WWI British MkI Brodie Helmet Restoration

[peregrinvs]

I haven't finished this yet as I am having problems installing the liner. However, I thought I'd share the progress so far with you.

Some initial pictures as it arrived. The chinstrap retention loops have mostly rusted away and there are some fragments of the liner stuck under the crown rivet.

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This isn't a 'rimless' brodie helmet - i.e. one of those made circa 1915-16 without a folded steel rim around the edge. It's a MkI made circa 1916-18 that has lost it's rim due to corrosion. This is quite common.

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[peregrinvs]

It then went off for a long soak in dilute citric acid. Underneath the rust was a nice solid helmet shell. There were also some traces of the original greenish-brown khaki paint left. As I couldn't restore them, I also removed the remnants of the chinstrap loops and the crown rivet.

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The 'BS 97' marking means it was made by William Beardmore & Company of Glasgow - batch number 97.

[peregrinvs]

As with the M42 helmet, there was a LOT of filling and sanding to do. Got there in the end and this is it just before I started painting it.

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[peregrinvs]

An initial coat of my own homebrew khaki paint made by combining chocolate brown and pale olive green.

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[peregrinvs]

Reproduction chinstrap loops added.

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[peregrinvs]

Then onto the texturing. In this case, sawdust.

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[bigduke6]

Excellent Job Mark, The Khaki looks spot on, it is a hard colour to match, I went to a paint specialist and they were having trouble with a mix for a No32 Scope can, it wasn't the normal Deep Bronze green it was a khaki on the inside they were trying to match...... although what looked good in the shop looked a million miles away when I painted the tin.

Where WW1 helmets Textured ? or is this artistic licence ? Only ever seen a few WW1 ones and they looked smooth.

[peregrinvs]

Excellent Job Mark, The Khaki looks spot on, it is a hard colour to match, I went to a paint specialist and they were having trouble with a mix for a No32 Scope can, it wasn't the normal Deep Bronze green it was a khaki on the inside they were trying to match...... although what looked good in the shop looked a million miles away when I painted the tin.

Thank you. I had a spot of luck and discovered that a 50/50 mix of two paints from the Homebase 'Home of Colour' range gave me more or less the right colour: 'Chocolate' + 'Camouflage' = a green tinged muddy brown. The colours of originals seem to range between a mustard khaki to an olive-ish green, so I was aiming for something roughly in between. I'm now thinking of restoring a 1940 dated MkII helmet which has the remains of what I think is Khaki Green No.3 in the interior. This is a tricky paint colour as it isn't in the BS colour range, but I've found some recipes online for replicating it by blending Revell or Humbrol model paints which are supposedly quite close.

Where WW1 helmets Textured ? or is this artistic licence ? Only ever seen a few WW1 ones and they looked smooth.

Apparently an order went out in April 1916 that helmets were to have sand added to the paint finish to make them less reflective. The paint remnants on my one looked lumpy, so I assume it had a textured finish. However, you can find originals with both textured and smooth finishes so it wasn't universally implemented.

[peregrinvs]

Alas after adding the sawdust finish, disaster struck...

I hadn't done my research properly - sawdust was the finish used on US M1917 helmets whereas British helmets were textured with sand. So off it had to come...

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[peregrinvs]

So I repeated the exercise with sand rather than sawdust.

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Here is it's current appearance.

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The next stage is to add a reproduction liner. This is secured with a copper rivet in the crown, but attempts so far to secure it have failed as the rivets bend inside the liner rather than peening over at the top. It appears I need a specific ball pein hammer, which I'm hoping to acquire shortly.