irish m27

[glennsche]

hello everyone,

today i took possession of this irish m27, w original 1927 dublin liner and 1940 white paint. it has a pretty cheap repro badge.

while i dont want to destroy the collector value completely, i DO want to make it its original green as best as is possible and remove the white paint. i dont wish to repaint it, but i DO want the white gone, and to get a good quality badge.

so, i submit the wise wizards of this forum:

1. is there a way to remove the white while leaving the green underneath intact
2. besides ebay where can i look for a nice quality repro badge?

thoughts and opinions welcome.

greetings from san francisco,
glenn

[danhashman]

i have removed colour-cappings with very fine grinding paper and water.. low pressure, that´s all.. Dont use thinner, as you might damage the underlying paint..
many will say "leave it as it is", but if the finger itch to restaure the helmet back to its former colour, fine sanding paper would be my choice.. and maybe leave a sector with white paint as a Witness to the helmets history.. but the most important thing.. do what you feel you have to make sure that it will give you permanent happiness and joy.. By the way, what an awesome swiss Tschako on your avatar-pic..

[Wagriff]

The white paint indicates Civil Defense use. It is part of it's history and to remove it would destroy that. I would, perhaps, replace the badge but would alter nothing else. It is uncommon to find the white paint this much intact. Removing it would dramatically lower the value of it. A total of 10,021 helmets were made for the Irish Free State army and something like 1/2 that number were bulldozed into the foundation of the Irish Army's new barracks in the 1970's. If you wish to sell it as it now sits, I would be fine hearing an asking price.

[Greg Pickersgill]

I would tend to go with leaving it as it is, because it is a legitimate and authentic state, However, if you have the courage and skill to do a restoration, good luck to you! Have a look here - THE IRISH - for a bit of background on another person's experience with that. He did pretty well!

[glennsche]

thanks for the reply gents.

yeah i know about the potential / risk of devaluing it. but the 'end result' of that pic on the page Greg Pickersgill linked to is what i want. i was thinking of removing the paint from the top, but leaving the interior as is. i love the bronze bolts and that deep irish green. <sigh> who knows if i'll even get around to doing it. for the moment i'll let it be and see if it bugs me after a while. i have it next to my iraqi helmet on the shelf and it kinda matches in a weird way so for the moment its ok.

danhashman, thanks! when i lived in switzerland i got 11 different swiss tschakos off of ricardo.ch, all for very reasonable prices (roughly 100 USD each). They're quite affordable there as they're numerous, and for whatever reason the swiss dont seem to've figured out they're worth 2x their swiss value abroad.

whenever i'd travel to the US i'd load up on swiss leather ammo pouches, pionier bajonetten and tschakos and list them on ebay prior to departure, and then drop them in the US mail over the course of the trip. took the bite out of the airfare every time!

[glennsche]

all,

i ended up not making any changes to this helmet and left it "as is" in the pics here.

i would also be interested now in selling it, if someone feels so inclined to make an offer. shipping from Germany, as i now live there. (ie, no expensive US shipping)