late 1950's west german

Just to share my representation ,unfortunately i cant find a quist two parter  no matter how hard ive tryed so ive had to make do the best i could

Hello

good representation ! with Thompson 1928 SMG  

Salutations

many thanks belgium one

Really nice display of incredibly nice things...

Splinter uniform is superb..


Thanks for posting.

s

Cool, the pants look superfresh!

Ok but not exactly the same ! on the picture , this is a more common model : a M1 or M1A1

cheers guys for the nice comments and the appreciation for the display ,belgium one lets not detract from what i really intended to show ,we can split hairs over the Thompson later its obviously a bone of contention for you my friend,remove the blinkers and concentrate on the positives not the negatives or just simply jog on , salutation's

Very nice bunch of kit you have there! As you know very well, this stuff is getting to be really expensive.

In your first post you mention that you can't find something, but I am unclear what it is you can't find. It looks like you have pretty much everything for a normal soldier kit.

Steve

You have either been very lucky James with your finds or have been spending some big bucks lately with some high end finds/items,like it a lot.

Thanks again ripcord and mylle  ,thanks too steve and richard ,ive been really lucky picking up this kit the majority from a private collection ,the hardest aquisition was the trousers ,these had to be bought out of the US and were the most expensive item ,steve would you kindly look over the cut of the trousers ,are these standard ground troops or fallschirmjager ,im really no expert on the differences ,there are ankle tie ins and the button fly area seems tapered ,your thoughts and guidance would be appreciated ,the icing on the cake would be a 2 part m56 m1 clone ,so ive had to make do with a first model m60 (non perforated liner tongue's) instead ,i do have a ww2 period McCord m1 that i suppose i could of used purely for display ,the gassie tin was empty of the m54 mask so ive added my TR m38 ,it has no container so this will be its new home   back to the trousers i notice the rear pocket has a button slit but no button which i find odd as there no thread remnants ,perhaps just missed during manufacture

I don't know the exact differences between the post war BW gasmask and the wartime one, but it's not a big leap. First glance I thought you had a post war one. Though it has been a while since I've seen one in person. They smell bad so I tend to keep them in their tins

You have standard infantry trousers. It's really easy to spot because the FJ type has metal zippers for the hand pockets and the fly. It also has two rear pockets. The leg pockets are also different and, if you can believe it, there are no knee reinforcements.

I think if you look very closely you will see 4 small holes where the button used to be. But sure, it's possible that someone was asleep on the job and missed putting a button on. It happens

Your helmet looks good for the time period when the uniform was being phased out in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I can never keep the introduction times straight for German helmets The early type was two pieces just like the US type. Very rare these days. Who knows how many of them are sitting around with people thinking they are "just another US pot helmet"! Besides the various FJ helmets, the two piece M1 type helmet is the most expensive BRD helmet out there in my experience.

Steve

I had 2 of them early German M1 types a good few years ago and now I know how rare they are am kicking myself as I turned them into US WW2 type 2nd Rangers helmets and sold both for £20 each.

Hello

the same jacket model than yours ?



Salutations

Steve much appreciated info so thank you ,ive lost touch with gasmask designation's but i should of said gm 30 not 38 im sure the differance between my mask is purely the canvas layer ,i don't think i could tell the differance between the gm 38 and 54 but im sure the purist would put me straight ,thanks for the confirmation on the trousers ,im kind of relieved in a way as i wanted to keep this panzer grenadier as accurate as possible ,the trousers were the hardest item to find especially to match the blue /grey scheme of the jacket ,the hood seems to be the green/ grey colour variant ,the lack of knee reinforcements on the FJ trousers does surprise me ,richard hearing what you did to those helmets makes me want to cry but at least i know to look out for ranger helmets in the future thank you belgium one, i always like viewing period referance picture's

thunderchild wrote:Steve much appreciated info so thank you ,ive lost touch with gasmask designation's but i should of said gm 30 not 38 im sure the differance between my mask is purely the canvas layer ,i don't think i could tell the differance between the gm 38 and 54 but im sure the purist would put me straight ,thanks for the confirmation on the trousers ,im kind of relieved in a way as i wanted to keep this panzer grenadier as accurate as possible ,the trousers were the hardest item to find especially to match the blue /grey scheme of the jacket ,the hood seems to be the green/ grey colour variant ,the lack of knee reinforcements on the FJ trousers does surprise me ,richard hearing what you did to those helmets makes me want to cry  but at least i know to look out for ranger helmets in the future thank you belgium one, i always like viewing period referance picture's

You and me both James but at the time to me they were merely euro M1s and worth more tarted up with a ranger diamond and net than they were but we all learn from our(at times)costly mistakes I guess.

Gulf91 wrote:I had 2 of them early German M1 types a good few years ago and now I know how rare they are am kicking myself as I turned them into US WW2 type 2nd Rangers helmets and sold both for £20 each.

Try to convince yourself that they weren't German but were either Dutch or Austrian. Trust me, plenty of people make this mistake and I think you will sleep better if you think that because 20 GBP is a good price for one of those

belgium_one wrote:Hello

the same jacket model than yours ?

For sure it is. There are only 4 types of jackets made in "narrow" Splinter camouflage:

1. Infantry type (this is what is displayed here)
2. Gebirgsjäger/Luftlande (not entirely sure if it is one or both), which is a 2 pocket jacket with other unique features
3. Fallschrimjäger Blue Variant that has metal zipper slant chest pockets
4. Fallschrimjäger Green Variant that has plastic zipper slant chest pockets

#1 is common. You can find at least 2-3 on eBay at any given time, usually in terrible condition. #2 is known only in single photograph. I've never, ever seen one in a collection or another photo. I do have the trousers though! #3 is extremely rare and probably worth at least EUR 1000 to an insane BW collector. Maybe even more! #4 is even rarer and should be worth even more than the Blue Variant.

The basic uniform was manufactured for only 2 years, so there's very few variations in the design itself. However, there are three sub variants:

1. Blue based
2. Green based
3. Soft Blue

#1 is the most common, #2 is difficult to find, #3 is very hard to find. #3 is made from a soft cotton and appears to have been an experimental issued uniform a few months before standard production of the canvas type started. From period B&W photos you probably won't know which is which. On eBay it is also very difficult most times to know which is which, but a trained eye is definitely helpful

Steve

Steve just to give thanks, your valued input is greatly appreciated

Always happy to put my obscure knowledge to some use

Steve