Tripple helmet day! plus more!!!

[Steve T]

Nice

I love the dental mirror. Have you tried it yet ? Looks like it will still do its job quite nicely

Steve T

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Here's another headlamp blackout cover, this was the only one of this type found and has survived well considering it was made of low quality steel and has spent the best part of 70 years below ground and surprisely it still works, I tried a torch behind it .



Another picture to show the best angle.



I also pulled this hand bell out on the day, it still shows the marks to the top where the wooden handle attached. When it came out it was amongst a fair bit of black out type equipment so I'm wondering if it's perhaps an Air Raid Wardens bell that was rung to signify the end of an air raid. Sadly it has no markings to the metal.



Now this'll make up laugh, but please bare with me. Im always up for a challenge , when I pulled this helmet out it was in a couple of pieces but by the time I got it home it was even worse. But I thought I'd give it a go and see if I could save it for display, especially when my wife said 'you wont be able to do anything with that!' This pic shows it as I got it home Argh.
The first stage was give it a good clean and then paint matt varnish over each piece.



Once the varnish had dried and sealed the metal it meant that superglue could now stick to it rather than soaking in. Before attempting to piece it together and because the rim had sprung apart, I first used nails on a board as a template to get it back into the correct shape for gluing. The next stage and the patient part was to reassemble it piece by piece joining it together with tissue paper and superglue. This method is very strong and quick to do. This picture was taken once it had all been reassembled, it took a couple of days to get it to this stage because I had to leave each piece to dry for an hour or so. Notice that its still stood on the wooden base with the nail template.



The final stage is to paint the superglued tissue paper. I mixed the colours using military model paints. To blend it in a little more I dabbed slightly different shades of colour along the lines to blend it in better and then in places crushed up small pieces of the same coloured rust and droped the rust dust onto the still wet paint.
As you can see it has pretty much camoflaged the repair joins and I think now saves the relic helmet for display .





This is the final item for now, It is made of brass I cant find any markings except those shown in the last picture. It is quite dirty so its possible markings are hidden beneath that, but Im in two minds whether to clean it further because Im not sure I want the brass returned to shiney?



I'd love to think it was aero related, but could it perhaps be from a boat maybe a throttle and gear change?



Here are the only markings.



Thank you for looking.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Thanks Steve, yes it would still be useable, 'but I'm not putting it in my mouth!' I dont know who's had it in theirs before

Yes John, I'm looking forward to seeing some of your finds cleaned up.
Cheers for now.
LS

[Whitehunter]

Another relic saved! well done mate! I like the step by step, i'm sure people will use this the future. I've seen the rust dust method used before . An american bloke found a civil war water bottle, it was in almost 100 pieces he managed to stick back together and used the rust dust to fill any missing areas. He did a video on Youtube but i can't find it


John

[Steve T]

What a superb job on that helmet. Never seen anything like it before. I'd have chucked it away Fantastic description of how to put a rusty object back together, a method I'm sure to use in the future

Steve T

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Thanks John and Steve,
'Where there's a will, there's a way ! ' , doing this was a sort of learning curve, the experience gained might well be useful for saving another perhaps rarer item in the future. But what really makes the restoration is the final stage of getting the mix of the paint just right. The correct colour is so important. Because of this I held off for a day or two until it was a bright sunny day so I could see that the colour shades were a perfect match.
Cheers
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Unforgottenwar]

seriously, that was great the way you put the helmet together. Definitely something I'll try IF I ever find one (fingers crossed!).

Keep on digg'n!

[Panzer 3]

Hi,
well i have read the whole thread, what great finds you have i dig down here in cornwall as there are many area,s from the war, but no helmets yet, great info in the restoration of the helmet. I wish you all the best on the next dig, thanks for showing them.
dave,

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for you encouragement, being in Cornwall I guess there'll be lots of sites used by US troops during WW2. They'll be helmets in there and you'll find them just keep at it. For interest some of these finds will be on display at the War and Peace show Beltring on the WW2 Relic Retrieval and Preservation Groups stand for all to see.
It would be great if you could photograph one of your digs or your finds to show on here because I'm sure there must be lots of people here (not just me) who'd love to see what you've found. .
Keep up the good work.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Whitehunter]

Royal Army Service Corps