Adrian M26 helmet - treated with wax?

[msdt]

Hi,

Have had this helmet a while. It was sold to me as a helmet which had seen Belgian service and it had a Belgian badge. Looking at it yesterday I realised that it was a French made helmet which made me doubt the Belgian badge, and so I carefully removed the badge to see if there was evidence that it had just been added to make the helmet more saleable. Underneath I found the remains of a painted badge, so I put a post on the French site 'Passion Militaria' where it was quickly identified as something very interesting, the remains of the Polish eagle. This helmet would have been used by the Polish troops raised in France in 1940 who participated in the defence of France that year.

So, as the damage around the Polish badge matches the rest of the outside of the helmet clearly the Belgian badge did not belong on the helmet. However what removing the badge revealed was the original colour of the helmet. It seems that the badge was added and then the helmet was treated with something.on the outside.

What I am trying to find out is what has darkened the helmet, would Renaissance Wax do this? And any suggestions for removing whatever it is to go back to the original green?

Cheers,

Tony

 

 

[msdt]

Sorry, have forgotten myself! This is post Great War so inappropriate for this site.

Cheers,

Tony