11th airborne m1 helmet shell

[19mac79]

Hi guys,

Before I buy this, what do we think? How does the painted decal look to you?

Any help would be much appreciated. 

Cheers

Andrew

[Blacksmith]

I think you are going to need some better close-ups to get any good input.

 

From what I can see, the part of the helmet around the stencil looks cleaner than the rest of the shell.  

 

That could mean a couple of things.

[19mac79]

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, funnily enough, I noticed the cleaner part of the helmet as well and thought I'd post it on here and see what people think (or if it's a well known fake that's passed the rounds haha). It may be nothing or it could be much worse. 

I'll message the guy who's selling it and see if he can provide better pics.

It's a tough one with things like this as until you've got it in front if you, it could be one of two things haha. 

Thanks

Andrew

[BILL THE PATCH]

Looks like a nice legit 11th Abn 50's helmet, wait for sgt derango to chime in , this is his forte

Sent from my moto g(7) play using Tapatalk

[dhcoleterracina]

Looks like someone deliberately removed paint from the rim and bales, especially the bales. I've never seen one so clean, weird. 

[dmar836]

No

[19mac79]

Thanks guys.

[Burning Hazard]

Just about every 11th AB helmet I've seen was repainted before insignia applied; this one is an exception.

 

I'd love to take my loupe and look at the white paint up close - a salty shell like that should definitely have micro cracking in the white paint.

 

Pat

[Matt-M]

It does look strange to see such a shiny bail/bail on the helmet, but I was at an old surplus store in Ogden and they had a crate full of steel pots rusted brown from sitting outside in the surplus yard for years, yet the bails/bales were bright and shiny like this one. Weirdest thing I ever saw on a helmet. I am no helmet expert, so I cannot comment on the paint. Just thought I'd pass on what I saw.

[P-59A]

 I do not like this at all. As to the paint...how is the inside pitted and the outside ok yet the bail looks new? Too many things do not add up.

 

 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, P-59A said:

 I do not like this at all. As to the paint...how is the inside pitted and the outside ok yet the bail looks new? Too many things do not add up.

 

 

The bails and rim are stainless steel.

This helmet looks like its had a heavy cleaning and/or some paint removal done. 

[P-59A]

This is what I am talking about. The rust has taken away all of the paint inside the helmet. The pitting on the metal inside is bad, very bad. Yet the chin strap does not reflect the poor condition it was stored in. The bail is devoid of any trace of paint or age. So it was cleaned, that  does not explain how the inside can be so bad yet the out side still have paint on it. All things age in unison at the the same relative rate given exposure to time and weather. Normally the outside of the helmet suffers damage due to exposure and the inside of the helmet is protected due to the helmet being stored dome side up. In this case the helmet would have to be stored dome side down and exposed this way like a bird bath for years. The outside of the dome indicates nothing to me showing it was stacked inside another helmet. If it was the outside of the helmet would be just as damaged as the inside due to water inside that helmet equal to the water that was in the helmet we are looking at. The outside dome shows no indication I can see of long term storage upside down in the conditions equal to the conditions inside the dome. The chin strap shows no heavy rust stains bleeding on to it from the poor conditions. For the reasons stated above this is why it does not add up for me. Give me a logical reason for the helmet looking like it does. And please do not give me a maybe this or maybe that kind of answer. If you know of a set of circumstances that replicate what I am looking at I would love to know what those circumstances are.

[BILL THE PATCH]

Someone could have started to clean the thing up, maybe by sanding the paint off first then stopped for some unknown reason, lots of reasons why rust is the Inside and not out. Maybe it was filled with water for years. Doesn't have to be outside to have water in it. All I know is the insignia looks good to me anyway. I don't see many fakes 50's helmets around, I'm sure there are some. But I don't see them. The straps don't look like repos either.

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[P-59A]

I see the rust has pushed the SS rim out on the inside photo and that same rim is tight on the outside photo. That is some mighty smart rust for it to attack only one side of the helmet like that. Or I just do not understand what is going on here. One or the other.

[dmar836]

You're past the IP, Dave. Get back into formation or just bail out!