My first MKII helmet

[ynot]

Thanks Jerry!

I'm getting to like home front helmets and wish I had started liking them when they were reasonably cheap. I'll do some homework in case a bargain crops up somewhere.

[James C]

thanks for sharing your first british helmet with us tony and for 35p crikey ,i spent my pocket money on hubba bubbas and football cards i notice the exterior paintwork even though chipped in places doesnt show the black undercoat ,and as you are in the enviable position of having it in hand would you say this black coat is only on the interior shell

[ynot]

James,

I usually spent my pocket money on the same as you as well. The helmet pictured was the first of many however, the others which were all bought at least 14 years after the first, are all Great War period (allies and German) except for a 1939 police helmet and another 1939 army helmet I bought as a restoration project.

Yes indeed, only the interior appears to be black. There's no black undercoat to see through the exterior chips, that's something I never thought about, well spotted! Do you think there's a reason for that?

Tony

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi Tony, my observer corps MKII was originally a black helmet, then late in the war they went over to tan with a unit flash to the front, so they "over painted" it. Maybe yours was re-painted for a similar reason, although I would find the lack of any of the original black paint not showing underneath the tan suspicious. Leon.

[ynot]

Leon,

Do you want to do a swap?

Ok, both you and James have suggested the same so I scraped some of the green paint off the rim with a knife and bugger me, it was black underneath. I then got a magnifying glass and had a look at some of the scratches in the dome, what I thought was very dark toning of bare 1940s metal was indeed black paint so yes, a repainted black home front helmet.

A big thank you to you and James.

Tony