help with an Ssh-36

[Beeman]

I picked this Ssh36 shell up about 30 years ago. I never really paid much attention to it until recently, when i realized what a wealth of info exists out here in the internet. The little research that I did convinced me that it had been clumsily repainted by some prior owner(s). It had a hand painted coat of the light green over a spray painted coat of black over spray painted khaki-tan over a thick coat of a gloss gray. The front originally had a glued-on fabric star that had peeled off before I got it. Only the glue remained. When I finally got up the courage to try to strip off some of the layers of paint I found the remains of some English words hand painted in black on the interior of the right cheek piece. The only ones I could make out before they vanished in the stripping compound were "Russian WW II". Whoever had it (I think) may have put some kind of liner in it. (see the odd khaki stripes in the shell interior)

I have decided to try to restore it to some of its former glory. Just not sure how to do it in the best way possible. I am pretty sure it is a size 4. I would like to repaint it and add an appropriate liner and chin strap. I "think" some approximation of the Soviet B3 color is correct. I am just not sure of a few other things such as:

Leather liner or cloth/leather? ( I am trying to get one from Prairie Flower Leather)
Should the shell be stripped down to metal and then primed prior to the repaint? ( The primer coat on it now is very thick and hand painted. It has all sorts of drips and runs in it. I had hoped to strip it slowly to see if I could find any markings below but I doubt that will be successful)
Should the paint be flat finish or satin?
Anyone out there actually produce a close copy of the Soviet B3 color?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Brian

[Nitram]

It looks to me like someone installed a British style liner.



If you are intent on restoring it, you probably want to remove all the layers of paint, then give it a base coat. Sand blasting, if you have access to such tech can be used to great effect; however the shell seems pretty solid and I don't think it's necessary to do any more than sand down the paint and rough it up for a primer to catch on.


Martin

[Beeman]

I had thought they might have put a British liner in too. But since I just put a new liner in a MKII I realized that they would have had to drill through the comb and use a really long screw. But this comb is still untouched. No holes. In fact, the shell its self is in extremely good condition. There is a small, circular patch of of wear in the green paint around the two side rivet holes. It looks like someone may have used a 1/2 inch washer on the outside of these two holes as part of a jury rigged liner. I am going to try to very slowly strip off some of the gray paint to see if there is anything left of the original paint.

[Wesley's Dad]

Interesting... the shell appears to be a Size 4. Such is pretty uncommon. I would go so fare as to say it is a rare size based on my own experience.

[Beeman]

Well I spent a few hours slowly removing the some patches of the gray paint using q-tips and paint thinner. Its obvious now that whoever repainted the shell took it down to bare steel before the gray was painted on. I had hoped to find some original paint underneath but there was nothing under any of the test patches. Can't see any reason not to go through with my original plan to restore it.

[Nitram]

Well I spent a few hours slowly removing the some patches of the gray paint using q-tips and paint thinner. Its obvious now that whoever repainted the shell took it down to bare steel before the gray was painted on. I had hoped to find some original paint underneath but there was nothing under any of the test patches. Can't see any reason not to go through with my original plan to restore it.

You can still refurbish it, it's what I'm doing with an M42 after some shmuck stripped it and painted it in primer.. Alternatively, if you're hell bent on throwing it away here's my address: :P

Martin

[Beeman]

LOL...Yea I am going to refurbish it. Just want to make sure I do the best possible job. I am trying to get a hold of Prairie Flower Leather to see if they still make liners and chinstraps for this model. I haven't got a reply yet. As for the paint....Still bot sure if B3 is correct for a pre-war helmet.

[Beeman]

Well I continued stripping the old paint down and pretty much confirmed that the prior owner had only left about 2% of what I think may have been two of its original colors. The most prominent is a lighter mossy green color. However, In some other spots there are very small patches of a very dark grey-green that looks a lot like the few chips of the B3 paint that I have seen. I "think" that the darker paint may have been the older layer. ]I also found it amusing that I actually found the prior owner's finger marks as I was slowly removing the Grey paint. As I thought, there was no paint showing beneath where he held the shell while brushing it.