Iraqi M80

Soon.

Oh dear..

It appears as if I haven't been posting. But don't worry I'll get around to that Iraqi helmet I promised a while back. When though is another question.... [Updated 3/24/2013]

Yugoslavian M59/85

Well here it is! The Yugo M85! Let's take a look shall we?

As we can see the liner seems to be copied off the WWII and Korean M1 suspensions. Earlier types (Which I do not own but this fine gentleman does Yugoslavian M59) appeared as if they were direct copies of the M1 liner.

And to add to the long list of copy and pasting from the M1 here's the swivel bale (M59 top, M1 bottom)

Even the sweatband is copied! I wonder what else on the M59 is copied from the M1...

And whadya know. Here's one of the chinstrap clips and those of us familiar with M1 liners between WWII and Vietnam would recognize this

But that's where the similarities end. As we can see the helmet sports a small profile that covers only a small portion of the head. 

Here we see one of the clips so to remove the system for the sweatband. The actual suspension is separate. 

Here we have a nice little ink stamp that reads...

TR-ZH-90

I can only assume that this was made in 1990 so it was made on the eve of that infamous Balkan conflict that we all know too well.

And to add a little icing on the cake here's that familiar bright red star.

Well that's it for this helmet. Next time I'll be showing you all my Iraqi M80 brought back by a relative of a friend of mine. Cheers to you all!

World War I Model 1916

The German model of 1916 is one of the few examples that proves that looks and usefulness can go hand in hand. Let's take a look at it shall we?

  As we can see the design is very Germanic both in form and in origin.

And here we see those distinctive Frankenstein horns that distinguishes German helmets of the first world war from those of the second. Another thing to note as that those horns serve a dual purpose. One is to ventilate air through the crown of the helmet and to allow the installation of a steel brow plate which I do not own.

Here we see one of the chinstrap lugs in great condition.

Same for the other.

And here we see the maker's stamp. In this case it reads 'Q 66'.

Here's one of the Frankenstein bolts that is so ubiquitous with these helmets. As you can see it too is in fine condition.

As is the other.

And to top it all off here's a portion of the paint which has been partially spared to time.

Well that's that for this helmet, for now anyway. Next I'll be sharing with you all my Yugoslavian helmet from the Balkan civil conflict.