British WW2 Mk 2 Helmet - Restore or leave as is?

[Flying10uk]

The holes in the brim of the Brodie helmet often indicate that the helmet was used by the Auxiliary/National Fire service (A.F.S./N.F.S.). This is because the helmet which was used for fire fighting purposes had a kind of heat shield/skirt on the rear to give the wearers neck some protection from the heat of the fire and, perhaps, also some impact protection. I'm not sure of what material this shield was made of only that it was flexible but it could have been leather or a material containing asbestos? If you look at photos of British fire fighters in WW2 wearing the Brodie style helmet you can often see this heat/impact protection skirt attached to the rear of the helmet. I don't know if the helmet worn by service fire fighters also had this skirt or if it was just civilian fire fighters.

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[Charlie303]

Finally finished restoring the South African MkII 'Brodie' helmet. I used powdered cork in a hand painted base coat, then 2 sprayed coats of SoF desert/sand paint. The cork is quite rough in places, but these SA helmets supposedly had quite a rough finish, possibly sand in the paint. Looks a bit clean though. The liner repaired quite well.

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