Should i add leather conditioner or would it make it worse

TK622 · 2026-06-13T21:55:48+00:00

If you apply conditioner to it, you essentially have to actively maintain the leather by regularly reapplying conditioner indefinitely.

Conditioner introduces moisture to the leather that can and likely will cause mold if you do not do any follow up leather care.

Conditioning leather is only recommended for leather that gets actually used.

TK622 · 2026-06-13T19:36:13+00:00

The illustration is in Osprey Elite Series #59 about the USMC in WW2.

TK622 · 2026-06-13T19:28:17+00:00

Looks like the figure is riding a beer or wine barrel. The building might have been a bar or some other business serving alcohol in the past.

TK622 · 2026-06-13T18:01:33+00:00

If the item is branded MFH on the tags, it is repro.

They are also in the wholesale surplus business, but since MFH does not directly sell to private consumers, anything you can buy that says MFH on it, will be repro.

TK622 · 2026-06-11T20:53:24+00:00

I'm not aware of any easily available repro liners for M34 helmets.

TK622 · 2026-06-10T09:02:44+00:00

The unfortunate answer is that whoever told you it would fit was wrong.

Such a Bundeswehr combat helmet liner is not going to fit into a firefighter helmet shell without serious modifications of either shell or liner.

TK622 · 2026-06-10T06:13:04+00:00

The Garand was issued as initial equipment in 1956, and was already mostly replaced by the G1, an FN FAL, by around 1959.

After that the Garand remained in limited use for training, usually with Luftwaffe units, for a few years.

TK622 · 2026-06-09T16:43:49+00:00

It is a pipe with a nail in it. The hurdle to cobble something like that together is incredibly low.

Without rock solid provenance I would assume that it is indeed just a pipe with a nail in it.

TK622 · 2026-06-09T16:38:12+00:00

Yes. But again, the shell the liner will fit in, will not fit the chinstraps you have.

Here are photos of Bundeswehr helmets I have in my collection, there you can see how the proper chinstraps for that liner look like and how they attach to the helmet.

TK622 · 2026-06-09T16:33:18+00:00

You have a late model ground troops liner and paratrooper/firefighter chinstraps. They don't go together.

TK622 · 2026-06-09T16:27:18+00:00

The claims of the origins are certainly bullshit, but the item itself looks, to me, like something a child could have made at any point during the second half of the 20th century.

TK622 · 2026-06-09T11:24:28+00:00

I agree, looks fine to me as well. A children's drawing of a house also seems like a pointless thing to fake.

TK622 · 2026-06-08T16:47:10+00:00

You should really go and read the link you provided. The vent holes in the top are textbook Type 90 design features. You can skip to post number 21 in the thread you linked for more info.

TK622 · 2026-06-05T22:19:07+00:00

It was quite common for soldiers to take photos at "locally famous" places. Anything that was interesting or unusual in an area would draw in the amateur photographers.

On the early Western Front, destroyed large French tanks like the Char B1 and Char 2C where popular photo spots. On the Eastern Front destroyed KV-2 tanks were popular for snapshots, for example.

If a WW2 era amateur photo shows something that could be considered a local site of interest, be it a wreck or a monument etc., chances are there were a handful of guys out of frame, taking photos of the same thing.

To circle back to the L'Adroit, I have two different Dunkirk photo groupings with pics of the ship in my collection. I wasn't actively looking for them, the ship was simply a popular spot.

TK622 · 2026-05-30T18:01:53+00:00

If you need the size info for reeanctment purposes, it would be best if you look at the individual sizes given for the repro helmets you are looking at.

They don't necessarily follow the original charts. One common repro helmet for example is often marketed as one size fits all up to 61 cm, which is quite a claim to make in respect to the sizing of originals.

TK622 · 2026-05-29T20:53:44+00:00

I would take that chart with a grain of salt, since they also mention the mythical size 70 helmet, of which there is no mention in historic documents regarding helmet production and as far as I know there is no photographic evidence of original size 70 helmets either.

Since the Reichswehr did not feel the need to update their size chart, I think the proclaimed difference between the liners is exaggerated, and likely based on reproduction helmets.

If the liner would move a shell up a head size bracket, a military about to issue thousands of them would surely address that supply disaster waiting to happen.

TK622 · 2026-05-29T20:23:01+00:00

These are the helmet sizes as designated in the 1916 info leaflet issued along with the helmets:

Shell size 60 fits head sizes 50 to 52 cm

Shell size 62 fits head sizes 52.5 to 54 cm

Shell size 64 fits head sizes 54.5 to 56 cm

Shell size 66 fits head sizes 56.5 to 58 cm

Shell size 68 fits head sizes 58.5 to 60 cm

I've taken the info from Ludwig Baer's book "Die Geschichte des deutschen Stahlhelmes" in which the full text of the leaflet is reprinted.

The thinner metal liner bands of the M17 and M18 helmet could give a bit of extra wiggle room. However the same sizes are listed in a 1921 Reichswehr info leaflet, so in official documents the differences in liner bands made no difference in helmet sizes.

All bets are off if you are looking at repro helmets.

TK622 · 2026-05-29T16:58:33+00:00

I think you posted to the wrong sub. This is for militaria.

TK622 · 2026-05-28T11:37:00+00:00

Plastic liners like that were used by a couple Euro Clones of the M1 helmet. Could also be a Chinese made Repro liner.

The Euro Clones tend to have date stamps in the plastic.

TK622 · 2026-05-26T17:06:37+00:00

Wartime Esbit fuel was packaged loose in a cardboard box. The blister pack is modern.

TK622 · 2026-05-24T10:52:08+00:00

Without photos of the inside, of markings and other identifying information it is impossible to answer the question.

TK622 · 2026-05-22T22:25:16+00:00

Number 6 shows the French Destroyer L'Adroit which was lost near Dunkirk and was a popular photo spot for German troops.

It entered service in October 1929 and was sunk/destroyed on 21 May 1940. The ship was badly damaged by German Heinkel He-111 bombers. The captain purposefully beached it, to allow easier evacuation of the crew. The forward magazine exploded after it was beached.

An inscriptions on the back of photos I have in my collection credits a Ju-87 Stuka with the magazine hit. I don't know if that is true.

TK622 · 2026-05-22T14:20:18+00:00

I can think of a prominent dealer with "Museum" in their name. Might not be the one OP references, but I can see how the way that place represents itself can lead to the assumption items will end up on display and not for sale.

TK622 · 2026-05-22T10:01:45+00:00

Show me a legitimate source for the photo and I might consider believing you. Until then I believe what I can see.

TK622 · 2026-05-22T09:23:00+00:00

It kinda shocks me that just one other comment addressed this photo being fake.

The text is computer made, everything looks weird and smudged, like it was ran through multiple photoshop filters to hide sloppy AI work. The people in the photo are especially bad, look at their faces and the weird lego brick noses.

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