Austrian M17 repainted and restored, thoughts?

[Kaikun2001]

Thoughts about this restoration job?

New chinstrap posts and new paint job also three small holes were present ontop of the helmet Which have been filled. The front visor had also been dented and is now pointing a bit down.

[Irish1965]

This is a changed and overpainted relic helmet. It is pretending to be something which it is not. It is more interresting as a K.U.K. relic shell is was before altered. I would save up to buy a good 'untouched' helmet. Or get a nice 'untouched' relic helmet.

I would pass on this one

Cheers Paul

[Danmark]

Restoring can be polarising for some folk. Assuming it is yours, I applaud you for a good effort, even though it is not everyones "cup of tea".

[Sharky8670]

Repainting and putting a modern made chinstrap is not restauration. The only time you can talk about restauration is when you use exact time period pieces for that exact object & paint is never an option. If you did it because you like it that way, good for you.

[Kaikun2001]

Sharky8670, what is restoration? Its diffrent from person to person, the helmet was almost falling apart with huge gaping holes and was very fragile, the chinstrappost had been removed aswell as the splitpins etc. I wanted to have something that had been preserved and brought back to life. In my collection I have several untouched helmets which I tend to keep that way, this helmet had almost no historical or collecting value. And frankly I do not really care for it being worth something, in my eyes its a labor of love put back together. I would rather have it in this state than falling apart rusting away in piceses.

- Kai

[Sharky8670]

You can not call this "restauration" (aka restoration) and certainly not with regard to militaria. The fact that you made this in something you like is great, just don't go tell other collectors you "restaure " (restore) because it sounds silly. you painted an old helmet and put a modern day chinstrap on it..and that's it. And i have nothing against that, i truly like that a piece of junk is given a new life and can be used as decoration in a collection. I sure did it to. My focus is only on the term "restoration" overall it's gets overused & abused towards rookie collectors.

Il tell you a story and the reason why i commented on this and don't get me wrong my example has nothing to do with what you do. A few years ago i found some dude on Youtube who took German ww2 relic crap helmets, he filled them with primer, he rubbed them nice and smooth and perfect, he then spray painted them professionally where you almost couldn't see any difference with an original, he put high class repro 'scam' interior in and aged the helmet (made them camo SS helmets btw). i found his many video's of many different helmets very suspicious, if you do one okay, but not 20, i don't consider that for personnel use anymore, so with a little investigation i found out he was selling them as original. He scammed people and when he got caught he claimed he was "restoring" them and did nothing wrong -he sold these 30 euro worth relic helmets for 2 to 3000 euro's a piece! This dude was luckily not very smart to post video's of his 'restaurations' on Youtube otherwise he would still be stealing peoples hard earned money selling useless crap.

That is the reason it will never ever be restauration (aka restoration). The simple rule is, when the soldier didn't see, hold or used it in the war..it is considered as copy. Peace

ps. repaint your helmet, it looks gold ; )

[Kaikun2001]

I tried my best to repaint the helmet to my own liking, I guess I’ll have to remove it if it looks golden. Also I am sorry for posting this in the first place.

[Verikauha]

Personally, I like it.

If the helmet had rusted and had extra holes through it then In don't see an issue repainting it. And seeing how pitted it was, it's value would only have worth of a rusted relic helmet.

There are plenty of relic helmets, but most people don't bother owning them and their value are obvioysly lover. This helmet is worth staying top of bookshelf.

Restroring it to be present conditon is better choice if there was nothing impressive unit decals or camo schemes in it.
Heck, some of those finnish Finnish army refurbished ww1 german helmets after 1955 have nothing original left in them but their shell.

[helmet2id]

Frankly, I think you did a really good job restoring the helmet. It is yours and you can do whatever you want with it. It looks good, and will fill a spot on the shelf until you decide to upgrade.

[Anderson]

"That is the reason it will never ever be restauration"

Precisely, "restauration" would be eating the helmet. Not recommended.