Restored German helmets

[diegofer1979]

Model40,

Super restoration!!!

I love what you have done, if you like I can refer you with a person who does good M16, 17and 18 liners, I love your M16 reissue with M31, well done. I am going to do one like that one soon I m looking for the correct color, where did you find that color.


Diego

[Peter V]

Dear Model40
Very nice restoration.
I am new to the forum. I have a collection of 3 helmets, Brit, german, US.
I picked the german helmet up for about $80.00
It is an authentic m42 but it has been painted a very bad green color. I would like to remove that paint and put on new paint that would be the most common color. Could you give me some advice on where to get a good paint and any tips on removing the old paint and applying the new. I have no experience in this. I have just picked up these 3 helmets over the past couple of years becuase I like them.
many thanks for any help from the forum.
Regards
Peter

[waffenrock42]

hey guys im new to this forum but i would like to say so far i love it. this thread actually inspired me to restore a m42 stahlhelm. i will be posting pics of it soon.

cheers!

[Peter V]

Hi Waffenrock,
I'd like to attempt a resto on my m42. Sounds like you are abou to do the same. Could you give me any tips on how to strip and repaint, what paint to use, etc. I've never done this.
Thanks a lot
Peter

[waffenrock42]

Hi Waffenrock,
I'd like to attempt a resto on my m42. Sounds like you are abou to do the same. Could you give me any tips on how to strip and repaint, what paint to use, etc. I've never done this.
Thanks a lot
Peter

Hello Peter,
Sorry to keep you waiting(i just got a new computer). In order to get the original paint off you should use power stripper. This is a solution that removes up to five layers of paint at once. After doing that clean off the helmet with water and a rag to get all of the chemicals off. After that you are ready to paint. for a textured finish, spray the helmet with one coat of adhesive clear spray and sprinkle fine sand or aluminum oxide shavigs on it let that dry over night. then coat it with testors schwarzgrau rlm66 and once that dries spray it ove with testors dullcoat, apply decals and youre set.

[Peter V]

Hi.
Thanks for the reply.
Is it common to use a scale model paint like the testors schwarzgrau rlm66 to paint a full size helmet? I'm surprised. Is there enough paint in one of those little bottles? I would have though there would be a source for painting full size helmets.
Thanks
P.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Peter, I have done several helmets for re-enactor friends. There is enough paint in the small tins: but I used an air brush, not a paint brush.

You can buy tins of spray paint for restoring helmets from here:

GERMAN HELMET PAINT AND DECALS

The company is trustworthy as I have dealt with them myself.

Cheers, Ade.

[waffenrock42]

hey peter this is probably the best and easisest ways to paint a helmet. you will need to buy 4 bottles of it but it will only cos $12 in all. You can buy actual paint by the gallon but there are shipping restrictions andextremley expensive also if you go to 1944militaria.com they sell "color Matched" paint but in reality it looks like crap the pictures on the website don't even match the real finish of the paint they sell and again there are shipping restrictions. The Rlm66 is good for mid/latewar SS and heer helmets. other good paints to use are olivgrun, graugrun, and dunkelgrun.

[waffenrock42]

they are a good company but the only thing is i bought their dunkel feldgrau once and when i sprayed it on and let it dry it became light in color and didnt match the color on the website but then again i might have gotten a bad can of it.

[Peter V]

Thanks Waffen and everyone else for the advice. Can't wait to get to it!
Regards
P.