Hello!

Wondering what colors to use for WWII German infantry
Early war, mid war, late war....doesn't matter

For what I "think" I know is that the helmets were Dark Grey. Is there a certain color you use that would be close? (Panzer grey, Field grey)

What other colors were there? Field Green? Desert tan? Black?

Thanks so much

Sean,
In my early days- back in the dark ages of the sixties), I owned a collection of WWII helmets (and a few WWII) of all the participants, and had several from Nazi Germany. The Early Fallschirmjager helmet was a medium grey-blue, or field grey (which is really a green-grey). The standard Luftwaffe was blue-grey, the Heer (Wehrmacht) was either field grey or in some cases a really dark brown/grey or sand/mustard (as used in Italy/N.Africa). I have heard of some grey helmets-- but the only grey ones I ever saw in another collection were from the Kreigsmarine. The SS used black for their dress helmets, otherwise, they were the same field grey as the Wehrmacht. By 1943 the national insignia was generally removed, but the Luftwaffe kept their helmet badges for some time, as did the dress helmets. In 1972, I sold my collection and paid for my first year of college-- all those years of collecting paid off!.
Very Respectfully, Russ

It could be dark yellow german gray or deep-field green


tihs is one of mine,a little too light I feel，but for contrast with darker scrach

thanks guys for your replies!

Here are the two, un-monkeyed-with, German WWII helmets that I have in my uniform collection.

The first, an M35 helmet, originally had the decals on either side (which were carefully scraped off during the war per order) and is a VERY slightly more "mossy" green than the second. (Note also the turned rim and separate grommets around the vent holes.)

The second, an M42 helmet, is a cooler, more "bluish" green color. (Note also the rim is sharp and not turned under ad the vent holes have a stamped reinforcing ring around them.)





The apparent differences between the interior and exterior colors is caused by the lighting and camera. Each helmet is the same color inside and out.

There were some examples of these helmets that were camouflaged by the users with the standard Dark Yellow, Dark Green and / or Red Brown used on AFVs. These paints, when used (rarely!), were most often hand-brushed on, but there are even rarer original examples where the camouflage was sprayed on.

(Note that ORIGINAL camouflaged German helmets command extraordinarily high prices on the collector's market, so most examples of camouflaged helmets seen today have been faked.)

There MAY have been some end-of-the-war (ca '45) helmets manufactured in Einheits Grau (gray) vice the standard dark green. Einheits Grau was probably the same color as we call "Panzer Gray." I have some original German field equipment with the hardware manufactured in this color, but I've never seen or handled an original helmet painted in this color, only having read it may have happened.

German Army WWII helmets were manufactured in a standard, dark green color.

HTH,

Can't do better than pics of the real deal!!
J

Hi

Great info from Mike.

As with everything it seems these days, there is a web site.

http://www.german-helmets.com/

One to bookmark maybe.

Alan

Thanks guys