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Your First Piece of Non-US Militaria You Bought?


mikie
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Here's mine. My Dad took me to my first gun show in Clinton, NY in the early 1970s. I was probably 14 or so years old. I spotted this rusty, grungy, filthy old helmet on a table, price was $1.00. I fell in love and bought it. It was my first purchase of any military item. Dad sandblasted it. Pre-internet, only knew that French helmets were blue in WWI. I then went to WT Grant's department store and grabbed the color paint I liked best, since I didn't know the actual color. I made the liner out of fake leather cut out from a chair cushion my Mom was throwing away. I found an old badge of some kind, but there wasn't a hole on the front of the helmet to attach it through. No problem, we had a drill. It wasn't till much later that I realized that no hole meant it wasn't French. Maybe Italian? Oh well, it's French now. Much much later I found an original French WWI artillery badge. Brought it home and much to my surprise, it was almost the exact color I had randomly painted it 20 years earlier. So here it is.

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What was your first militaria purchase? Any good stories about it? I'd love to hear how you other folks got started.

 

Mikie

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I think...if memory serves...that it was a WWII era Swiss helmet at a flea market for $15 bucks or so. When I was a kid I use to wear it around the flea market, and people would see it bouncing around the crowd and let me know if they had anything militaria when I sauntered by. I still have it

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My first piece was purchased in 1957 at the age of eight. My Dad was both a hunter and an avid gun collector. I would often tag along

with him on his gun shop trips. On a trip to JACKSON ARMS in Dallas, Texas (across the street from SMU) I found a mint Luftwaffe SD M40 helmet.

Price was $15.00 and it was a size 53 (no wonder it was "mint.") My Dad bought it for me and it fit perfectly. I was "decked out" when me and the other kids

played ARMY. From that point on I became "a collector."

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  • 3 weeks later...
vostoktrading

It was around 1969. I was about 9 years old. My dad and I were at a surplus store in San Rafael, CA. They had British Mk3 "turtle" helmets for sale. I begged him to get it. He did. It was cheap and super cool for a kid to wear around while playing army with his friends.

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