romanian ww1 helmet

Hello, is this helmet older then ww1 because I sow this kind of helmets with Carol I emble and also with Ferdinand I emblem. What period is it ?

It can't be older then ww1!
At the begining of ww1,the French army didn't had any steel helmets.
And this is a french type helmet.

The French “Adrian” helmet was adopted in 1915 to avoid the great number of head wounds during the trench warfare. It was designed by Colonel Louis Adrian, of the French Intendance services. He simply adapted the Paris Sapeurs-pompiers helmet in order to be rapidly delivered to the troops. The helmet was inefficient and difficult to produce because it was composed of four parts: the shell, the two brims and the crest. In the French army every branch of service had a different badge fastened in front of the helmet. The French “Adrian” helmet was also delivered to some of the Allies: Belgians, Italians (their helmet was made in a single piece of metal), Serbs, Greeks, Russians and Romanians. Every army bore its own symbol or coat of arms.
The Romanian “Adrian” helmets were ordered in autumn 1916 and were delivered to the troops in spring 1917. The helmet was painted “Bleu Artillerie”, the typical colour of the French equipment) and had King Ferdinand cipher added over King Carol’s I monogram.
During the 1920s some helmets were modified and a new badge, that represent King Ferdinand single monogram, was then adopted. The helmets were painted olive kaki (almost brown) as the colour of the uniforms was changed in 1925. During the reign of King Carol II the badge was changed again with the new royal cipher.
When in 1939 the new Dutch style helmets were adopted, the old “Adrian” pattern equipped mainly reserve and second line troops (AA artillery, Navy, etc.) but King Carol II badge was removed. Old “Adrian” helmets, painted red, were still carried by many civil fire defence units during the 1970s.

This helmet is a very nice piece of collection. It could be restored. I think Mihnea could give us some advices concerning this. I don’t know what is its size. Unfortunately many “Adrian” helmets are of smaller size and therefore cannot be carried by today reenactors.

Hi Claudiu, nice helmet.

Did you sand-blasted the helmet or that’s how you bought it?
Did it have any emblem: Romanian, French, Russian etc?

No this is how I bought the helmet. I bought with a german M42 repainted and 2 bayonets one russian M1898 2 nd model and a romanian one ww2. I would like to restore it because the shell is in good condition and is large too (I will give you the mesure later) but I don't know where to buy the pieces from. If you know someone please tell me.

An other question. How do I tacke the paint of some repainted helmets like this Adria helmet and a german M42 ?

Kepi thancks for your explication.

That's very hard I think, even impossible, with good results. I never heard of anybody doing something like that.

I would simply scrape all the pain off and do a complete repaint.

Could you post picture of the other items?

The Adrian helmet needs a lot of work, but first you have to decide how you want to finish it off, for what period/army.
For example: if you want it to be Romanian WWI with the badge of Ferdinat or Carol I and gray color or from WWII without the badge and with kaki paint. It could also be French, Belgian, and Russian etc.

After deciding you have to find or copy an original badge, use filler to cover all the rust holes, remove the air vent before painting the metal in that area also needs to be protected against rust, find setting paint, replace the supports for the liner all those on your helmet are broken, make sparser for the liner, find repro liner (I know somebody in Bucharest for this job, he can make miracles).

Actually, the only "decent" way to clean a repainted helmet is by using an electrical wire brush. This operation must be done with caution, I mean you should not aply too much pressure while doing that.
This is better than sandblasting becouse the brush cleans all the holes without affecting the metal. Of course this is when we are talking about a helmet in solid condition.
This is something I have tried on a painted (!) ZB bayonet, the scabbard and the handle (painted in thick enamel). The former owner, was trying to hide the rust holes, but I thought I'd better have it cleaned.
ANDI

A lot of caution, I have used this method on my two shovels, and I almost destroyed the markings on the first one (the high speed rotating wire brush is “eating” the metal and the paint) and the metal was in good condition.

This post has been edited by mihnea on November 15, 2005 04:17 pm

It is best to leave the helmet in its original condition and enhance the color of the paint by applying wax or silicone to the surface. If you have a piece that requires repaint, use a chemical paint remover. Then treat the metal surface with a chemical rust remover. Clean residue with fine grade steel wool. Anything course like a wire brush or sandpaper will damage the metal surface of the helmet. You also want to keep the metal pits and blemishes in tack. It is best to presurve the antique look of the piece you have. If you are trying to make it look like brand new, you loose credibility and value of the piece when its time to sell it again.

What kind of wax or silicone should I use? I have other helmets that need protection because they can rust easily.

This post has been edited by Claudiu1988 on November 16, 2005 02:22 pm

Any type of Automotive wax product should do the trick. Be careful if your helmet has decals on it. Some Automotive wax products are cleaners as well and have solvent or abraisives in them. This can damage any decals on the helmet.

Variations of the WW1 Adrian Helmets in my collection.



1 - 1916-1917 Horizon blue.

2 - WW1 variation in a darker blue color. Bluish black color.

3 - WW1 variation in Horizon blue with a khaki green helpmet plate of the mid to late
1920's.