So you want to make your own paratrooper helmet...
Nothing about doing this is hard, time consuming, fiddly or frustrating... it's really not that hard... that is as long as you're not totally cack-handed or you've never used basic tools before. In which case the A-yokes might be beyond you... but read on and see what you think.
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This is assuming that the webbing chin straps are correct, and that the liner webbing is all usable and not falling to bits. Even if they are you'll soon see how to replace everything using the following steps.
You will need the following items to have a completely correct finished helmet:
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M1 Helmet Shell - U.S. one, not a Euro clone
M1 Helmet Complete Liner - tortoise shell look, not shiny modern plastic; airborne liners will have snaps for the shell chin straps (see photo below)
Finely Crushed Cork - yup - ordinary cork like from a wine bottle. Just grind it up with a cheese grater!
Green Paint - in whatever shade of green you want. Ask 10 guys, you'll get 10 answers as to what is the best colour might be. Do some looking at original helmets in museums and then you pick!
White paint - any type!
A-Yokes & Suspension Parts - often these come together as a kit
Helmet Net - get green or chocolate brown, not tan or khaki
Scrim - get flat and dull greens and browns and maybe some black, not bottle green or natural
Leather Chin Strap - the ones with a green flat flip buckle are correct for early WW2 helmets
Chin Cup - brown leather with a chamois lining
Rivet Setting Tool, A-Clips, & Rivets - order from At The Front, Top Pots or J. Murray
Got everything?
If you miss something don't worry, luckily companies like ATF and SOF have spare bits!
Lets start with the helmet shell. If doing one from scratch, lets do a good job. If the paint is flaking, or a total mess then it needs removing. You can buy spray-on paint stripper. Spray it on, wait, scrap it off... repeat. Once you've removed enough for the shell to be smooth, give it a light sand so that there is nothing that could show through the new paint. Most things would be hidden under the net and scrim, however, its nice to do a good job.
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Does it come with fixed bales? If not, then you'll need to get those sorted, too. You can buy bales and get them welded on or get the Shackrats to do it for you.
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As you can see from the photo, there are lots of different textures from all the dents, dings, bashes, scrapes and scratches.
Next comes one of those odd jobs! You'll need to get finely crushed cork. Now you can google M1 helmet cork, but there is nothing special about crushed cork. Its cork... that's been crushed! There is a chap on eBay that will sell you a huge bag, enough to do about 20 helmets for less than £8 - the same price these re-enactor supply companies will charge you... that's without their shipping on top of course! Check the link below.
Once you have the cork, it needs to be applied all over the OUTSIDE of the helmet. There are many ways of doing this; I was told you apply wood glue over the outside in small areas, they pout over the cork, press in. Repeat that until its covered. I've read about people spray painting the helmet and pressing the cork into the wet areas. I didn't really want to mess about with glue or spray paint, so I came up with my own method. I have a big tube of cheap black acrylic paint (it's craft paint that's flexible, resilient and sticks to almost anything). I paint it on thick in small areas, pour the cork over and press hard. Again, like the glue method, I do this until it is completely covered and then leave it to dry overnight.
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Next day I hold it over a large sheet of newspaper and give it several hard knocks from the INSIDE of the helmet to remove any of the excess cork. Pouring the excess back into the bag almost makes it look like I've used none at all. Those bags are certainly going to go a long way!
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Now it's time to get spray painting if you prefer that. I don't, so I got my can of fairly dark green paint and started dabbing it all over. Dabbing... NOT brushing. Dabbing it on will not rip off all the cork that hasn't tightly bonded with the single layer of paint or glue used so far. Once I've given the helmet two good coats of paint and waited for it to dry again, I flip it over and make sure all the edges and some of the inside is also covered. Remember that most of the inside will be hidden by the liner so you don't have to pain the entire interior.
On to the fiddle part! Getting the A-Yokes in the liner... you can start swearing shortly!
If the rest of your liner suspension is crap, use this technique to replace it as well. Decide before you start since you don't want to have to take out rivets twice!
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First job is to remove the old rivets from where you need the A-Yokes to go. Check the photograph if you really can't work this out. This is where the fun starts!
Grab the liner and remove everything that you can slide out or unbuckle - the headband piece and the leather chin strap.
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So, there are two ways to take out the four rivets that hold the suspension parts in place where the A-Yokes will go; both work, one is easier (but you have to be more careful and own a grinding wheel!), the other involves a regular old power drill. To help clarify things, I've included a video at the end of the process described below.
