your perfect helmet

[MidnightWolf]

what is your idea of the perfect helmet? and why? what makes it so special to be above the rest?

 

[James]

I will say it would utilitarian, so nothing outrageous. As such, I would say spangenhelm, with four plates, sandwiched, not riveted, to the top bars (spangens), an ocular, and aventail of riveted mail, satin finish, silver inlay, and a spike on top.

It is perfect in that it is Viking, which is, at the moment, my favorite armour period.

 

[brasidus]

I would have to say the imperial gallic H.
I have worn a LOT of helmets over the years in living history, full contact SCA combat amd WMA.
It has the best blend of protection and lack of interferance. Good site, hearing and mobility combined with good face and neck protection. It would be wierd, but overall a nice 14th c transitional suit with a gallic H would do nicely for combat on foot.

http://legvi.tripod.com/armamentarium/id241.html

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

Because I love its look and it would probably offer good protection.

 

[Aqtai]

I would go for a mid-15th century Italian (or German) sallet. Simple, utilitarian, yet also elegant and practical. Something along these lines:




My second favourite is the 15th-16th century Mamluk/Ottoman chichak. Once again simple, elegant but also very practical:

 

[Tiberius]

I can only say which one I like from looks because I really don't know how useful they were. But because of appearance I would choose either crusader Great helmet...

Or the Corinthian Greek helmet... I find it to be really elegant but maybe it wasn't very practical.

But of course I don't know many kinds of helmets so maybe after this thread fills up I can choose a better one

 

[Aqtai]

I think the 13th century great helm while practical was also quite heavy and restricted vision and hearing. By the mid-14th century it was relegated to the tournament field and superseded by the bascinet.  BTW it was pretty much used throughout Western and Central Europe in the 13th and early 14th centuries, not just by Crusaders.

The Corinthian helmet was a very successful helmet that was used for almost 3 centuries. the main reasons for it dying out were because it restricted hoplites' hearing and vision and as hoplite phalanxes started to use increasingly complex tactics in the 2nd half of the 5th century AD, not being able to hear orders probably made it something of a liability.


I had a poll on helmets a while back, there are loads of pics there:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,21880.0.html

 

[allthesedamnnamesaretaken]

 

[kamov23]

Just the badass look i'm going for!

 

[Balinux]

Looks nazi.

 

[Aqtai]

It's actually a rather poor reproduction of a German pickelhaube.  You are right though the Germans used pickelhaubes long before the Nazis seized power. Not only that in the late 19th century many armies adopted pickelhaubes, including the US army.  Even the British Police helmet is based on the pickelhaube.

Check this out:
http://www.pickelhauben.net/pickelhaube.htm
http://www.kaisersbunker.com/pt/

Saying thought though the pickelhaube actually provides little protection; they were usaully made of leather or brass and had no cheek protection. Really they were just decorative.

 

[Tangent]

The pickelhaube was no good for modern warfare. It belonged to an era when individual soldiers were only at real risk of death within close range of the enemy lines. Once WW1 started the Germans (and the other powers) found this out very quickly and developed metal helmets to protect their soldiers.

This is the one that the Germans made; I have always considered it highly elegant. I don't know how effective it is, but the basic design has been copied by many armies since so it can't have been all bad.

I just like the look. 

 

[Ursca]

If there was a 'best dressed soldier' competition, Germany would win every category.

If there's one thing they did well in war, it was looking awesome.

 

[MidnightWolf]

the germans chose the sallet to model their helmets after, while the english chose the kettlehelm

 

[Ninja]

Not really a good helm, but it looks funny 

It is a pothelm from the early medieval times.

 

[Balinux]

The germans have always had an 'evil' image on their armies.

 

[Ninja]

And their ****ty sour food.

Do you mean sauerkraut?

 

[Balinux]

Good sausages, though.

 

[MassacrMan]

Yeah, thats what she said. 

 

[Ninja]

there's a reason there aren't as many German restaurant around as there are Italian or Chinese joints

Yes, German food isn't really popular...