WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Question and opinion regarding Living History / Reenacting.
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Frank USMC
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WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Post by Frank USMC » Thu Jun 23, 2022 3:28 pm

Today I went looked at some WW1 helmets, to me they screamed fake, but I want some one to change my mind because they are fore sell.
They look like the ones that IMA sells every week on their sells page. A WW1 Bodie helmet with a unit patch on it. One of the helmets have the Armor triangle on it, the other is painted in a camouflage of yellow red, and green.
The helmets look like WW1 helmets down to the paper tags in both of them, again, an issued helmet with paper tags still in them.
Does anyone know anything about the helmets that IMA is selling?.....I am sure that is where the helmets came from.
Thanks!
One of the few, Frank USMC RET


AZ Jeff
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Re: WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Post by AZ Jeff » Fri Jun 24, 2022 6:50 am

Frank,

I looked at some of the current IMA helmet offerings on line. They have quite a few unit-marked, and/or camouflaged, WW1 U.S. helmets. Based on the pics, the helmets are originals. The markings and camo? Dunno. Folks have been monkeying with WW1 helmets for decades. Back in the 70s and 80s when American WW1 helmets were common in excellent condition, what better way to increase the value of a salty, beater example than with unit markings and a camou finish? In the late 80s Manion's auction was listing a handful of surprisingly nice, somewhat rusty, German camo helmets in every auction. Whoever was doing them was GOOD. I know, because I got burned by one. Exterior would have 80-90%, wonderful camo finish... chips...rust...dirt... But the interior was a train wreck: shriveled-up. rock hard leather, crispy straps, paint with 80 years of handling/oil/dirt. They are certainly still floating around in collections.

I know that IMA is buying groupings and collections regularly so it wouldn't surprise me if they got into a long time collection/accumulation of WW1 helmets. Unfortunately, "I've been collecting since the 70s" is no guarantee that everything they have is original.

Jeff Q.
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Re: WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Post by Rustman » Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:50 am

Frank USMC wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 3:28 pm
The helmets look like WW1 helmets down to the paper tags in both of them, again, an issued helmet with paper tags still in them.

One of the few, Frank USMC RET
Back away and keep your money. No legit helmet is still going to have paper tags inside AND be unit marked or came painted.

Matt
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AZ Jeff
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Re: WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Post by AZ Jeff » Fri Jun 24, 2022 8:59 pm

I sold this ID'd 28th Division Captain's helmet a few months ago. U.S. production M1917, excellent paint, liner, enameled cloth adjustment tag and 28th Division insignia. It came out of an old PA collection less than a year ago.

28th Division Helmet.jpg
28th Division Helmet Liner.jpg


These helmets "can" exist with all the bells and whistles as long as they were preserved well. This one was, but I'm sure that improper storage, child play and house moves probably did more to ruin many of these helmets than any use in a combat theater. The 28th spent a total of 80 days in active and quiet sectors in France. Captain Schwalm packed his steel pot away after hostilities and it (thankfully) survived just fine.

I would be looking at interior and exterior wear that is consistent. A beautiful camo paint job with a trashed liner doesn't make sense. They simply didn't wear these helmets that long, if at all, with camo paintwork. Same for most unit insignia. And a camo TANK UNIT helmet...? Impossible, no. Just unlikely.

Jeff Q.
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PS -- it went back to PA

Frank USMC
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Re: WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Post by Frank USMC » Sat Jun 25, 2022 2:31 am

I have one here also, but mine came from an estate, that also had about 3 boxes full of stuff from IMA and Sportsman Guide.
I never ran into a unit painted helmet in the ones I saw growing up in a heavy military community.
Jeff, I did as a child, I had in my hands, but did not know it at the time, an original Wildcat Division felt patch from the estate of a WW1 veteran. I was given his helmet (No patch on it). The 81st Wild Cat division was from Camp Jackson SC , and was the first army division to wear a patch showing their division.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET

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Re: WW1 helmets, IMA, armor marked

Post by Frank USMC » Sat Jun 25, 2022 2:34 am

Jeff
Also, the helmets I looked at looked just like yours, yours looks like some one might have let the Grandkids wear it, but the ones I looked like they were just out of the crates, with perfect, white paper tags.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET


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