Is this a Type 90 Army helmet?

[christek]

Greetings all,

Very new to Japanese militaria.

I have been looking for a WWII Japanese combat helmet recently. After a realisation on how expensive these can be I have settled on the fact a shell will have to do for the time being.

May I ask if this shell is a type 90? It does not look to me to be the civilian model but I have not a great eye for these yet.

Many thanks,

[SHINDENKAI]

Hi,

Looks like a Type 90 that converted to civilian use.

Regards,
Taka

[AZPhil]

There were a lot of type 90 helmets given to other countries after WW2. They modified/removed the original liner/chinstrap retaining bails and added their own type's. I have one in my collection.
Semper Fi
Phil

[christek]

Hi,

Looks like a Type 90 that converted to civilian use.

Regards,
Taka

Hi Taka,

Many thanks for your input. A conversion would make sense as there seems to be disparities with the liner holes compared to a normal Type90. Cheers

Appreciate the info Phil. I'm starting to see a few T90's with some Western style liners and do believe this example has been slightly altered

[SHINDENKAI]

No problem, Chris-san.

Or what Phil-san mentioned about foreign use. (Chinese, Thai, Indonesia....)

Cheers!
Taka

[christek]

Well I purchased it in the end.

$95 US I thought was not too bad a price for a type 90 shell, albeit with some problems. With a repro liner, star + net it will still display ok. It appears to have a decent amount of its original paint; I can live with the extra liner holes until a better one can be afforded

Thanks again for all help here. Cheers

[mcmike]

[QUOTE=christek;1188406]Well I purchased it in the end.

"I can live with the extra liner holes until a better one can be afforded "

Chris: I live in your world in that a several-hundred-dollar-helmet is not in my realm of reality. I have restored several of these re-used Japanese helmets. You can get epoxy putty at hardware stores or do-it-yourself stores. You just pinch off a little ball, thoroughly mix it up so it will bond, then press it in place on the extraneous holes in the helmet leaving a little extra inside, but the outside flat as possible with no indentation. Let it dry, lightly sand flat. While you are at the home center, bring your helmet and let them match the paint. Here (in Dallas) you can then buy a small "sample" bottle of the paint for US$3.00. Touch up the helmet, buy a star, rivets, liner, and chinstrap from Hiki on eBay, age them, and assemble. Fun, and looks pretty good. If you are going to do this I can tell you where to buy the half-loops riveted in the helmet that hold the chinstrap to the helmet. Good luck!

Or, you can buy a repro net, put it on, and just stick it on the shelf; comfortable in the knowledge that it probably was actually worn by a Japanese soldier during WWII. History is worth more to me than the perfection of the helmet. I sold all the ones I did like that, but these pics show one that was only a shell with decent paint, and I restored it. I didn't like the repro nets available at the time, so I made one (as you can easily tell). Now they make better ones.

Mike

[christek]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the interesting read mate

That helmet pictured looks great! Well done on that job. I in fact like that net. I agree regarding the history, I imagine a great deal of advertised history on expensive examples is, unfortunately, made up. I completely agree that simply a good possibility that the item was worn historically can suffice.

Yes, I have four children to feed and that always ensures I need a decent amount of luck to go with any great purchases I may make

Thanks again for the great info, I will certainly follow those tips and try to build a good one! May I ask Mike, how did you apply the matching paint? Brush work or spray and tape?

[mcmike]

Japanese helmets were brush painted, so I used a brush. All I needed to paint were the star and rivets, all repro. The home improvement store did a great job matching paint color, so it is hard to tell. I did have to bend the star a little so it wasn't flat. When you patch the holes just very carefully brush the paint on and feather it in.

I installed the helmet liner and soaked the helmet and liner in water for awhile. Then I turned it upside down and placed a trash bag with sand in it into the helmet to give it shape while it dried. Took a couple of days. Used a dark furniture polish (Olde English) to age it. I bleached the chinstrap and then soaked it on the stove in a pan of coffee grounds for awhile to bring back a washed out color. You have to be careful not to bleach it too much; it changes color pretty fast.

Tying the net was pretty hard; I had to come up with a jig. Took hours. Then I soaked it in coffee for aged color, too. But I hated those little-string puke-green nets that were available on line. I think you can get a good, thick net now if you look for awhile. If I can help in any way let me know at mk_mcln (at) yahoo.com. I really love restoring helmets, and now do German for a dealer in Florida. Did four in the last two months.

Mike

[mcmike]

Oops, that should be mk_mccln (at) yahoo.com