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WW1 era US Marines with the Lweis gun.

That’s impressive. Excellent detail, I’m sure a lot of time and energy went into putting that together

Here is a WW2 dated (1942) Luftwaffe Field manual/handbook. Basic information such as marching, saluting, marksmanship and even how to wash yourself. Similar to the soldiers manual the US troops used.

Picked up some spare Lewis Gun oil brushes (marked VAC & VSM) that were carried in the butt stock and a 1918 dated small parts tin.

At what point did you get into collecting, why and how? What was that first cherished item? For me I was 14 and ordered a Swiss 1956 SIG Bayonet from US Cavalry for $15 USD. I had been buying other military surplus for a while (clothes, boots, etc) but this was my first bayonet. I wanted to collect swords but that was far outside the budget (and still is!) so I downgraded to bayonets. Luckily the Swiss make simply amazing items and I became hooked. I still have the bayonet, though I did stupid things with it back then (like tried to put an edge on it, I though all knives needed and edge and clearly the silly swiss had not done this to their bayonet for some odd reason).

Ok, after consulting several well known collectors, here is what I came up with. Most of the paint that is on these plates is nearly all gone, but I did see trace amounts that look to be a light green, a shade much lighter than the paint on the helmets. I used a similar paint on the plate below. It is as close as I can get without more information. It displays quite well. Sorry it is not on the mannequin with the overcoat, but the moths are coming back out in force now, had to put it away.

Mp4 clip embedded.

God information! Thank you!

Here are some more images.

Here some more pictures...

Here are a few more pages...

Here are the pictures I promised...I liked the picture that shows the cabinet and where the gear goes. I had a chance to buy such a cabinet several years ago, however shipping would have costed a fortune, way more that the cabinet costed.

I've seen that book offered quite a few times with various editions, 1936, 1939, 1943, prices ranging from 65-90 Euros. Has a brochure type cover. Would be interesting to browse through. The publisher Ernst Mittler is back in business again, after having disappeared from the scene for many years. Their publications are usually marine technology, but also some historical topics.

Hi guys, the wife bought me this display case at Xmas, it's ideal for small collections and has a padded interior backing so that medals & badges can be fixed by pins. It also has hanging fixtures already fitted , so easy to wall mount and hinges open from the front . It measures 14"14" & was only £16 from the outlet store: The Range: in Kilmarnock , I think it's great value for money & very tidy.

Cheers guys, my OCD was lkicking in when trying to space them properly . I might get a nice DRL Badge to fit in that space above the EK1.

Very nice Buster like the way you've laid them out.

very nice Buster

U40 a ww1 uboat has finally been found in the North sea after being sunk by a british sub under a decoy ship.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7972415.stm

Post the pics when you get the time, and can anyone recommend a hotel ?

I saw the Flak towers.Enormous things,very impressive.There was no tour then.I need get my pics of Berlin up when i was there the first time in Sept 90.It was when the East German border guards had just left and everything was still intact.Quite amazing.You were able to walk across the wall into no mans land and over the ditches and car traps and climb up the towers which still had searchlights intact.It was a strange feeling knowing that only months before you would have been shot if you stood in that wide open ground completely exposed. Although the wall had come down the previous November the guards officials etc had only been dismissed weeks before we visited so everything was intact.Looking back i saw the end of a major period of history. I remember standing for thirty minutes in Potsdamm watching these very smart looking Mongolian Soviet military Police directing convoys of Soviet troops and their tank transporters and vehicles leaving Germany and heading eastward going home.Amazing memories.

Planning going in the summer. Did you do the flak tower tour as it looks a good one to do.

I can't believe I missed these two stories. I visited the Fuhrer Bunker site in August (and the SS/Wehrmacht/Goering buildings etc) and it's hard to believe where it was with the flats that are on it. You're not allowed to dig/map/do reports on what's underneath it and there was a woman taking pictures from a flat of everyone who arrived to view it - they don't like the visitors and make complaints to the local council(?) about it becoming a tourist/sshrine. Weird, weird place and you can virtually smell the history. Not much left of it though.

Bet your confused now Reece

P.P.S. Graeme, thanks for the kind words, you are right of course !

