jack31916
Well-Known Member
Send me a pm
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Hornbeam Militaria USAAF Crusher
- Thread starter Smithy
- Start date
Cocker
Well-Known Member
Same here! Material is really good, and overall quality is great, especially at that price point.
Now, for the more knowledgeable here: I'm also planning on getting a real eagle badge, and getting rid of the tall, rigid plastic backing inside he cap to have the front piece sitting lower. Does that sound right, or did original crusher also have this plastic rigid piece?
Smithy
Well-Known Member
The badge does sit a tad high Cedric as I mention in my original review but a lot, if not most of that is due to the backing. Originals often had the same stiffener plate to make it sit proud but on originals it's often metal. You could easily remove the plastic backing down to the crown by cutting it out and mounting the badge. The weight of the badge will pull it down some and give it that proper aviator crusher look.
Btw my badge from Warhats just turned up today and it's a real peach. I'll post some pics tomorrow.
Smithy
Well-Known Member
I'll post some pics tomorrow buddy. I've removed the stiffener and installed the Warhats badge and am very pleased.
Remember that the "50 mission crushers" really looked that way because they had had headsets over the top of them for hundreds of hours.
If you look at most fighter boys their ones are not surprisingly a little more "proud" in height, case in point James Goodson...
As opposed to a bomber boy...
Micawber
Well-Known Member
Back in the years of yore when I collected with a passion I had quite a number of original visor caps pass through my hands, these included Bancroft Flighters and other visor caps made without stiffeners and soft peak to look "crushed' out of the box as well as ordinary visors with standard stiff peaks that had the stiffening grommets removed and had become crushed and salty in use [including the use of headphones]. My favourites were the Bancroft Flighters and somewhere out the back, in a big box of old fashioned print photos I have photos of a lot of my old stuff. Trouble is due to my recent illness and its ongoing effects that area remains out of bounds to immune suppressed me so pictures will have to wait. That said I do have a few low resolution images on an external hard drive including two or three random ones of Flighters I used to have. I could have sworn there were some digital ones of tan Flighters too but they are not showing on a system search and I don't have time to go through thousands of images manually so these somewhat poor quality images will have to do unless I stumble across the others at some point....
Actually I have a feeling these are the same original cap with an original oversize badge but what the heck, the intention was good
......................
Edited to add this random photo found in the same folder
Actually I have a feeling these are the same original cap with an original oversize badge but what the heck, the intention was good
......................
Edited to add this random photo found in the same folder
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
Great kit!Back in the years of yore when I collected with a passion I had quite a number of original visor caps pass through my hands, these included Bancroft Flighters and other visor caps made without stiffeners and soft peak to look "crushed' out of the box as well as ordinary visors with standard stiff peaks that had the stiffening grommets removed and had become crushed and salty in use [including the use of headphones]. My favourites were the Bancroft Flighters and somewhere out the back, in a big box of old fashioned print photos I have photos of a lot of my old stuff. Trouble is due to my recent illness and its ongoing effects that area remains out of bounds to immune suppressed me so pictures will have to wait. That said I do have a few low resolution images on an external hard drive including two or three random ones of Flighters I used to have. I could have sworn there were some digital ones of tan Flighters too but they are not showing on a system search and I don't have time to go through thousands of images manually so these somewhat poor quality images will have to do unless I stumble across the others at some point....
Actually I have a feeling these are the same original cap with an original oversize badge but what the heck, the intention was good
View attachment 61559View attachment 61560View attachment 61561View attachment 61562
......................
Edited to add this random photo found in the same folder
View attachment 61563
FYI FiveStar have their prototype up on FB..
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Smithy
Well-Known Member
One of the great things with the Hornbeam caps was that not only were the colours spot on to originals but the fabric of the cap upper behaves the same way as originals and especially once the stiffener is removed. It "sags and bags" as the old aircrew would say back in the day. Put a decent badge on it and you've got a decent crusher for a great price.
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
Good art on a good jacket makes an EXCELLENT A-2..
Value adding!
Value adding!
tjoenn
Well-Known Member
Received an original badge today and put it on the crusher after I removed the stiffener. Looks great. Thank you very much @jack31916 for giving and shipping me the badge completely free. Fantastic people on this forum!!
B-Man2
Well-Known Member
That’s a great looking combo !
And Jack ….. that was a kind thing to do .
I love this little forum
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
Patina adds to the look!
Hornbeam Militaria
Member
Looks awesome!
YoungMedic
Well-Known Member
are you planning a restock?
Smithy
Well-Known Member
Steve from Hornbeam posted earlier here that he won't be able to get any more of this exact style back in stock but that he was working on a new crusher with a different manufacturer.
