals were applied in the field so could have been placed lower or not straight.

However, we are not looking at a full decal, so some of the features used to determine originality such as the bottom of the decal etc are missing. These decals were known to have printing errors which can help to differentiate between original and authentic. It would be interesting to have a look at the decal area under magnification.

It’s hard to say either way as to it’s originality, but certainly this one deserves further investigation.

The decal on the helmet is decentralized, which is quite normal for "spanish" decals to be pasted on by hand. I see no reason to doubt the authenticity of the decal. I take a photo with my smartphone camera. I have not come across decals with 80% safety for a long time ... and this pleases)))