20th Century Helmet Lightweight Parachutist ( Thetford Moulded Products )

[Mark K]

Just thought I might share a few images of my earliest lightweight Parachutist helmet I was pretty dam excited to finally add one to my shelf and able to fill a huge gap in my British Para helmet collection with the addition of this helm

This example is sporting the early green vinyl chinstrap as produced Thetford, and is very likely one of the earliest variants due to the smooth surface on the helmet body and the bare metal un-coated liner retention nuts and bolts ..

Also of note is the white brow pad which was only found on the earliest of examples, It with out a doubt shows its age and is in the condition I would expect to see from a issued example it was missing the black plastic slider section of the buckle at the time of purchase but with the help of a good friend in the UK ( James ) whom sent me a few bits and pieces I was able to add a new used example to replace it..

( The cover ,net ,nbc strips and hessian are not original to this helmet and have been added for the purpose of display ) the 1968 pattern DPM hood was converted into a helmet cover as there were no military issued examples available for this particular helmet in the early 1980's all finished off with a late 1970's early 1980's camouflage net and old hessian scrim to represent a para helm that would have been worn during the time of the Falklands Islands War.

 

Regards Mark

[Kia kaha]

Mark Here’s is a later version of the same helmet.

British desert D.P.M. cover cover with U.S.Army chocolate chip individual camo net over the top. Held on with cloth”sniper” tape and a rubber tyre tube rubber band.

[Mark K]

A nice unissued example with the tags still intact here are two of my later production models I have a couple more kicking about but have not taken pictures of them yet..

 

Regards Mark