Whilst im having internet issues at home ive needed something to keep me occupied and a couple of weeks ago i got this "restored" ????? Relic WW1 German M16 helmet .
It was painted gloss green with croatian ss runes ,home made liner,homemade chinstrap ,lots of filler and wire mesh repairs..But it had something about it that made me want to make it right.
The story was it was found in Delville wood but without any photographic proof thats all it can be just a story
As i got it ..
Next step was to break it down and strip off the current finish and see what if anything could be saved, This showed me that whoever had done it before wasnt taking any chances and had used lots more mesh and filler than was necessary ,It also gave me chance to see what original parts remained ,The chin strap posts were still present and in solid condition with both Metal (not brass) ends of the original chinstraps rusted in place,The 3 liner fixing pins were also still there unfortunately after 100 years they were unuseable. I did find the helmet shell size stamp ET66 which was very helpful when it came to getting a new liner later on.
During stripping i did find the odd remnants of different coloured paints this decided the finish i finally went for..
So having discovered what lies beneath i gave it an weak oxalic acid bath for 24 hrs to get rid of the rust,, It worked well enough for me and i just had some thick rusty patches to scrape off, A few pinholes had appeared from the cleaning but these were easily fixed ,i then sanded back all the excess filler and wire mesh from its previous refurb ,released the remnants of the helmet straps and once i was happy everything was now solid it was ready to start refinishing.
Because i had found a few patches of different coloured paint i decided to paint it in the crazy camouflague pattern as often seen on these helmets
First was a coat of primer followed by well you will see in the following pictures..
Once i was happy with how it was going so far i decided i would get a decent looking liner and chinstrap plus new liner pins these i got online from warhats.com ? and they arrived within two days of ordering .
As you will see in the pictures the liner etc are as made condition so along with the helmet i distressed them to give it that 100 years old look .
This only took a week to do in my spare time and with a final bit of distressing ,wear n tear and grime added im very pleased with the result.
apologies for the sideways pics these were taken with my phone which seems to cause this issue
It was painted gloss green with croatian ss runes ,home made liner,homemade chinstrap ,lots of filler and wire mesh repairs..But it had something about it that made me want to make it right.
The story was it was found in Delville wood but without any photographic proof thats all it can be just a story
As i got it ..
Next step was to break it down and strip off the current finish and see what if anything could be saved, This showed me that whoever had done it before wasnt taking any chances and had used lots more mesh and filler than was necessary ,It also gave me chance to see what original parts remained ,The chin strap posts were still present and in solid condition with both Metal (not brass) ends of the original chinstraps rusted in place,The 3 liner fixing pins were also still there unfortunately after 100 years they were unuseable. I did find the helmet shell size stamp ET66 which was very helpful when it came to getting a new liner later on.
During stripping i did find the odd remnants of different coloured paints this decided the finish i finally went for..
So having discovered what lies beneath i gave it an weak oxalic acid bath for 24 hrs to get rid of the rust,, It worked well enough for me and i just had some thick rusty patches to scrape off, A few pinholes had appeared from the cleaning but these were easily fixed ,i then sanded back all the excess filler and wire mesh from its previous refurb ,released the remnants of the helmet straps and once i was happy everything was now solid it was ready to start refinishing.
Because i had found a few patches of different coloured paint i decided to paint it in the crazy camouflague pattern as often seen on these helmets
First was a coat of primer followed by well you will see in the following pictures..
Once i was happy with how it was going so far i decided i would get a decent looking liner and chinstrap plus new liner pins these i got online from warhats.com ? and they arrived within two days of ordering .
As you will see in the pictures the liner etc are as made condition so along with the helmet i distressed them to give it that 100 years old look .
This only took a week to do in my spare time and with a final bit of distressing ,wear n tear and grime added im very pleased with the result.
apologies for the sideways pics these were taken with my phone which seems to cause this issue
