Spasm

An original German M16 helmet maker stamped TJ66 - made by C.Thiel & Sohne of Lubeck and size 66. In the crown is the stamped steel rolling mill number R1426 - Stahlwerk Rochling of Volkingen. When I obtained this helmet it was covered in a horrible bituminous paint with cardboard SS runes glued to each side, underneath I found that it had been chrome plated, probably in the 60s or 70s by some bad boy biker. I've removed the bituminous paint, chrome plating and then painted as an aged camouflaged machine gunner's helmet and added a replacement liner and chinstrap aged to match. Turned out quite nice I think.

One of only two in the whole world and the hiker received a certificate of appreciation and will be happy to maybe see it in a museum one day. Blimey, well done her.

Thanks Mil and welcome to the forum, nice to have you here

Had to

Russian and looks to be redone with a Leningrad liner (probably during the siege). Pretty rare if it is and worth quite a bit of money. Horrible though I agree.

Paul, yes, South Norwood just the place for old Vets to get a free Gin or two. But taking her indoors along shows some vinegar. The clasps look good but with the straight hanging bar and the obverse detail not looking like Victoria's profile or the reverse of her placing the laurel on Wellington's head. Given the date of the photo it must be though I suppose.

I've been searching around some early photography and came across this image on Wikimedia Ambrotypes. It has a French title from the Archives de la photographie 1840-1940. It reads Anonyme Un veteran et sa femme (A veteran and his wife). I'm assuming the medal is a GSM Peninsula (as title refers) but as it is a French picture could it be something else? Such a great picture worth showing - assuming borrowing the picture from Wiki doesn't mean I've got to go hide in an Embassy. Close up

Jerry, yes, I went to see a friend at the fair. Only a small fair but very friendly with some interesting stuff.. He has convinced me to display (and maybe sell) some of my artwork at the next one. I'll be there on 22nd May. I'll probably pay another visit to the museum to get a second look, well worth a visit just to see the snow capped mountains and feel that Northerly breeze down the valley - brrrrrrrr. By the way, isn't the Union Flag displayed wrongly?

And an original letter written by one of the survivors written the day after the battle:

I had no idea that these were stashed in the little City? (it has a Cathedral) of Brecon - Mid Wales. It has the highest concentration I've ever seen of VCs. The local: The actual Flag: And the VCs: The photo'd one is the only one they do not own (replicas in the display, the museum owns the originals):

M40 Lufty, a couple of German ammo boxes and a painted repro train eagle - I've tried to make the eagle look like polished wood.

Jock - I very much agree with you, None of my helmets would fool anyone for long but they do look very nice on the shelf. There are indeed very talented people out there forging stuff and have been doing so for a very long time. Long enough for the fakes to be pretty old. Remember those very highly priced daggers a few years back that were made in German factories just after the war. Given the prices helmets are going for i would rather spend on a known reproduction rather than risking on a supposed real one as I neither have the knowledge or the money.

I've got 29 of these large format (370mm by 320mm) colour pictures hanging around and have been meaning to scan them in for a while (before they get bunged back up in the loft.) No idea why I got them and have no ideas what they were originally for - prints for a book? signal magazine? Any ideas?

Here's a not so well preserved PAB in silver to Panzer Jager Lehr 130. Dated Jan 1945 presumably due to actions in the Ardennes. I think these guys were mounted in Panzer IV/70 (V) tank hunters - the Jagdpanzer IV. Any ideas on who the signature is?

I haven't really been to the forums to look other than a photo showing some overspray next to a supposed gap made by masking tape. I must go and have a closer look.

Continuing with the winter camo theme. A resprayed 1/16th scale radio controlled (with engine sound, recoil, exhaust smoke etc) T34/85 medium Russian tank. Jolly hockey sticks what what.....

Larry - all the helmets are reproduction. All were straight out of the brand new box a couple of weeks ago with me then trying not to lose too much blood twisting up the wire baskets Jock - technically pretty easy to do with a bit of homework. Particularly SS runes as they are the easiest to reproduce. I believe these 'decals' runes were produced some years ago - like maybe the early 70s. In those days us custom sprayers were using cellulose paints, having to come out of garages full of fumes before we fell over. The paints mixed in thinners pretty well with flakes, metals and candies - just about anything would dissolve. The three or maybe four stencils could have been fairly easily measured and cut. Then basing on a couple of datum lines spraying the base, runes and lacquer could be lined up pretty accurately each and every time. The slightly blurred edges would be achieved by using a stencil that was placed and held with tape rather than a sticky (frisk) stencil. Given the simplicity of the design it wouldn't have needed an airbrush but was probably an old passche as that's what we had then. The overspray seen in the pictures looks like a pretty thick mix which was probably not controlled too well as the faker was producing lots of them with the minimal of masking. Not having checked but I expect any chemical analysis would be a pretty close match. Accuracy would obviously be a lot easier these days with computer cutters sorting out the stencils once the design is done - and that design could be anything you like, cut more accurately than you could achieve by hand. Multi mixing of paint colours including metals and content could also be sorted with some homework. Given that there's very accurate repro Fallschirmjager shells selling for £500 and that I've seen a DAK Fallschirmjager helmet advertised for $25,000 just recently I wouldn't touch any of them.

I seem to have been doing a few winter camo helmets of late: Well worn Fallschirmjäger Luftwaffe DD An M35 Waffen SS SD And a Fallschirmjäger SS of 500/600 penal battalion

I can't remember where I found these but are a good reminder of models of helmets, also, those of you who have relics with no stampings there's an identifying method for the manufacturer (well sort of as long as you have comparisons),

Graham Try the Museum of Airborne Forces https://www.facebook.com/Airborne-Assault-The-Museum-of-the-Parachute-Regiment-Airborne-Forces-109068972454849/ or Chalk Living History http://chalknumber.blogspot.co.uk/ all very knowledgeable chaps with access to records etc Come back and let us know how you get on

Thanks again Frank, took me ages to get the runway, roads and beaches in the right alignment and from an angle above. Had to draw from aerial photos of the time and not too obscured by clouds. The northern (Yorke Bay) and southern beach (Surf Bay) can be seen as white arcs.

Thanks Frank, yep I did these

Cheers Gunner

Nick - thanks very much for that. Any ideas about the top paragraph/heading? I'm assuming it states what the award is for and to what unit they were in. I'm sort of hoping I can then google about and find some more details about the dates and actions around Stalingrad

Just bought a Defence of Stalingrad medal and certificate awarded to a tank regiment member as a backdrop to a painting I'll do sometime soon. However, I have no ideas as to translation. I've tried to use the cryillic alphabet aid on here but us oldies who have to use glasses to read the screen and then not to write things down gets the better of my patience. Rather than just give in, maybe a Gent can help me translate the top paragraph of this award list Many thanks in advance The awardee is number 31 on this page