Ridding Italy of trooper helms

[richsc]

I admit to spending too much time on Facebook. Friended Romans all over Europe, but someone tell me why so many Italians are addicted to trooper helms? Do we need to start Some foreign aid?
Jasper coordinate!

[Matthew Amt]

Tutorial for Improving the Trooper Helmet.

Step One: Place helmet in front of the wheel of a large car, SUV, pickup truck, etc.

Step Two: Drive away.

Enough said.

Matthew


PS: Okay, in all fairness, you can donate the thing (unmodified!) to your local church for their Christmas and Easter plays, or to an amateur theater group, etc. Free help that they need, and it will still be better than anything Hollywood has come up with.

[john m roberts]

Someone posting here modified his trooper into a Batavian auxiliary helm, stripping off the cheek, ear and neckguards, then covering the bowl with fur and feathers. Thus, none of the old Trooper was left visible.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

I rather have a stormtrooper helmet.

But yes, there should be a worldwide action to ban the Trooper helmet.

M.VIB.M.

[Titus Martius]

I fear that it is necessary to get rid of silly cloaks, T-shirt "tunics", leather segmentatas/bracers/musculatas, weird swords etc. too! Trooper helmet is just one thing from many others. :|

[P Sertorius Scaevola]

He Matt, about that recipy of yours; I may be daft but do you drive away from the helmet as in ah backwards?

No seriously, why stop at Italy? It looked okay in the Asterix movie but other than that this anomaly really should leave the scene alltogether, preferably yesterday. But then there's way more to improove as we all know

[A_Volpe]

We're still having to deal with Troopers here in the States, let alone Italy

We also still have to contend with the "Gladiator" thing...

Anyway.

One of our new members who is really into smithing, has totally stripped and re-worked his Trooper and it looks really great! He replaced the neck guard, took off the eyebrows and actually embossed some thin eyebrows ala a Gallic A like feel, he re-worked the cheekguards and added "flaps" to the bottom edges, replaced a lot of the holes with brass bosses and rivets. He's planning to add a brow-guard eventually. The only thing still "trooper" is the top of the bowl, which still looks too rounded, and removing the crest holder slot, the holes are still there, and the "ripples" on the back of the neckguard (but can't do much about that) - but all in all I think it's been an excellent project for him to 1. get his hands dirty on making / modd'ing stuff, 2. see how much work it is with a Trooper.

We also have our infamous cornicern / artillerist, P. Clodius Secundus, who covered a trooper with his bear-pelt (named Elvira), knocked off the neckguard and flattened out the cheek-guards.

Even Matt Amt was surprised to see how it looked less like a trooper

[Matthew Amt]

Yes, there are a FEW people on the planet who have the skill, luck, and sheer bloody-mindedness to convert a trooper helmet into something usable, and it always includes something to cover the damn thing up when they're done! Why go to all that pain to UNdo so much, and still end up with something you'd be embarrassed to reveal? Why buy a hundred dollar helmet and put two hundred dollars worth of work into it to end up with a $25 helmet? If all you really need is the bowl, why not just hunt down an old Civil Defense helmet at a flea market for 20 bucks and convert that? Or get one of those outstanding brass helmet blanks from that company in Europe that bangs them out cheap?

The vast majority of people who own these things simply use them as is, or possibly with way too little revision or covering-up. Ban 'em, and be done with it.

Sorry, it's kinda late and I may be tired, but I keep seeing or hearing about all these projects that folks have to "improve" 4th-rate items into 3rd-rate items. Skip it, and go with a first-rate piece from the start, or even a 2nd-rate one! You'll be ahead without all the wasted pain, effort, and expense, and trust me, you will never look back.

Valete,

Matthew


PS: I don't necessarily count folks who are trying to learn armoring and are mostly using such projects as educational experiences, as long as they are using junk pieces that are already on hand, not purchased for that purpose! Might as well build your first scrap pile from stuff with no other real value, and I certainly encourage making things! But they'd still be better off working from scratch.

[Peroni]

Intersting thread, but you'll never stop Deepeeka making them! It's by far their best seller!

Other metalworking businesses in India blindly copy it too!

[Robert Vermaat]

It's by far their best seller!

But by the ame reasoning, if they would stop making it, would not another helmet become their best seller? :wink:

[kevair464]

We came up with a great use for a trooper.....we used it as a test target for our ballista at about 25 yards, our next test target is a windlass segmentata, then a really crap muscalata, it was either sell some bad member buys on e-bay or test out thier ballistic defense capabilities. And this is more fun. The other test may come when our WW2 unit members try out a K98 rifle on this quality equipment.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

It's by far their best seller!

But by the ame reasoning, if they would stop making it, would not another helmet become their best seller? :wink:

You would think, wouldn't you.....

[M. Demetrius]

As far as I can see, it's less trouble to make an accurate Gallic A than a Trooper, and the price of the former can be triple the latter. Why is that?

[Astiryu1]

Quality,accuracy,etc. 8)

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

My only comment on Matts method of reduction would be to use a steamroller instead of a good vehicle with expensive tires.....
8)