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Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

Article about: Hey guys, I just purchased an original WWII german helmet. It's an M40. It's all under chalk, you can see different pasting layers on it. What am I to do with it? I'm thinking about having i

  1. #1

    Default Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    Hey guys,

    I just purchased an original WWII german helmet. It's an M40. It's all under chalk, you can see different pasting layers on it.
    What am I to do with it? I'm thinking about having it cleaned. But I'm afraid the chalk will come right off if I treat it with oxalic acid.
    According to me it's original winter period camo chalk, as a quick solution to having it camouflaged for the winter.

    Would cleaning it make me an idiot? Should I keep my hands off? Or should I clean it, being carefully with the chalk/paint? The different layers proof that it's done by man, not by nature. Please help me on this one! I don't know whether this is a battlefield find or not.





    The chalk is coming off guys. Help me out here!

    All info is welcome!

    Oh, and yeah. I also bought this beautiful Luftshutz helmet. It's winter camouflaged as well. The shell and liner are original and RB-numbered. No doubt about that but I'm not sure on the paint job.

    It has red glows here and there, I don't know what it is. The inner side is the regular grey, also with red paint spilling spots. You can actually feel it if you rub over it. Think it's a period job but I'm not a 100% sure. Help me out please. Check out the vents... There's some white paint inside of them. Has to be a field-job done by a soldier or post war. But why would a post war soldier camo his helmet in winter time? And I'm not sure whether this type of helmet was used after the war. Anyway, it's German. Check it out.








    Cheers

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  3. #2
    ?

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    i would say the first one is not winter camo as the whole of the inside is done as well there would be no reason to do this & it looks to have been done with out the liner being in place as for what this chalk/paint job is i cant say probably done by a local that picked it up for some sort of garden ornament maybe ???

  4. #3

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    Ok, thanks!
    Could be indeed. I was already wondering why the inner side was covered in it. No way a soldier could have done that with a liner inside of it. You're absolutely right. And it's done quite messy. I'm going to take the plaster off of it with oxalic acid. Perhaps there are still remains of decals but I fear the worst about that. Too bad it's no winter camo, but that's not a disaster. Got it for less than 60$.
    Thanks!

  5. #4

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    Like NickD said, they never painted the whole inside of the helmet when aplying a winter camo, just the outside a the vissible inside of the rim. Somebody converted a relic to a wintercamo I guess.
    Also the Luftshutz lid seems to have been repainted at one point, also I guess this was done after the war. These lids were used in factory's after the war. The inside is the correct color. Never seen a Luftshutz lid with original winter camo, why should it have winter camo?

  6. #5

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    Perhaps they wanted to be invisible when they were firing their Flaks? And they had to be able to defend themselves when allies were arriving... No? Well that's my guess. Yeah I know by now, the first one's converted. What a shame. I'm gonna clean it. So what's with the red paint under that Luftschutz camo? Anyone seen it before?

  7. #6

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    Here's a red one...?

  8. #7

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    I believe that Luftschutz helmets were used postwar by the fire service, hence the red paint. There was a thread on here a while back posted by someone that had managed to get a lot of these red helmets from a closing down fire station, he successfully stripped the red paint from them and found some nice decals underneath

    Thanks

    Danny

  9. #8
    ?

    Default Re: Need help on this M40 'winter camo'!

    Quote by kenbent View Post
    Ok, thanks!
    Could be indeed. I was already wondering why the inner side was covered in it. No way a soldier could have done that with a liner inside of it. You're absolutely right. And it's done quite messy. I'm going to take the plaster off of it with oxalic acid. Perhaps there are still remains of decals but I fear the worst about that. Too bad it's no winter camo, but that's not a disaster. Got it for less than 60$.
    Thanks!
    i would give a good clean you might be lucky & find some remains of the original paint but im guess there wont be any decal remains but you never know good luck & let us know how it turns out

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