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Grinding wheel method - you can grind off the head of the rivet that is on the OUTSIDE of the liner. Do not grind the liner when taking off the rivet head. This process requires a delicate accurate touch when you're down to getting the last of the rivet head off. Once the head is off, pop the remaining part of the rivet through to the inside of the liner and remove the broken rivet from the A-Clip. Keep the A-Clips* as you will need them later.
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Drill method - this is the most common method. Drill out the middle of each rivet from the INSIDE of the liner until it can be pushed through to the outside of the liner. Keep the A-Clips* as you will need them later.
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*Some euro close tortoise liners have A-Clips/rivets as one piece. These are brass and if you come across these, you'll almost certainly need to grind them out. Also, then throw away whatever remains and purchase some separate A-Clips and rivets.
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One you have all four holes free of the old rivets, it's time to put the A-Yokes in place. Make sure you get the right yoke on the right side and the left yoke on the left side and that they are each the correct way around! Double check before you start riveting! You do not want to be drilling these out because something is backwards! At first, you'll think that there is no way that the rivet is long enough to go through the liner, A-Yoke webbing, one or two layers of suspension webbing and the A-Clip! It will, but this is where it gets hard... you need about 4 hands for this part. Get it all in place like the one in the photo above (note that the rear of the A-Yoke is attached to the nape strap A-Clip at the back of the liner, the front of the A-Yoke is attached to the A-Clip on the headband). Then place the rivet setting tool... oh wait, you didn't buy one of those. I did my first liner without one, so it's up to you. You can order one... or use a large-ish drill bit or a punch that will flay the rivet outwards. I had the liner on a work bench with a large spanner placed over the rivet head (on the OUTSIDE of the liner) of the appropriate A-Yoke. Next, I put the drill bit on the rivet post (on the INSIDE of the liner) ready to hit with the hammer. Then, press really hard down on spanner head to force the rivet post to be as high as possible and ready to be walloped! Hit the rivet post a couple of times and gently check to see if its holding. Don't pull at it! If the rivet is holding, then I place the head of a smaller spanner standing on its side against the rivet post and give it a good tap, squashing out the post of the rivet further to make sure it holds. It takes some patience and balancing to get everything in place and to keep swapping tools. However, the process does work; I've done several liners like that and its only now that I have actually gotten around to ordering the proper tool. Without the tool, the rivets won't be the tidiest, but they will hold firm.
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If the exterior of the liner is a real mess, it might be a good idea to give it a touch of paint, too. If you're going the full whack, then you could also put your unit insignia (the heart for 502nd PIR) on the liner, too.
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Put the leather head band back in place and you can buckle up the leather chin cup as well.
... and back to the helmet shell...
With the liner now completely done... if only it took only as much time to do as it did to read this! Although with my piss poor grammar and spelling, it probably took longer to decode my appalling English than it did to get those A-Yokes in!
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Now to paint the insignia on the sides, nice and big if you're recreating a Normandy invasion helmet 2 to 2 1/2 inches tall; or much, much smaller if doing later campaigns. DO NOT SPRAY the playing card symbols on! That would be the FARBEST THING EVER! These should all be hand-painted. Variations in these are vast and you should do it by hand. It doesn't matter if it's a perfect work of art or looks like you tried to do it whilst driving the car along a bumpy road. Again, check period photographs to see what originals looked like! Then let it dry... easy right?
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SOF carries two colours of helmet nets with the smaller sized holes, the light green one is a nice colour and ready to go. The brown one can look like it has a touch of purple to it. If you want a brown net, it is easy to fix. Dylon's 'expresso brown' will fix this; instructions on the packet, and it's fool proof. Just don't forget the salt! Once you have the net in whichever colour you like, stretch it over the shell; this is a pain and is fiddly as hell, too! Enjoy. Yes, it fits; no, it's not easy; yes, it fits... it really does. Honest!
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The liner can now be popped into the shell, and this will hold the net in place. The liner's leather chin strap can be put over the front of the helmet and the webbing one either put around the back of the helmet or left loose for the 'John Wayne' look, or if you plan on doing something else with it.
Last job is the scrim. Don't do all this hard work and then put crappy cheap scrim on it. Almost all you see for sale are an awful bottle green or natural hessian! Both are incorrect. Correct colour scrim is available for sale via this site if you need it, or you can by hessian strips and make it yourself.
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