Reece, German helmets can come damned expensive, particulary WWII models, even those without decals. German medals can be quite reasonable, but do beware of Third Reich fakes, many of them are just too good to tell from the original, particularly those that are die-struck just like the original. Why not get to know something about Imperial German medals, (I love them) ? If you buy a group of three, with an Iron Cross, you have something with solid investment potential, and they can be damned interesting and tell a story. Usually you can find an Iron Cross group, together with a Hindenburg cross, and a German 1914-18 state service medal for about a hundred quid or less. A few years back you could have found dozens around the £70 mark, that's how well they are holding their value. OR, you can find good genuine 1914-18 groups with a common, but genuine, Third Reich medal stuck on the end, gives the service life of a veteran of the First War. Just a thought, hope it helps. P.S. Do yourself a favour and forget about SS and other 'Glamour' units for a while. If I had all the money inexperienced collectors have spent on repro SS, I could buy a small island !

Reese, don't buy postwar or east German crap don't waste your money.As Kenny said helmets and medals is a good start.I know its how i started over 20 years ago in the Bunker.

DDR NVA helmets are easy to find on army surplus sites, etc. You'll find them are Army Navy stores around as well. Same for post-war DDR badges. The facinating thing with East Germany was when the wall came down the entire Army and government essentially stopped, flooded the world with the surplus for an entire national army. I remember the mid-90s as a time you could get an entire NVA airborne outfit with full kit, dress and jump for about £100.

But where could i find them

Yeah greg i think i will start off with post ww2 helemets just as a starting point and spend more as i go along

Reece, just a suggestion but you might want to think about collecting the 'history/development' of German helmets. This would allow you to also collect post-WWII German helmets. The East German (DDR) NVA helmet is still rather cheap and there are about 3 design progressions for it, plus various helmet netting and covers all available for under £50. The immediate post-war helmets were identical to the war ones and also available for slightly less. Romania also used the exact same design and you can find these (often faked as German) easily too.

yeah i think headgear and german medals

That would be a good choice , I've done both ,headgear has always been one of my favourite items and looks really good on display. It is is a good idea to have a secondary collection too as sometimes things don't turn up and you want something to keep you going until you get your next main item.

Yeah well im thinking of collecting german medals and different types of helmets

Definitely a good idea to specialise or else your collection won't go anywhere I collect only Eastern Front Panzer related items, although as these items are quite hard to get I have just gone off on a tangent and am also collecting the Britains Rourks Drift Zulu war figures ,they don't really fit in with the collection but look good I was always a big fan of the film Zulu. I don't think it's such a big problem when you are just starting out, buy a few different types of items and get a feel for them.Then chose you favourite item or what interests you the most ,you can then trade in your other items and move in the direction you want to go in. That's what I did ,I've collected Afrika Korps items , British Medals ,Pickelhaubes and now Panzer would like to think I will be sticking with Panzer for the foreseeable future.

Yeah well at the momnet i collect anything and everything but i want to stick to one thing but i dont know what its a REAL hard disision.

Graeme is right! I started collecting at 15 and here I am 11 years later with a bayonet collection valued around $8,000 USD and growing. I originally began collecting anything and everything before starting to fill out niche areas. I use to acquire 12 items a year when prices still were ok. Now I am down to 2-3 items a year hard sought out but I can ensure are original. Plus, many of the usual places I would go are now picked clean (there is a antiques market in Gettysburg PA that will proudly vouch that I stripped of every good bayonet they had... it was an undiscovered source by collectors till then). When I began collecting I believed having items was the most important thing.. this is FALSE. THE most important thing for collectors is books, guides and networks. Collecting forums like this, Armourer magazine (ok I ended my subscription after their bungle of SS dinnerware) etc are crucial to know the market. You NEED you collection guides. I have several bayonet books and they are heavy and bulky but without them I could never ID what it original and what is junk. If you become super obsessed, to study the stuff. Get an internship with a museum or get to know curators. Or, go get a Masters degree in warfare studies or battlefield archeology and do it professionally (both are available in Scotland)

