Militaria for sale
Lenny Warren trawls the internet to find bargains, rare, interesting or bizarre items of militaria
Lenny Warren takes a trip around the internet in search of rare, interesting and desirable collectables.
Like many of us, I’m a big fan of war films. Even as a young child they were my favourite type of film and I spent many a Sunday afternoon watching classics like
The Guns of Navarone, The Dam Busters or Kelly’s Heroes. Some of the props that I saw in these movies would inspire me to collect the genuine items in later years. However, there’s a growing interest in collecting movie props rather than the actual real items themselves. To some it might be debateable whether movie props are actually militaria, but for me they deserve to have a place in anyone’s collection.
Here we have a German paratrooper helmet especially made for the TV series Band of Brothers and was used as a lightweight helmet, so they were more comfortable to wear and safer when the stunt team used them. The helmet was moulded from an original helmet and then rubber mix was poured into the mould to form the helmet into a hard rubber compound which at the time was a new process. Previously they would have been made from fibre glass which easily cracks. These helmets are a lot more durable as they flex but are still very sturdy. The shells are about as thick as a real helmet and a replica German paratrooper helmet liner is fixed inside using rivets similar to the way the original liners would have been fitted in. Finished in hand-painted field grey in colour with a smooth finish, some of the sand undercoat is showing through, marked inside ‘P4’. Priced at £300 from www. sofmilitary.co.uk.
A set of three rations tins which are genuine props from the film Fury, starring Brad Pitt. The film follows the 2nd Armoured
Division at the centre of the Allies' final push into Germany to end the war. They're ideal for re-enactment groups looking to add some extra decoration to their set up, or any collector looking for something just a little bit different. There is a varied mix of tins, so the labels of the tins will vary from tuna to beans. Most of the tins have been weathered for the film. Priced at £40 from www.epicmilitaria.com.
Or how about something from Stephen Spielberg’s film Saving Private Ryan starring Tom Hanks? Here we have a prop grenade storage box which was used as set dressing in the movie, it's constructed from wood with two rope handles and two latches with a removable lid. Unlike original war time and reproductions these ammo boxes are missing the Ordnance Corps flaming bomb emblem from two of the corners, and these prop boxes have a unique lot number of ‘LS-3-265’ that can be seen on screen in the film. Film props and costumes from Saving Private Ryan are extremely hard to find and this is one of the few I’ve ever seen for sale. Priced at £595 from www.moviebits.co.uk .■