Raleigh, N.C. show - Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

Perry Floyd · 01-06-2003, 08:46 PM

I had posted a brief summary of the Raleigh show I attended over the weekend but wanted to post in here a run down of the helmet's avaliable at the show..
I hate to say it but it really wasn't a good picture. I would have to say a good 70% of the helmets there were out right fakes or helmets that had been "doctered up" in some way or another. There was a couple of good transitionals there (one of which I bought and later traded), 4 or 5 nice no decal M42's in uncleaned/just found condition. There was one real M40SD WSS there that sold quick Saturday morning. A real nice solid near mint Polizei M40DD that sold very early Saturday morning. A very decent M35 Luft. reissue was there. I had a good M35DD Luft. for sale there.
I picked up a nice M35SD camo reissue before I left Saturday evening. It was a nice tropical camo, solid tan camo overpainting the Heer decal. Nice and uncleaned with a salty liner. I had known about this helmet for sometime as it was a walk-in 6 months ago at this same show. Every dealer had tried to buy it off him with no luck, I had also tried at the time with no success. He mentioned to me then that he picked it up at a yard sale for $25. Sometime between the last show and this one Ed Hicks had managed to get it by way of trade. I never thought I would end up with it..
In my opinion the "helmet Jewel" at the show was a M42SD RAD helmet. I was very fortunate to nab this baby Saturday morning during dealer set-up. The kicker (if rarity wasn't enough) was I strongly believe this helmet was whitewashed. It had run underneath the liner and inside the dome where it couldn't have been removed without major effort, so this is where the whitewashed remained. Very unique, rarely encountered let alone one that had been whitewashed! I'll feature it in a week or two on a thread on it's own..Like my friend John mentioned there was only one good FJ helmet there and it was on display only..
I did notice several M40DD Heer helmets there, of course fake. I think there was 3 there, all were profesionally done..Also someone walked in with a fake Transitonal Luft. helmet as well. There was a few bad camo's there. A bad Camo/chickenwire FJ helmet and a bad whitewash FJ helmet...
All in all there was alot of minefields out there as quite a few of the fakes were high end caliber...

Ty Smith · 01-06-2003, 09:35 PM

Thanks for the info Perry,
I would be very interested in seeing examples of your whitewash RAD helmet. I have only seen a few original examples. I suspect I have a M40 with whitewash remains but I'm not too sure.

Joe · 01-07-2003, 06:34 AM

I went Sunday morning. There was'nt much going on. Did'nt buy any helmets. I did'nt trust any I saw. So I bought a book "Forgotten Soldier"
Joe

Matt M · 01-07-2003, 07:30 AM

Here is a M40 Camo helmet that I believe was white washed at one time.

Matt M · 01-07-2003, 07:33 AM

Here is the inside of the helmet, notice the light color around the skirt.
If you look at the edge of the rim near the visor you can really see the white wash were it was not wiped away.

Perry Floyd · 01-07-2003, 10:05 AM

Nice looking Camo Matt.
I'll try to get some pics of the RAD helmet soon and show how the whitewash on the inside dome was done..

Perry Floyd · 01-07-2003, 12:50 PM

Also of note from looking at the helmet again today. There is a Heer decal underneath the RAD decal, very hard to make out but there. The runs inside the dome are also comig from one of the vent holes and the bac rivet hole. The rest is what ran behind the liner and then gathered in the bottom of the inner shell.
Could it have been whitewased when it was a Heer helmet??? Very hard to say..it could go either way..