This is one of my latest creations and for which I took a lot of inspiration from as it came to me from a vet estate and was heavy bikerized with a thick layer of dark blue paint over top the original WW2 paint. When I exposed the lot numbers I was surprised to find that 3521 matched up a the Holy Grail Waffen SS DD helmet and so this left the factory and was used throughout the war by one of Hitler's Elite. I decided to strip it down and rebuild it back from the ground up since no original paint was remaining to salvage. I started with a nice smooth enamel pea green M35 paint and then went ahead and applied two historically accurate decals with a typical C.A. Pocher white metallic SS decal and an ET party shield. I then took myself back to 1944 in the autumn before D-Day and decided that this Waffen-SS soldier wanted to try and blend in with some of the French oak trees surrounding his field post and so applied some burgundy red to his helmet which is a color most often seen in Luftwaffe helmets and was inspired from some of the original Normandy camos on my site which used a burgundy type of brown red. Of all of the original Normandy camo helmets I've held in hand I must say that beyond your standard yellow tans, dark greens and reddish browns the 4th and 5th most common paint colors encountered are burgundy red, kacki greens and deep yellows all of which are historically accurate. Let us always remember that the Waffen SS and Polizei SS most likely had first dibs on any confiscated paints taken from local civilian populations or defeated armies.
The inside liner is 100% original to the helmet and was used by the SS solider himself as the lot numbers bare out. I covered up the red party shield as was usually the case for field spray camo patterns whereby only the SS shield was left exposed. I intentionally made the paint spray a little sloppy in places to create nicely crude drip effects and aged the paint down to a full year of combat from 1944-45. Overall I think it's really looks the part and would be a $12,000 helmet all day long if the paint was original.
SOLD $550
THIS PARTICULAR HELMET IS ALREADY SOLD TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER HOWEVER SINCE I DID THE RESTORATION WORK MYSELF I CAN EASILY DO THE SAME FOR YOU WITH ANY ONE OF MY ORIGINAL SHELLS YOU CHOOSE
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
GERMAN HELMET FACTORY PRODUCTION CODES
(Every original German helmet produced from 1935 to 45 had two factory stampings punched into the side and rear or both in the rear. The alpha numeric number refers to the factory location and the inside metric circumference in centimeters. The rear lot number refers to the production run and was used as a quality control measure. The font styles used at each factory were slightly different but highly consistent throughout the war and so fakes or reproductions will either not have these numbers at all or they will use the wrong font style or letter spacing and so are easily identified as post war made.)
(FS or EF)-Emaillierwerke AG, Fulda, Germany
(ET or ckl)-Eisenhuttenwerke, Thale, Germany
(Q)-Quist, Esslingen, Germany
(NS)-Vereinigte Deutsche Nikelwerke, Schwerte, Germany
(SE or hkp)-Sachsische Emaillier u. Stanzwerke, Lauter, Germany
FIRESIDE CHAT CONCERNING MY SPECIALIZED RESTORATION WORK
I import my ORIGINAL German helmets from Eastern Europe where most have become civilianized stripped down and then repainted black and used in the fire and police services back in the 1950’s. As a result I never know which shell models or sizes I’m getting in stock and so the variety of shell sizes and models will always vary from month to month. So best to check the Home page on the site where I update the list of available raw shells I have in stock at any one time.
Please note that I personally strip down to back bare metal and rebuild back up again each and every shell. First to factory specs and then to field use conditions depending on whatever the customer wants. All of the work is done in house at a designated paint area inside my garage using only ORIGINAL German WW2 factory produced shells. If you have a photo of an original Normandy camouflaged painted helmet or an aged SS helmet or anything you have seen I can use that to basically recreate something very similar for you. No two helmets are every exactly the same and each must tell it’s own story which is what I try to do in my work serving as both artist and historian to the best of my abilities. I was born in 1974 and so despite being sometimes rather fatherly in appearance with a tendency to over drink I do hope to have many good working years ahead of me. I try to keep my weight down by only eating once per day and am slowly starting a long transition away from meat towards only seafood. Most of my customers are probably just like you are i.e. lovers of history, or ex-law enforcement/military and we can’t wait for the next WW2 movie to come out in theaters. Why do we collect German helmets? It’s because they are simply BAD ASS and few objects on the planet conjure up as much fear and respect as these hunks of metal much like Darth Vader’s helmet. As collectors if Star Wars was actually real wouldn’t we’d all want to have a piece of Vader’s uniform or glossy black helmet? As a father of two boys I take great price in watching Band of Brothers with them and saying “Hey look see that German helmet in the movie? Well that one is fake but that one here on our shelf is the real deal. So you see how they got the color and shape of the helmet slightly wrong in the movie” One day my son’s will care about what I’m saying I hope…lol.