My ww1 French genius helmet

[Helmcollector]

This is for me a special case as this helmet appears to be kaki and as some paint is worn off, I can not see original blue colour under it, but I think I can see the colourless metal (or is this blue ?, i have some form of colourblindness....). So some helmets seem to be already have been painted kaki in the factory before the Model M26, as little by little the uniform changed from blue to kaki. I think I can see traces of a round stamp in the inside of the shell and when I follow the algorithm found on the internet and shown in the pictures below, this helmet should have been produced by Dupeyron which is in agreement with a round stamp. Second pattern liner with leather in 2 pieces. Bleu tissue between undulated metal and leather as a lot of this tissue came from old blue uniforms. This is the second version of the insigne. The first one seemed to fragile (see picture) and was abandoned very quickly.This ensigne was worn by those who worked on railways, who installed the infrastructure for communication (telegraphe, even those who did the communication with pigeons), ....

[Das Edelweiss]

Here's a view of the 1st model badge for the Engineers (that's the right term, rather than "Genius") on one of my M15s. The "neck" area of the badge was indeed a bit fragile, reason why it was quickly reinforced, as it can be seen on yours. The helmet here is black in color, inside and out.

[Das Edelweiss]

Below a broken 1st model badge on a very salty M.26.

[Das Edelweiss]

Another 2nd model Engineer's M15 badge, this time in use on one of my M.26 Adrians. The reinforced neck area is obvious (and the original horizon-blue paint can be seen here and there).