Need advice on mystery decals

**Pablo** · 11-11-2011, 01:20 AM

I'm stripping off the paint of repainted helmet and got down to a black coating. Assume it is a postwar fireman's helmet. Then I came across some decals poking through and was hesitant to continue the stripping. Would you consider the decals as postwar since it is applied to the black surface? Should I continue to strip and not worry about destroying anything interesting? One of the decals look like a party shield, but cannot ID the other. The pieces of decal showing on the other side looks golden. Thanks for taking a look at it.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 11-11-2011 01:20 AM

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**big ned** · 11-11-2011, 02:20 AM

It appears that what was there is lost. IMO you may as well carry on with your project. Actually, thinking about it, what were you intending to do?

Regards, Ned.

**Pablo** · 11-11-2011, 02:31 AM

by big ned

It appears that what was there is lost. IMO you may as well carry on with your project. Actually, thinking about it, what were you intending to do?

Regards, Ned.

Big Ned, thanks for your response. I new this helmet had a postwar paint job and wanted to get to the original. After removing the first layer I came across the black. Underneath the black I came across some green. So my objective is to get to the original paint.....it is like an archeological dig.

**davejb** · 11-11-2011, 04:29 AM

It seems that you are using some form of scraping method which is why the "decals" have gone for good, if you carry on with this you stand a good chance of damaging the green as well, use the methods that weve described to you before and take your time plus do small areas at a time

**Pablo** · 11-11-2011, 04:33 AM

This is what I've liberated so far. Can one tell if this party shield is authentic? If not, I'll scrape it off and get to the green paint underneath.

**Eric Zentner** · 11-11-2011, 04:39 AM

I like it so far that is cool more pics please!

Eric

**Teutonicknights** · 11-11-2011, 04:40 AM

I agree looks good....

**Pablo** · 11-11-2011, 04:45 AM

This is a work in progress and will resume tomorrow. I'm using 91% isopropanol and rubbing with a cotton ball. This solvent is not as strong as acetone and it takes a lot of rubbing to remove a little paint. If the decal is a repro, I prefer to not do all that work.

**davejb** · 11-11-2011, 04:51 AM

If i were you id go very carefully you might be dealing with a reissue repaint as that decal looks halfway decent at the moment, now is the time to use some acetone and gently work the paint away from the decal with a cotton bud and have some water handy just in case you see the decal being affected, its a dodgy one to call at the moment but i wish i was there with you to help

**Pablo** · 11-11-2011, 06:19 AM

Ok....this is about the best I can do for now. The other decal looks like SS on a gold background. What do you think? The helmet is the sandy camo M42 I posted earlier and everyone thought it was a fake. It seems the application borders on the decals are pretty thick. If this is a SS helmet why would one want to paint over it with that crappy sandy camo. There seems to be some green paint under the black. I do not think it is SS. What do you say?