Frontovik Mike

Takc, Lets just say that the source these things came from pretty much told us what they were. That is all I am at liberty to say. The one I post here is not original, this is certain. Mike

Yes, nice example at that... Not too common, at least not on this side of the ocean. Mike

If the pilot's uniform makes the owner happy then good for them I suppose. However, I am with the doubters on this one and I wouldn't touch it. The uniform is to me... obviously from the source our comrades here have eluded to, either directly or second hand. It is as obvious as an elephant in a phone booth. The auction run by "them" seem to be constant rotating supply of high end uniforms that are simply too good to be true. The red flags are like police tape at a crime scene. DD hit the high points, but it cannot be overstated how irreconcilable the collective rarity the items represent is versus the frequency at which they are offered from this single source. One needs not be an expert, just observant. In honor of this eluded to source, lets call this "The London Bus Challenge"... Start making note of these auctions either mentally or start dumping the photos to an archive on your pc. After about 6-12 months you will see many high end uniform groupings roll past. 1) All with "super stamps" 2) All with similar weathering. 3) Visor hats in particular weathered in a completely unnatural manner 4) The repeat use of the same "super stamps" if you watch long enough 5) A limited selection of uniform cloths being used for all items 6) All complete and with no repair, damage, or missing details Add to this the fact that sometime last spring, "they" started running a markedly higher number of "private" auctions that ever previously. Why? We can speculate why... and I will... because good folks of reasonable collector's senses have been poo-pooing his material to his bidders and buyers for months, now which is making problem for him. The "private auction" has become a classic militaria scheisster countermeasure all over eBay. "Their" material has been dogged on two other forums for all of the above and for other reasons on items such as helmets. So when is enough, enough? To each his own, but I do not feel the need to hold this item to make a call. It is simply a matter of something smelling so bad that I wouldn't dare pick it up. It is much more than the item that the buyer needs to consider. The source and the habits, trends, and tendancies of the source are often clue enough. I do believe the hustlers of of this material are watching all of this. I say this because the most recent crop of offerings is now showing evidence that they are suddenly trying to change the look of this stuff by altering the weathering and making some stamps less visible. So keep watching, and I'm sure new trends will develop. MikeB

No, I think the guy who is making them crawled out of the Estonian swamp... We, to be honest I had hoped your's was hands down something else completely. I have never seen one of this type other than the fakes. There is a huge knowledge void to be filled here. Who ever is making the fakes has a real one, or at least part of one. FYI mine is from the same lot and the couple specimens that Ostfront sold. Sold above the table as repro/fakes that is. Mike

Other than mine, I have examined two other specimens in detail that were aquired from the same source. None of the three were exactly the same. They varied some in size and final shape. Not in the sense that the fakers were trying to model actual different sizes, but more along the line of them all being hand made and not mass produced. I would be very careful using minor detail differences to try and sort this one out. What concerns me here is that the two helmets seem to have the same lingering dirt/mold/mildew on them and the snap hardware looks identical to me. Anything you can tell us about the source of your helmet? Mike

Yes this helmet and it's sisters are total fabrications... so by "counterfeit" I mean absolutely 100% new made within the last few years... Made to fool collectors... Made to deceive This style of helmet was replaced by another version of the leather helmet that is essentially the same cut as the wartime cloth helmets. The early postwar leathers were more or less the same as this final prewar leather helmet. There is no postwar helmet of the style being discussed here.

Leather helmets came into vogue again towards the very end of the war when the "parade machine" cranked up again as victory became certain. They were still worn in parade in to the 1950's. I don't have much interest past that so I can't speak for later. Mike

Maybe a bad choice of description. under the side flaps there is an opening through the helmet body and liner to facilitate use of the rarely installed radio equipment. The hole you see is the liner side of this feature. Mike

Here are mine...

Oops... no, the hole is the ear pass-through. There is one on each side Mike

Richie, If you mean the odor of fairly new leather, then yes it does. If you mean the cat piss smell, no it does not. There is none of the green goop. The green goop I am most familiar with is the thick stick stuff that very old, uncleaned brass will have on it. In that case it is a good sign. There is nothing like it on this helmet. The yellowish gray "stuff" is some sort of dust or dirt that has been washed on by either spraying it on or dunking the entire helmet. It is left is the low spots, crevaces and seams. The rust has slightly pitted the metal hardware in places and it can be transfer to the finger. However it is not like a dusty, brand new layer of rust. It has transfered to the leather is a spot or two. Mike

Interior... I will add here that when this helmet was aquired, I think there were others with different interior colors.

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