WWI WWII german helmet

[BBazsi]

Good Day All!
I wrote a long time ago!I need help! Can it be original?Is the painting genuine? How much is it worth now? How much can you give for it? Thanks for the help!

[PaddyD00]

I would give .... not much ... for this one. Decals seem to be fake with a poor attempt at aging them. Also had a weird (not period) paint job and it’s missing the leather inside. Wait for more opinions.
Z

[christek]

That new rust 'colour'.... is surely problematic.

[AndyM35]

Could possibly be a lightweight parade helmet?

Where’s Donald L?

Edit: could it be a Children’s helmet? In the back of my mind I’ve seen a photo of a child with an ECO style toy helmet in the TR period. Although, this is perhaps too big?

Andy

[BBazsi]

The Helmet is big size, 66!
I don't like color either!
Who can be reported, to be fake? Don't take a risk? Should I buy it?...thx

[AndyM35]

Hello BBazsi, I have messaged forum member Donald L, who has much experience with TR helmets in general, but especially with civil and political etc. Hopefully, he will see my message and respond shortly.

Andy

[PaddyD00]

That was nice of you Andy

[BBazsi]

many thx!!

[Donald L.]

Hello, just read Andy's PM. This is just an opinion on the helmet in question and is based off from the supplied images. Parade helmets do come in cutout versions and should be mfg'd of aluminum. The vents are different from the Imperial design as well, being more of a closed format. Kinderhelms were generally produced from very light gauge steel or pressed paper. They are roughly 2/3 the size of a full size helmet intended for adult wear. The vent lugs are very different from the actual M16/17/18 helmet and for most of them they were just to mimic that part of the helmet that they were trying to copy and largely were non-functional. Decals when used on these typically are also to scale being ~2/3 size, however on some examples the actual full sized decal sets were applied (often Abels decals). Paper versions often have the insignia painted/printed on paper shields then glued to the helmet shell. Liners range from high quality leather versions almost identical to M31 combat liners (but to scale) to simple cloth to paper. The light gray finish should be studied and not passed off initially. That color was used on period helmets but to date it has been my experience to see it applied on helmets being reconditioned/formatted as reissues. If the gray paint extends to the interior of the helmet it generally extends up to the liner band and not beyond (the dome region remains the original factory color).
Looking at the helmet being discussed, it appears to be a full sized helm. The cutout areas are missing the flared out geometry which is of concern. It's interesting that you're saying this is a size 66 shell. The stepped vent format appearing on that shell is characteristic of a size 64 shell. The gray paint appears to have been applied throughout the entire helmet and application appears to have been done w/o the leather pads installed (pads missing). The paint appears to exhibit heat damage (bubbling) particularly in the region of the Army decal and left vent. Rather than actual wear expected across the shell the wear appears engineered at areas where that would be expected to occur (rivet locations/rim/vent/etc). The decals themselves appear to be acrylic based and not cellulose as the period decal would be in material of construction. They also appear to have more of a matte quality rather than having the depth expected and seen in period decals and appear thick. As stated, this is just one opinion based on supplied images, hope that it has helped. D.

[Danmark]

Try as I might, I cannot find WaA401 ( or 431 or 481 ) on the chinstrap in ANY list ....... which gives me pause.