Reece, As much as Newlyn and I disagree on many things he is someone to listen to when talking about collecting (and specifically on German items). You will spend much money over the years and some of it will be wasted on fakes and crap. We all have. Never be put off by that. On the last version of the forum I posted 2 or 3 items that I had spent money on only to discover at a later date they were dogs. Never let your mistakes put you off. No-one on this forum has not made mistakes that have cost them money. It's part of the game. As Newlyn says - buy quality. In the last year I have bought 2 groups only. That's not down to lack of money it's down to lack of quality from what I wanted. I have bought a WWI Trio to a 15 year old at a snip of about £80 because the other guy was too lazy to research the Group and a Group of 7 to a chap in the RMLI that stretched from 1890-1945. He started with an RN LS&GC in 1905 and ended with a WWII Defence in 1945 for his work in the ARP. That is a whole life time!!! It also has a 1st and 3rd Class Corps LS&GC. 1st Class are common but 3rd Class!!!!! I have been collecting these items for 4 or 5 years and have never seen a 3rd Class for sale either in a single or a Group. Hen's teeth are more common. That's 2/3 the value of the Group alone. Research. Know what you are looking for. Learn. It's better than school. I collect to the KOSB. Just now I have seen an MM & Trio. I want a Group like this. But I won't buy it. There is no MM Citation for this and his service papers were destroyed. All there is, is a MIC and a LG Entry. Where is the research? Where is the man's life? You have to know when to let an item go. You are young and have time on your side. Be careful and decide what way you want to go in your collecting field early. And stick to it. The odd branch offs are fine but remember your main field of collecting.

yep but i think that my coleccting will never stop until i stop and wehn my old i MEAN OLD OLD ww2 will be ancient history to kids hope people will still honour the sldiers of all sides who fought in ww1 and ww2 i defonetley will

Not bad so far Reece. Trouble is doesnt matter how much I have in my collection it is never enough. Always something else to buy.

well my great grandad (ww1) my gran says he dident speak about the war he was in . ino he was at the somme but she says thats one thing he dident talk about and well my gran remembers the bombings and in when she went to germany she was called an english pig mabe thats why and her cousain was killed in the war

Well from ww2 i have bits and peices a few medals an raf pill box i thinnk it is anyway it was my grans cousains he was shot when coming home for leave from northern africa . a medal for 25 years service (german ) a ww2 medall british for being in the war . a german silver wounds badge . a ww2 hitler stamp . some british cleaning stuff . old 303 magizines. raf binoculars part of an mg42/43 feeder . a german stripper clip thts all really im getting a british helmet in a few weeks not really much

What sort of stuff you collected so far Reece? I started off with a West Wall medal my Grandfather brought back from his time in Germany during the war. Once I started earning money I started buying cheaper end medals and badges. Now there is no really cheap stuff around but I still love campaign badges, medals, the odd SS item and bits of fieldgear.

My grandad was like that. I remember my mum told him that she was going on holiday to Germany and he threw her out his house. This was in the 80's. As he said the bastards tried their best to kill me why the hell are you going there. Memories die hard. Probably just as well he died before I hooked up with my ex. God knows what he would have made of my daughter.

I just dont understand my mum calls my colecction bits of metal and well if its german my gran just nags i mean im not doing anything so why r do they seem to disagree with coleccting

Yeah i watch alot of history and love it at school and try to save as much as possible for my colecction ive got about 10 things at the moment but ive got alot of colecctiong years ahead. But historys always been my thing even from an earley age. but it takes me about 2 to 3 weeks to earn 100 or more and its gone soon as i get it for colectiong

Well I'm only 15 and I've been collecting for just over 2 years I've always been interested in ww1 and ww2 mainly ww2 .but it started with my friend giving me an anti-aircraft gun shell or bullet .and it just started from their then i got a job and i bought more and still continue collecting

My collection started when I was very young. My Grandfather gave a West Wall medal and War Merit Cross that he had brought back from his time in Germany during WW2. In his loft he has a lovely HJ knife, K98 cleaning kit and helmet I used to play with. Lost interest in militaria till turned middle aged and started reading loads of autobiographies of soldiers on the Russian front and last days in Berlin. Got hooked on buying medals and badges since then. Still have great passion for relics alleged to be from the areas that most interest me ...Stalingrad etc. Justify my expenditure to the wife on basis of great investment returns of most of the badges and medals but dont ever expect to sell any. Hopefully junior will share my passion. Wife not too impressed when she found me on babes in uniform section several nights in a row. Now she is refusing to wear the helmet I bought her in bed and arranging net nanny.

Excellent Dave, the forum has been quite busy recently

good to be back. I'll try to keep posting,honest guvnor!!

I bought a copy of The Armourer out of curiosity one day when i was waiting at the Central station in Glasgow. I have always loved the look of the third reich stuff,but after a quick check i realised that the prices were out of my reach. I have now started to collect ww1 CDV's of German infantry,along with east german militaria. The DDr stuff is still quite cheap,but the prices are rising,especially the embroidered flags and the dark coloured tunics.