Marcus Cotton Helmet Book

[Dave G]

It's time once again for my annual question: Any news on whether Marcus Cotton is in the process of writing a book on British helmets, and if so when and by whom will it be published?

Dave

[JWM72]

1. Does anyone have any of his articles on First World War helmets? I would love to read them. 
 

2. We could all use your help. It seems there were four BROAD colors I’ve seen on First World War BEF, CEF, Anzac, and AEF helmets. 

 

I’m seeing a lot of British helmets that are clearly a darker, flatter green than “Apple Green,” and varying from just dark green to close to an olive drab. Any thoughts on this? And if so, what contemporary paint colors come close?

 

I’ll post my example of helmets painted for AEF, showing what they look like under sunlight, as well as a couple contemporary paint sourcing options. These are US sources.  UK or EU paint is not making it across the Atlantic. Probably because of the U-Boats. 

 

Preemptively: I know shades varied widely.  I know we don’t make paint that way anymore. I know the digital pictures look different than the images of the paint on the helmet. Nevertheless, I’m trying to group distinct variants and see if anyone can suggest contemporary colors, the name, and where it can be purchased. 

 

Thank you for any assistance. 

 

[peregrinvs]

For what it’s worth re contemporary colours, when I restored a MkI Brodie helmet in 2017 I came up with my own paint recipe of 50/50 medium/dark brown and pale olive green to give a green tinged khaki type colour. You can see the results in this thread:

 

Edited 1 March , 2023 by peregrinvs

[JWM72]

I really enjoyed that thread and it turned out great.  It’s a recipe I could try by using similar colors in the US- but it will be a lot of trial and error. For the lazy, these questions are paramount: what colors are correct? Who makes it? Where can I buy it? [and if it can only be sold in Europe, what’s a name of a close match (NCS, British Standard, Fed Standard, etc.)

I’m just trying to concisely put some information with multiple options as far as contemporary paints. WW2 is far easier to research, and its popularity ensure there are paint makers with product by period, by country, by service. So for modelers or people people wanting to paint a helmet, they can find lots of answers and resources. 
 

I doubt any of the companies that do contracts for accurate depictions of the FWW in movies will share their color recommendations. 

Nevertheless, I thought I’d ask. 

 

Thanks again. 
 

John