Camouflage, & re-painted helmets.

**ynot** · 06-03-2017, 09:36 AM

by Composite

...and another thing....does anyone have any info about "rules" which may have applied to the camo-ing of Brit MkIII / IV / V lids? I've seen some black-on-green (sorry to be technical) recently and wonder of it was like the German tanks ie "here's your brown, here's your green, there's a brush...see you at the Christmas Party" or whether it was more....errrr...scientific / disciplined?

sorry if this thread is specific to MkIIs (is it?..cos I've also got questions about GW2 paintjobs.....)........ so if there's any ex-squaddies with black paint under their finger nails I'd love to hear more

Ade, it may have been the same in WWII with the MKII helmet as my experience in the 80s which only happened twice. We were given a brush and a tin of black paint, and we painted our own stuff to our own artistic impression and either got a bollocking or not. The second time was making them plain green again.
Not for helmets this time but we were given a tin of red lead, a tin of green and a tin of black for vehicles and no one removed the rust or dirt before painting began, a similar process used by 19 year olds for helmets throughout the years maybe?

**tinlid** · 07-02-2017, 10:06 AM

Another black over the original finish, this 1939 dated Mk2.

**SMP** · 07-02-2017, 02:09 PM

About time you showed that one . I like it very much !

Could the seller shine any light on the Dunkirk veteran who gave the helmet to his father ?

**psycopis** · 11-20-2018, 10:53 PM

Hallo, this is my camouflage helmet, it was found in Italy.

**Anderson** · 11-21-2018, 02:08 AM

How about a photo of the underside?

**tinlid** · 11-21-2018, 09:24 AM

Looks a great camo,any service numbers inside?
Do you know where it was found.

**paulp4180** · 11-21-2018, 11:27 AM

by Composite

...and another thing....does anyone have any info about "rules" which may have applied to the camo-ing of Brit MkIII / IV / V lids? I've seen some black-on-green (sorry to be technical) recently and wonder of it was like the German tanks ie "here's your brown, here's your green, there's a brush...see you at the Christmas Party" or whether it was more....errrr...scientific / disciplined?

sorry if this thread is specific to MkIIs (is it?..cos I've also got questions about GW2 paintjobs.....)........ so if there's any ex-squaddies with black paint under their finger nails I'd love to hear more

For me, who caught the tail end of those horror helmets, ('86 - '87) ours were never painted, just left green, but we had to have them covered with hessian then the netting then add more hessian / sandbags and old DPM to scrim it up.

**psycopis** · 11-22-2018, 11:55 AM

by Anderson

How about a photo of the underside?

Hallo, It is a shell:

I not know for sure where the helmet comes from, they told me Tuscany but I can not guarantee.

**Mark K** · 12-12-2018, 01:31 PM

1942 dated C.L/.C. which has a wonderful patina to the exterior of the helmet body and has been overpainted at least once in its service career it shows a good amount of wear that is indicative to a field worn example so it does indeed have that been there done that look I like so much in my helmets..
It is sporting a hand painted flash ( A I ) on the side of the helmet body this denotes that the NCO/Officer was at one time appointed to the Instructional Cadre and the wearer at least spent some of his service as an Assistant Instructor and very likely would have taught at one of the training centres, schools and or perhaps at a Battalion level in Canada and or abroad in Great Britain...
Helmets sporting this particular flash are extremely rare and this is only the third example that I have ever seen and IMO would have been covered over and or the flash removed once the NCO/Officer fulfilled his duty and moved on to another posting...
Of duel interest is the shrapnel strike and or bullet strike on the side of the helmet body ( I am of the opinion it is a shrapnel strike ) which at one time had been covered up on the inside with what I believe would have been medical tape which I can only speculate would have been added to keep out the elements...

Regards Mark

**Mark K** · 12-12-2018, 01:55 PM

1941 dated Mk II as produced by General Steel Wares ( G.S.W. ) steel lot batch prefix H It is sporting a 1942 dated VMC liner in a size of 7 1/2 ...
This particular Mk II is said to have come out of a garage in New Glasgow Nova Scotia it is one of the more interesting Canadian Camo painted helmets I have come across ...

Regards Mark