Romanian helmets

Grate job they look astonishing.

Also nice that they have different colors, it makes them look different.

Is it me or are the pictures darker than the earlier ones you posted, the helmets seem to have a darker color; especially the one on the left the paint seemed brighter then?

Are you going to clean the other helmets?

Yes the pictures are darker because I forgot to turn on the light.

Yes I want to clean 2 more romanian ww2 helmets and after that I want to clean my ssh 40 romanian helmets. I hope I will finish them in 1 year because is hard work.

I will put some pictures later with the ssh40 helmets.

This red helmet with the black/kaki stripes is rather unusual. It’s out of question to be a reconnaissance/sniper WW2 head gear as in the Romanian army this kind of soldiers hadn't any distinctive symbol. The red shell is extremely visible and it would be a suicidal idea to carry this helmet in a battle action.

Many helmets and other military stuff came out from different theatres and cinema prop stores and they bear many fanciful or exotic transformations made by costume designers according the plays or movies needs. They later puzzle honest collectors or uniformologists. It also might be the case for this helmet.

The camouflage net seems to be an old WW2 British style helmet cover with attached strips of jute or hessian. This was never carried on the Romanian army and might be also an eccentric addition.

This helmet belonged to me and i sold it to mr RUC. I can describe the net on the helmet as a field made( it appears like a hand made curtain as i seen in many paisant houses, i include here my grandmother's home).I have also seen a picture on the internet somewhere with a romanian soldier in a winter battlefield wearing some kind of window curtain over his uniform as a camo. So...on the battlefield everything was posible i think IMHO. In reality the red color on this helmet with the net added over it was not bright at all...i had this helmet in my hands and i know what i'm saying.

This post has been edited by panzergrenadier on August 28, 2006 09:41 pm

My newest adittion to my collection is this dutch model m34 helmet who was in romanian use. Well, after trying to clean the communist era paint, I found three other layers of quite thick paint.
First (starting from the exterior) is smth. like a dark olive colour, then a blue colour and finally the original colour.
Here are some photos:

The question is: what's with the dark olive and blue colour and wich one do you think I should preserve?

P.S. I think their paint job was done before the communist use.

What did you use to clean it?

I first used some solvent called GRUNDSOLV. It prooved to be less powerfull than 506 or 509 solvents but even so it has disolved some original paint....
Then I used some very fine sandpaper and scrubbed until the first (communist paint) and second layer of paint (the dark olive layer) took off.
But the work has stopped now since I don't know what layer of the three remaining (see previous posts) is "worthy" to be preserved...

Today I was at the flea market and I have seen a M74 helmet painted light blue like the one you have on the helmet. So in my opinion the blue paint is post war.

Mihnea, I was there too and also saw that helmet, but is definitly not the same colour. Perhaps the photos are not too conclusive. On my helmet is smth like a light navy blue, instead of a blue-ciel colour. Further more, it seems to be a good quality paint job.
Nevertheless, I agree with you that it might be a post war usage even it is the second layer of paint (out of four existing on the helmet).

hey guys what do you think about this helmet it got the original pain 1 layer with the m35 german liner.
And a BULLET hole how rare is that

From the pictures you posted I can't be sure that your helmet was hit by a bullet or it was "demilitarized".

What about the liner, is it damaged?

PS It would be nice if it was damaged by a bullet at the revolution not in WWII.

I can't figure it out, but it seems to be an exit hole of something....

yea the liner is damaged.
and i thing too thats the exit hole.

Here are 2 comunist era helmets, recently purchased for my collection, from the flea market. My guess is that both are for the paratroopers.
One is the standard m73 steel helmet with some sort of a leather "neck" .
The other one is the "cut down" version of the m73 helmet, still in use, as far as I know.



This post has been edited by ANDI on February 20, 2007 09:30 pm

The "cut down" version....