Post war M1 restored.

[Mickzilla]

I bought a bamboo Chinese wok cleaning brush like this and used it to weather a helmet for an experiment and it worked well to give it a been there used look

I hit the helmet several times to scratch the paint with the bamboo brush, then I sprayed sea water from the ocean all over it and wrapped it in a plastic bag for several days to cause it to get a rusty aged look on the exposed metal, then after I got the desired amount of rusting I sprayed it off with fresh water and used a little soap to neutralize the corrosive effects, then I left it outside for a month in the hot sun and let the dust and dirt bake on it, and it looked original, the rust spots were a nice dark brown and it looked well aged.

Cool, ill try a combo of this and the stuff nick wrote.
The helmet would look awesome if i could get a cool rust effect!
Thank you both for the great tips!

/Mick

[NickD]

thats some good tips there

the same guy that did the medic helmet for me also did this post war m1 replica para helmet for me as well the first 3 pics are before pics

[Mickzilla]

thats some good tips there

the same guy that did the medic helmet for me also did this post war m1 replica para helmet for me as well the first 3 pics are before pics

Looks nice Thanks for shareing!

/Mick

[Mickzilla]

Hey guys,

I have been trying to do a nice job "ageing" my helmet, and this is the result.

Its not as nice ad the pictures NickD posted, but im not a pro at this
Im thinking about scraping some more paint off on the medic emblems, what do you say?

/Mick

[NickD]

looking better already just needs to be dirtied up a bit more leave out side & apply some coffee granules to it every so often

[Mickzilla]

Yup Ill start right away.

[NickD]

the only two things that will let it down is just like my helmet in the last pics i posted the rim will rust instead of staying shiny which would have made it more authentic & also the leather liner chinstrap is to wide to be WW2 US but still looking a very nice job better then i can ever do

[Mickzilla]

the only two things that will let it down is just like my helmet in the last pics i posted the rim will rust instead of staying shiny which would have made it more authentic & also the leather liner chinstrap is to wide to be WW2 US but still looking a very nice job better then i can ever do

Yeah I know the chinstrap is not WW2, i just took the nearest liner w/chinstrap, i was meaning to buy another one, the one on the picture is from a post war M1 helmet used by the danish civil defiance. - It followed with a very nice (not US, or WW2) liner

Thanks, ill post when all done.

/Mick

[NickD]

keep it up mate just remember you can never over do it it all depends on how old you want it to look & replicas of those chinstraps can easily be picked up to give it a little more of the authentic look

[Mickzilla]

keep it up mate just remember you can never over do it it all depends on how old you want it to look & replicas of those chinstraps can easily be picked up to give it a little more of the authentic look

Of course J Murray have some original mint condition M1 WW2 era chinstraps.
I bought one before, they look nice.