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Salty helmet with possible hiding medic roundels


matthewsq
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Hi guys,

 

Just got the helmet in the mail. The paint is in poor condition, and the entire helmet looks like it was stored in a wet basement. There are literally little dead spiders inside the helmet still (!). The auction description was something like "old military helmet, from an estate sale" and I'm starting to believe that. I had to put a spare liner inside the helmet while I did the paint removal to stop bits of rust from falling out of the inside of the helmet.

 

Anyway, regarding paint removal - all ive done so far is used tape to pull off any loose paint on the roundels. The dark green overpaint comes off of the white paint fairly easily, and large pieces will come off with the tape. Its much harder to get it off the red, paint, though - so goof off might be needed for those areas.

 

Underneath the white paint, there seems to be some areas of light blue/grey navy coloured paint. It'll be interesting if I decide to remove the outer layer paint from the rest of the helmet to see if the entire helmet is this colour. It's too early to tell.

 

Here are some pictures so far. I worked on it for about an hour, then had to go to work.

 

I'll continue once i'm home again tonight.

 

Cheers,

Quinn

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi guys,

 

I've been working on paint removal during my spare time. One thing i've learned: patience is key when dealing with paint removal!

 

The paint on the white roundels was flaking off, so I opted to use mechanical means of paint removal rather than chemical - a razor blade was perfect for removing the green overpaint without disturbing any of the patina on the white paint beneath. I haven't touched the paint on the rest of the helmet, and very little of the paint over the red crosses, which is more difficult.

 

Observations I've made so far:

 

- There are more layers of paint that I had suspected - 1) the original paint 2) the medic crosses 3) what looks to be a post WW2 factory repaint (KW era OD) and 4) black overpaint

 

- There is corking around the bottom of the helmet, but higher up on the dome is much less textured. I'm not sure if the repaints have just covered up the original finish, but we'll probably find out once I begin paint removal there (if I do).

 

- There is remnants of what looks like a piece of medical tape on the front cross. Maybe the medics name was written on it.

 

- The side and back roundels are large and all equal sized, while the front roundel is smaller. Burning Hazard (another user here) posted photos showing a medic helmet with the same pattern roundels being repainted post WW2 (thank you to him for sharing those photos, they are linked here). Probably a similar story as to what happened to this one.

 

- Helmet is front seam swivel bail, but it's impossible to tell what the heat lot number is due to the rust inside the shell.

 

I'll continue and let you guys know how it goes. I'm being extremely careful not to damage any of the original finish.

 

Cheers,

Quinn

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Good job so far!

 

Russ

 

Thanks Russ! I saw that you posted a medic helmet that you stripped a few weeks ago - did you end up removing all of the green paint on top of the roundels? I'd love to see the finished product.

 

Cheers,

Quinn

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Great job! Good luck. Take it easy indeed

 

Thanks! It has been slow going. I've made some more progress and will share soon.

 

Quinn

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Thanks Russ! I saw that you posted a medic helmet that you stripped a few weeks ago - did you end up removing all of the green paint on top of the roundels? I'd love to see the finished product.

 

Cheers,

Quinn

As a matter of fact I did, and it came out pretty good. I'll probably post it on here soon.

 

Russ

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I've been focusing primarily on the back, but working a bit on the front. The cross on the front is the most crudely painted.

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Thanks for the comments guys! The depot-applied light khaki overpaint that is common of post war helmets seems to have done a pretty good job preserving the white and red paint underneath.

 

It's been extremely slow going, I've probably spent upwards of 12 hours picking little bits of paint away. But it's been fun!

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A little more work. Uncovered most of the red. One roundel left! More of the original paint layer uncovered too.

 

The finish appears to be pretty smooth, with some bits of what looks like corking around the bottom of the helmet dome.

 

This helmet seems to have had a long life, and I believe that much of the early life of it was not as a medic. Maybe a very late war or post war/korea era medic repaint? What do you guys think of the colour and medic roundel pattern? I've heard that "smoother" helmets are often depot refurbished and reissued.

 

Would love some input!

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I had no idea it was going to turn out this nice.

 

There is definitely more red and white paint than I thought.

 

Your patience has paid off.

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