Greg: By no means i'm an expert
I can only rely on Hungarian sources - which states: production started in late 1949 - the first few thousand pieces were made with the red-star within the tri-color Hungarian flag circle decals - but then they realized; that's not really a good idea in combat situation - so those helmets were to be parade-helmets only.
As far as I know, no Soviet shells were ever re-used, before 1950, the Hungarian army used the German stlyle M35 helmets (also made in Hungary) - those were repainted dark-green (from the pre-1945 light green) and were called: M47 helmets.
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