British Pre WW2 helmet help/advice needed

So i purchased this at auction not being sure of the origin country or really much of anything.

We were leaning towards Belgian but were pleasantly surprised that it is British. Based on appearances we think it was preww2 production with a 1945 liner that is cracked but intact.

The outer paint is the dark green post ww2 color that is common. However there are visible areas of white peeking out from under the dark green so is this likely a wardens helmet that was put back into service?

Some have said "it is a common helmet with nothing special about it so don't bother asking questions" but to be honest if my thinking is that even a wardens helmet has more history than a random repurposed model.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions about how to do a restore?

BMB is Briggs Motor Bodies of Dagenham, in which Ford UK had a controlling interest, and later purchased outright.

Can you determine a heat lot code along with the BMB?

Best I can make out is 026 or 02C maybe. The green paint is thick enough to make the numbers a bit featureless.

This site has forums that are already laid out with this sort of thing... Helmets

Sometimes they put a date on the end of the chinstrap clip riveted to the helmet, if you look carefully. It's the half round formed bit that the chinstrap clips into that you need to look at. If there is no date on the chinstrap clips then the date may be partially hidden by the clips, as well as the paint on the helmet shell. For some reason, on some helmets, the date got put where the chinstrap clips were going to be riveted meaning that the date is partially hidden.

Put the helmet shell on a dead flat surface. If it rocks backwards and forwards slightly it may be a MK1* shell (notice I say "may") but if it doesn't rock at all it will be a MK2 shell.

It's the later type of elasticated chinstrap.

Personally I wouldn't "mess" with the finish. Just leave it as is.

On the other hand............ If it were mine and being a bog standard(?) wartime helmet,, I'd use thinners to carefully wipe away the layers of paint, a bit at a time and find out what is underneath. That is where the real history comes in

That's my feeling...I really would like to see if it is a wardens helmet as that would explain the bits of white.

At the very top of pic 6 I see a bit of what appears to be UN blue...under the green.

Good bit of white and I think there may be a white band based on some small bits on the sides.

Not sure about the blue but the base brown is visible in some spot and either dirty white or khaki under the rim.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mnmkeller

That's my feeling...I really would like to see if it is a wardens helmet as that would explain the bits of white.

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It is very hard not to take off the paint that you don't want to take off but remove the paint that you do want to remove. That is my experience with a number of helmets using a number of different paint removal methods. It sounds easy until you actually try doing it but you may have more luck than me.

I tend to agree, it seems impossible to take one layer of paint off without at least altering the color underneath it.

Part of my original reason for posting was to see if anyone had been successful trying to do this other than professionals.

I'm seeing not a lot to build hope on here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jond41403

it seems impossible to take one layer of paint off without at least altering the color underneath it.

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I have a Mk3 helmet I picked up from overseas and brought home 45 years back, had a national flag on the side that was painted over. I wanted to confirm what flag and carefully used some acetone and a rag. I dabbed just at the one spot to eventually expose the flag, that was all I removed. The rest would have been pointless, it would have been UK olive covered by Greek truck paint.

I used some citristrip with q tips and have uncovered a bit of the white but no def pattern yet. I may switch to acetone to try that but I mainly need to work in a good light source.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mnmkeller

I may switch to acetone

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That's real fast and unforgiving...but you knew that.

The citrustrip is slow as it softens the paint and works ok when done in small areas and is cleaned off after a few minutes. Pics to come.

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So I wasn't overly pleased at first...until I took a pic and stopped focusing on the small details and saw the bigger picture..so to speak.

I will be switching to smaller tools and a magnifying glass soon to help pinpoint the remaining green covering white as I can see an inverted pentagon as well as a hexagon near the top. So would these be on what should be the back or front of the helmet?

Those are the largest swatches of white but I will try to work on some of the smaller and more linear areas in the future. Sadly it looks like the two forms I uncovered have a good bit of brown showing through so they were likely roughed up even before the green paint was applied.

Any ideas on what these shapes could indicate?

I did an acetone wipe down of a German helmet that had silver paint on it. It's here somewhere. I was scrubbing away and rather vigorously at this one spot that didn't seem to want to come clean and then about lost it when I realized I was scrubbing a Luftwaffe eagle decal. Fortunately, I did no damage. Turned out to be a three color camo paint job with single decal helmet. My $20 investment jumped a couple hundred dollars real fast.

So time for an update..overall very pleasing results...but i am struggling with my technique and making some mistakes based mainly on fatigue and inexperience.

I used citristrip which works pretty well when the white paint is thick but it is unforgiving when it is thin and i have had a bit of white paint loss on the side compared to the front. I did expose what looks like a red diamond on what would be the left side. If you look closely you can see the wrinkled paint which i know will be a loss including the white.

My goal at this point is to switch to acetone and be more patient..use a smaller area and keep it to short shifts so I dont become overly aggressive. I also think i will take this to work where I can make use of my hour lunch break and some bright outdoor light.

The blue I saw seems to have been an illusion from your lights or background...

In certain light I was able to see a hint of what I thought was ue but it turned out to be the white pentagon.

So this changes things a bit...found this buried under some of the white paint on the left side and cleaned it as much as I dare.

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