Kreigsmarine M35 - Before & After Post War Paint Removal

[Rick]

Nice job indeed, looking at the condition now, may be the coat of blue paint helped to peserve it??
Still learning here can some one explain the removal of national shield 1940 regs, i know a lot of helmets only have one decal ie shield with eagle and swastika.

many thanks

Rick.

[Tom Bennett]

Great work!
Regular paint stripper is fine as it will only remove the more recent layer of paint first.I used it to remove 4 layer's of coloured paint from a 251 Halftrack wheel with great successI have stripped back 3 or 4 Helmet's with a product called Acetone but it's laborous if there too much shiny paint.

Again i commend your work and job well done

Tom

[Walkwolf]

Trumper, you've done a magnificent job ! !

I just bought a rusty M35 ( Q64 ) shell 'on-line' to restore, which someone
- perhaps 30 or 40 years ago - has painted lightly with silver spraypaint.
I was simply going to sand and repaint it, but from one of the photos,
I can see the outline of a Heer eagle underneath. Also, there are
patches of original dark green paint too.

I'd now like to keep it as 'original' as possible and do a restorative process
similar to what has been done on your helmet. I'll need to use rust
remover and some chemical to get rid of the top coatings,
but most of all - I don't want to harm the decal
if at all possible.

The helmet is in hand now. I'll post photos soon and seek
opinions.......................





Regards, Steve.

[jws54]

Wowser, what a touch you have, and humongous brass marbles!!

It looks beautiful and then some.

[Schwerpunkt]

I somehow have the feeling that this may very well have been the original overpaint you have stripped.
A fair share of KM's got an overpaint of blueish gray paint and with the decal kept revealed.
Perhaps the exterior was coated that gave the impression the paint was new but it looks worn enough to me and the color looks period as well.
I wouldn't have stripped it.

[shadowwolf]

Well done, you're hard work paid off very well

[ObKrieger]

why would anyone in their right mind paint such a nice helmet a shiny bright blue. even if someone did it in 1945 immediately after they got it, why would they ever do this?!?

[klokhoane]

nice job!

cheers,

[Walkwolf]

I somehow have the feeling that this may very well have been the original overpaint you have stripped.
A fair share of KM's got an overpaint of blueish gray paint and with the decal kept revealed.
Perhaps the exterior was coated that gave the impression the paint was new but it looks worn enough to me and the color looks period as well.
I wouldn't have stripped it.

Schwerpunkt, I believe your statement to be true regarding this helmet.
Maybe it was the original overpaint. The thing with this example is the
paint did seem a little too bright, glossy and 'new' looking.

It's gone now.......... but I still like the way it turned out.






Regards, Steve.

[davejb]

Im of that opinion as well, the reason why the blue grey came off with stripper fairly easily could be that it was applied by brush whereas i believe the colour beneath was factory applied and then baked on, making the paint very resilient to stripping, i think you did a nice job on recovery and not too much harm done, either way a nice original lid