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.

Details...

More details...

Some details... The snap studs are black painted over a very highly polished steel dome if not nickle plated or chromed. It had bad adhesion and is easily chipped with light fingernail pressure. Also, this helmet is covered in a yellowish gray verdigris/dirt/mildew. I suspect it has been soaked in a dirty brine of somesort to add this grime and rust the hardware in place.

Ok, for comparison... An early type leather tanker helmet that is 100% counterfeit with artificial distress added for effect. Not enough daylight for me to get out side, so mind you this is indoors (All) with a flash (some). First a couple of overalls, visor up, visor out. Not sure this is really a visor I might add. Maybe just a sweat shield. The front pad should make fine enough a visor on its own.

Great buckle Richie... Mine is similarly crude, but there was an attempt to add the H/S to the center of the star as well as a few of the sun rays. I will post it tonight. MikeB

Thanks for the posts.... I will get my fake up for comparison soon. In the meanwhile, how about some shots of reverse sides of each snap component compared to those you already show. Regards, Mike

Question... How does one sort out DEMBEL from wartime trench art or field craft?? My guess is you cannot. I suppose the tradition of DEMBEL would push much of the hand made items into that category. But given all the engraved items and other types of fieldcraft such as cigarette lighters, spoons etc I would have to think unique belt buckles would have been a fairly common item to have been made wartime as well by troops still in active duty. I have a handcrafted square brass buckle I will show here soon that has an engraved Soviet national symbol on it, but it was made to fit a German belt. DEMBEL or wartime??? For comparison, I also have a skillet fabricated from a cutout German Canteen bottle. Mike

Yes the dollar could c ertainly get beat down after some hypothetical foreign policy blunder. It already has due to the big Asian sell-offs this past week. However, we might equally be concerned for the long term health of the Euro given the eventual economic impact of the near 10% unemployment facing much of the EU... a situation that is not hypothetical. I think our market bias simply are based on our geography and not the percieved power of our native currency. American and Canadian collectors will always base reference to the dollar either US or Canadian, the EU to the Euro, and Asia to the Yen primarily. It's simply a mater of comfort. I might add that I had a nice conversation with Igor at the 2004 MAX in Charlotte. At that time he mentioned that it was changes in the Russian collector market in particular that was driving his valuations. He stated it had gotten to the point that he could seek out items sold to long time customers and buy back material he had once sold... Buying it back at a price higher that he sold it for in the first transaction and make money again on the Russian market Mike

How about some more shots of your early leather helmet. There is has been a fake version of this style floating around out there for about 5 years now. I'd be most curious to compare. I was able to aquire one of the fakes "off the record". I'd like to know how it compares to a real one as this version of the leather helmet is quite rare... Mike

Takc, Yes, I understand the concern when the reverse does not follow exactly like most others. Likewise with your statement about cadets after the war. Other than it's obvious age, the thing that makes mee keep faith in it and also what adds to the mystery is the manner in which I acquired this belt. It came from a friend of mine in your part of the world. He found it being sold simply as old junk, useless Soviet crap and not at this rarest of Soviet buckles as you say and not in the militaria market. The buckle and the attached leather belt was aquired for a price well below what just the leather belt might sell for in St. Pete militaria market. I do not mean a price that was simply a "bargain" for a piece of rare militaria, but an insignificant amount of money in any sense. Barely one US dollar. This alone certainly does not make it original I admit. However, if someone were going to go to such great lengths to make such a high quality fake of a rare bucke, I would more believe that it would be attempted to sell it as such and at the price it would command. I guess it will continue to be a mystery. Mike

I think this to be an original, but 50's era buckle. Like I said, I do not know much about it other than it was likey an artillery cadet uniform item. I think if you could hold it an see the natural verdigris and deep patina you would agree. Such is not easily or convincingly faked. Mike