DESCRIPTION
This helmet came out of a estate of an advanced collector whose family inherited it along with several other German paratrooper helmets all similar to this one. As the former paint job was absolutely horrible I went ahead and completely stripped down the shell and repainted it as per WW2 Normandy specifications. In my opinion this shell was produced back in the 1980-90's in Western Europe when they were still making highly accurate paratrooper shells. Some suggest this was achieved using original factory presses and machinery but I highly doubt that. The helmet has a near perfect overall shape and curvature to the top dome along with the correct subtle upward rise along the front rim edge. The cheap knockoffs can never quite get the shape right as the bottom rim tends to slope upwards too abruptly and at too steep of an angle. The original paratrooper helmets are almost flat bottomed when you lay them on a hard surface and really have that bowl shaped appearance to them.
Since there seems to be quite a lot of demand for paratrooper helmets both in the USA and in Europe I decided to go for a later war no decal configuration for easy export into any non US marketplace whereby in many cases the swastika has been banned. The outside factory applied textured paint has the same color and texture as an original paratrooper helmet would have had but is now been professionally aged to create a mildly weathered look and overall patina to it. The 4 spanner bolts and washers inside are all painted in the correct matching color and ready for an easy liner installation. Currently I'm just plain out of stock or para liners and so went ahead and made this one into a rope style camo using vintage thick twine I had lying around in my workshop and old rusty wire for the retaining hooks.
The shell is stamped ET71 with a rear lot number of 1235 which coincides with Brian Ice's lot data book as a real paratrooper lot number and so most of the boxes are checked here historically speaking.
Definitely nice to have a large size ET71 like this as it will fit most modern men's heads of today and can be used for display or even historical re-enacting.
$300 + shipping.
Shipping to Anywhere USA/Canada: $22 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Europe/UK: $65 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Australia/New Zealand: $85 with full tracking numbers.
(Please contact us with any special shipping instructions as I am here to serve and facilitate the shipment.)
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
HELMETS OF WAR INC.
PO Box 555
Champlain, NY 12919-0555
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
