Apple green for m35 and apple pea green for the m40. M35s and M40s originally do not have iron oxide finish. Dark Feldgrau is for m42s. If you’re wanting your m40 to have undergone a field respray use dark Feld grau with aluminum oxide is appropriate.
I used a small spice shaker too, just like that one. When I was applying the aluminum oxide I shook it back and forth straight on and I didn't have any issues. In fact I think it applied more evenly and like you said you can always rub off the excess.
Ps. If you have an old course grinding wheel that's been worn down if you smash it up quite fine it works perfectly. The one I had was made out of aluminum oxide so hey I figured why not I have a ton more wheels
Good how to videos for the finish conversions! You should try laying down a drop cloth to catch the aluminum oxide and turn the box upside down. You’ll be able to haven’t room to spray your helmet and it will allow you to be the 12-18” away to build up your coats of paint.
Paint your helmet apple green(m35) or apple pea green(m40) first. Then paint the helmet a version of gelbbraun Ral 8000 or ral 8020. Dunkelgelb 7028 was not a DAK color. Leave the inside of the rim a Feldgrau color. That is generally how the helmets were painted! Have fun with the project either way!
OK, I bought a M40/55 helmet from IMA, I am watching your video, I have stripped the helmet, bought some Aluminum Oxide and paint from IMA, getting ready to paint.
Hi, can i ask a thing My helmet has 2 layers primer and paint paint remover did not work, Do you have any suggestion? (Something to make as less damage as possible to the helmet)
I’m restoring an m40, I took the previous paint completely off as it was already pretty badly restored, now I have to repaint it, I bought day 1944 paint, I tried on the shell to see if it would hold on, but it doesn’t, I can scratch it off with my nails. Do you know if I have to use any sort of primer or what I should do to make it work?
I wondered if period German helmet manufacturers primed their helmets before applying paint and the general consensus is they did not. Of course you can do as you wish. It may help the paint to adhere better if you lightly scratch up the helmet using coarse sandpaper. Also make sure the helmet is free of oils, grease and dirt by cleaning helmet with mineral spirits before painting. You may have had a bad batch of paint and may try using something obtained by another dealer in authentic WW2 German color paints. You also must let the paint dry completely and harden for weeks, months and years. Don't be in a rush to scratch up the paint. Lastly you might consider using a clear MATT spray to protect the finish further but this may ruin your decals if you've applied them unless you protect the decal with some kind of varnish specifically formulated to protect decals. That's it in a nutshell. Since your post is a year old this response will no longer be relevant to you but someone else with a similar issue may find it useful.
Got questions: first, did you also strip the paint in the interior too? Second, I have a little hard time following this, you start adding one layer of paint, you wait it dry and you re add another paint layer to add the aluminum and re wait again to re add another layers? Isnt 3 layers in total? Did you also paint the interior? How many layer this times? Can you add one layer of varnish to keep everything in place after the layers? Thanks
I live in Australia & I brought Aluminium Oxide from a car shop called Supercheap S Auto. Aluminium Oxide is used for sand blasting, so any automotive shop should sell it, or tell you where you can. It’s kinda expensive (for what it is) to buy tiny amounts from reenactment vendors. Mine was about $10. for 1Kg (2.2 pound)
Can I ask you something? I have a German helmet at home and I would like to make it more shiny, but at the same time I plan to put a decal on it. Do you think that the decal on the helmet would hold even if there was a clear coat on it?
@@zacharycook2674 I just Googled 'Aluminium oxide'(we spell it differently in England) and there are a lot of sellers coming up. I can see it's on eBay very cheap by a few sellers. It's often sold in small amounts. I should have said around 220 grit for early war. In the late war they used larger grain, even sand.
Hessens paint is good stuff. Their grau-Olive is the equivalent of 1944s dark Feldgrau. Dark Feldgrau is good for m42s with aluminum oxide finishes or M40s that were field resprayed. M35 factory color was apple green. M40 was a slightly darker shade of Feld grau referred to as pea green. 1944 militaria is out of stock for apple pea green, but has apple green in stock. Now with all that said even amongst the same company and factories paint colors varied greatly in tone. Just depended on the time of the war and how the paint was mixed. Slave labor was used. So I imagine exact specs weren’t always a thing that was followed.