When you neighbour phones from the carboot,do you want a German helmet for £5 ?

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

Had a phone call from neighbour this morning ' Hi we are at the bank holiday Carboot and a guy has a German helmet do you want it we know you like that kind of stuff,it's £5 ?' Well the answer was yes lol,pointless going into details with them for a £5 and ten minutes ago they turned up with this .

Absoluety why someone would sell this for a fiver,it's certainly a repro but it's a bloody good one,so studs and a liner needed now .

Edited May 2, 2016 by Fred Karno's Army

[Davejb]

For a fiver its worth it, Although I would repaint it with proper camo, with three colours and the correct finger width dividing lines. Repro studs are available almost everywhere, and a repro three pad liner from SOF and I think you will still be in the money, or go the other way and make it transitional

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

@Davejb that's better picks in the sunlight .

[Davejb]

Yeah it looks ok but too many exact lines, ,,done with masking tape no doubt, I would still change it, but it does have a great deal of potential for a cheap repro 

[Lenny]

I'll show you a profit @Ham & Jam

[Mav352]

 Nice 

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

@Lenny fitted in quite well in the WW1 section  .

Edited May 2, 2016 by Fred Karno's Army

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

2 hours ago, Davejb said:

For a fiver its worth it, Although I would repaint it with proper camo, with three colours and the correct finger width dividing lines. Repro studs are available almost everywhere, and a repro three pad liner from SOF and I think you will still be in the money, or go the other way and make it transitional

Cheers @Davejb they have the liners and chinstraps,also I must admit I like the look of this dependant on quality,but for £30 it looks reasonable enough ?.I know real ones are nigh on existent these days.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Fred Karno's Army

[Bil4338]

Jeez, wish I knew folk like your neighbours, just a pity it was a repro, nice as it is!

these neat lines would get on my wick though, I'd need to go over them with some thick paint.if you do decide to do a repop, please remember to post the results...preferably to me!

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

I shall at some point endeavour to repaint the lozenge,and yes we have great neighbours they wouldn't even take the money for the helmet ,but we still all look after each other on our small avenue,very lucky TBH.They are always looking out at car boots for me for bits,I am limited to my health these days so wondering around a field bustling with folks is well out of my comfort zone .

 

[Norrie]

Hiya, Last year at the Stirling car boot, their was ( still is) a guy who has some of the best junk available, he had a WW1 helmet just like that, you could see it was originally black, had some rusty parts, but was complete with liner, he wanted £80 for it, and said he was selling on behalf of a mate, but he would go to £50 for it..I didnt have a clue, and didnt want to risk £50...tho, went back the next week to see him about it,see if he would do it for £40.... it was gone....:(

[Davejb]

A week in the carboot world is like a month anywhere else, I daresay he had two other boots in that time

[Davejb]

H&J, I,ve seen one of their helmet plates at WAP, its pretty shiney but needs to be dulled down with paint, other than that it fits repros pretty well provided the bolts have been positioned well

[dagodave]

I've never had a repro helmet. I seen one at an antique store and the quality was terrible but I'm sure they make all different grades of them?

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

This doesn't seem bad at all like some of the 'BAD' ones I have seen from India and the like,but like the guys have pointed out the lozenge needs reapplying.I have ordered a liner and studs today,they cost 5 times more than the helmet lol ,that would have been if the neighbors would have accepted the £5 .

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

WTF ,this is my liner I received from SOF this morning,hastened to say its going back !   White !, WHITE ,.....IS IT A PANTYLINER OR HELMET LINER  @Davejb

Edited May 5, 2016 by Fred Karno's Army

[Davejb]

Is it white/cream leather, if it is, then thats how some of them were made originally, the darkening process happened through wearing, ie sweat, grease from hair, oil on hair etc. I think they do that because some people want either a pristine ,just issued helmet  or leave it to you to colour the leather just how you want it. I,d keep it personally and use a tan boot polish to colour it to the required colour, then scuff the edges slightly and add a very small amount of vasaline to flatten them. then buff up the leather with a soft brush, that will produce a matt surface appearance

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

It's vinyl it's not even leather it's almost plastic,you couldn't do anything with regards to dying it,it's absolutely shocking,spoke to them and it's going back.

[Davejb]

Ahh I see what they,ve done, it looks like leather at the rear and do you think they have covered the outside portion with a "vinyl"coating??

[Davejb]

I had a very close look at the liner, this is,nt the type you find at WAP, they normally had proper leather, I,m wondering if they spent too much on construction. Let me make a few enquiries with a couple of sites I know, they produce some pretty reasonable ones

[Guest Fred Karno's Army]

Much appreciated @Davejb .

[Davejb]

Ok I,ve had a quick look, most of the better leather constructed  ones are from America now, but there are a few on German E-Bay that look pretty reasonable, The one you bought is complete rubbish, and I,m very surprised that SOF got it so wrong, the three pad liner did not have vent holes anyway , but to make them from vinyl is ridiculous, but i suspect its to keep costs down, but they were so good at producing very decent liners at one time. Its really up to you as to what you want, personally , i would wait. If you are able to get to WAP or Odyssey, you will find ones that will suit your helmet, I did at one time make a few three pad liners for a couple of friends, but its a lot of work, leather wise, stitching the rear horse hair pads in, the leather band is hard to source, but I used old leather belts and getting the size right is difficult. But none of that is helping you at the moment. But I did find your helmet on a number of sites with more or less the same camo pattern, but again they were all repros, so its obviously a well produced repro, If I can find any other sites ,I,ll let you know. I,ll be trolling a few later on

[Davejb]

Ok heres a site that might interest you, The Prairie Flower Leather Company, they do a very good repro, and for $65 =£45 all in incl postage thats not bad, Its American but for that you get everything, even a choice of Horsehair or Gauze pads, pins ,the works, plus the whole thing is coloured tan leather, and you just quote the type and sizes required, hope that helps

[Bil4338]

Agreed that liners atrocious, and I'd expect a heck of a lot more from SoF.quite right these liners never had ventilation holes either, that's a really bad oversight too.send it back and put the money towards a PFLCo one instead!

[dagodave]

Wow I won't buy from them sorry you got burned on that!