Luftwaffe Helmet restoration !

[MD Helmets]

As long as you are mentally prepared should you cause damage during the restoration process. If you are, than go for it. Still a good looking helmet as is. Good luck!

[davejb]

Im having doubts about this lid, not so much authenticity but the reasons why anyone would go to all the trouble of removing the liner and repaint it on the interior , the yellow ochre colour is a strange paint but i'm wondering if this could in any way be a period attempt at camo that didnt work out because of the shade of paint, i really cannot see why anyone would paint over a perfectly reasonable lufty with decal, post war, with such a strange colour, knowing that it doesnt really conform to period camos, or am i just reading too much into it , thinking too hard on silly amounts of caffeine, not enough sleep and strong pain killers or am i just getting too old!!!!!

[VolksJager]

When I first saw it I though it might have been a Norwegian issue lid as I have seen them in a similar yellow, but the liner doesn't match one of their lids. It would explain someone covering a good lufty though.

My vote is still to leave, still so much left here that's original but good luck with it

Jason

[Danmark]

H'mm ....maybe it WOULD be better to leave it be - I hadn't noticed that the inside was so fully painted too.
I work with a German who remembers well into the 1980s that in his town near to the border emergency drills were a regular thing when I showed him my Luftschutz siren ( painted orange when I first got it ) he also remembered orange & yellow helmeted officials organizing drills and similar coloured gear whe he did his compulsory army servce .
Maybe this was what happenned to this one? ......

[AMTG]

Nice theory Danmark.....painting helmets a different colour would certainly let the officials stand out and be easily recognizable.....kind of like nowadays in the Aussie Army, directing staff on exercises where white armbands....

This helmet could have a lot of history behind it......even more reason to leave it as!!!

[WOODSNAKE]

Strange...........

[Danmark]

I wasn't inferring that the yellow or orange paint jobs were done during the war - but certainly post war it was the case. Here is my air raid siren before cleaning... and an orange helmet shell - a Q64.
Dan

[davejb]

I think these red items might be Fire related, the siren looks to be from a vehicle rather than an air raid siren and i believe the German Firebrigade used to use original helmets post war with a updated liner that had tabs to secure a neck flap

[greimers]

Has anyone encountered helmets that are covered with boot polish? My Father told me they were instructed (late war) to alternate brown, black and grey boot polish on their helmets; in action the polish would remain matt or drab otherwise the helmet could literally be polished.

[Bochmann]

Greimers,

I have never heard the boot polish story before but it does sound possible.The problem is that over time any amount of polish will wash off over time and given that it is 70+ years since the end of WW2, I doubt that you would be able to find a helmet with polish still in situ as once combat ended everything would have been cleaned, as per regulations, and minus boot polish