M35 Luftwaffe DD

[TWS]

I'm not so sure either decal has been touched up. Would need an in-hand inspection for me. Where the black on the national shield is missing, it seems to be the blue-gray underneath. On the swastika, the base layer for the deacal is white so it could have been worn down just a bit, exposing the white but not enough to rub the entire decal off that portion.

IMO $1300 is not a horrible price, but not a great one either.

[TWS]

This question is for the experts.

Has anyone noticed the round "blotches" of paint in the photo with the national shield? (2nd photo)

Any thoughts on that?

Probably surface contaminate under the paint. Remember, helmet shells were dipped in an oil bath after the oven to harden the steel during production prior to painting. Probably was not washed off 100% and small little bits of oil residue remained and caused those abnormalities in the paint.

[Rakkasan187]

Giants...

See if the seller will negotiate on the price.. I think $1300 is a little steep given the information about the possible touch up on the decals... It is overall a nice looking complete helmet..

Smitty

[real steel]

Probably surface contaminate under the paint. Remember, helmet shells were dipped in an oil bath after the oven to harden the steel during production prior to painting. Probably was not washed off 100% and small little bits of oil residue remained and caused those abnormalities in the paint.

Sometimes seen on early ET & SE helmets. Known as the "Alligator effect". Not an issue...
D

[MAP]

Probably surface contaminate under the paint. Remember, helmet shells were dipped in an oil bath after the oven to harden the steel during production prior to painting. Probably was not washed off 100% and small little bits of oil residue remained and caused those abnormalities in the paint.

Sometimes seen on early ET & SE helmets. Known as the "Alligator effect". Not an issue...
D

Thanks Gents. Wasn't worried it was messed with.....just not sure what it was or what was causing it.

[AndyM35]

Map, not answering as an expert in any way, however when I enlarge the picture I can see, in the general vicinity of the decal, the same “aligator affect” that David mentioned and perhaps caused by the process that Todd referred too!?

[real steel]

One can see it also on my LS helmet. Dead center above the bead. Really obvious if you enlarge the pic. It's not very common, but we see it sometimes
D

[Giants77]

So me and the dealer have been talking and he looked at it through a macro view and said yes it is possible it was touched up and at first he thought it might of just been smeared. Does that make this peice unwanted.

[real steel]

That's up to you. You need to decide if you can live with it. There are many decaled helmets that are touched. Some collectors would not want them, others don't even notice or care. It's your call
D.

[TWS]

Map, not answering as an expert in any way, however when I enlarge the picture I can see, in the general vicinity of the decal, the same “aligator affect” that David mentioned and perhaps caused by the process that Todd referred too!?

Just to be clear, I don't claim to know with 100% certainty why that helmet has a section with "aligator effect" to the paint, but I was putting the oil residue forward as an educated guess. It is most likely due to some form of contamination. ie. the metal in the affected area was not entirely clean and free of any residues when painted.

I myself have painted a metal part for one of my cars or for something around the house and there have been a couple instances where I didn't have the metal part entirely clean and the result was odd effects to the paint adhesion, especially if there was oil or water that I had failed to wipe/dry off.

Remember, these workers at the helmet factory were painting military field equipment and not a Ferrari. Their goal was not absolute perfection.

EDIT: I didn't mean the last line above to sound lecturing, I'm just sharing my thoughts/viewpoint.