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China made M35 rebuilt

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:37 am
by Simon Klaus
This was a fun project about five years ago, when I found a dusty China repro M35 helmet in size 68 during my trip in a small shop in Southern China, its a sample sitting lonely on the shelve for years, some shallow dents on the top, may be dropped for high many times, its rims was rough too, but completed with liner and chin strap, asked for around US$25 only.

It is not perfectly correct but could be better. The position of the air vents are random and too thick, the contours of the doom is not comfortable and some shallow dents, also have to removed the excess of the rim and rebuilt the fold rims with epoxy putty and some Tamiya putty until the shape is more or less closed to original. Then spray an industrial flat green as base color.

To cover the defects I decided to build it into a1944 rough finish two color with chicken wire camouflage, it took me six days to completed the shell.

Knew nothing of iron oxide at that time, for the rough layer I use model railway sand, it is a bit too large but still works, tried to apply on wet paint in small sectors, then seal by industrial paint, but not strong enough to stop sand falling out, eventually to reseal it by diluted white glue solution, sun dried a day then sealed by green paint.
It is very strong to withstand scratch and impact even not possible to remove it.

There was no hope to find hexagon chicken wire mash around, had to build from scratch, found some difference diameter wire from the cloth hanger and gardening racks to form the base ring and hooks, then knit a 3D net with thinner wire, but it was not as simple as it looks, after third attempt I found out its rule.

Finally darken the wire by Gun Blue and red brown at joints as rust, its looks quiet good.

The China made liner and chin strap had installed, only removed the gross coat on the leather by thinner, the only replacement parts was the three split pins, as the thin brass pins could not hold the liner in place.

So here is it, now on my shelve with other ten helmets.


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Re: China made M35 rebuilt

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:09 am
by Goethe
Nice rework!

Re: China made M35 rebuilt

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:25 pm
by Stefan1944
Just seen your post - really impressive work and thanks for the pictures and guidance notes ... I'm inspired.... :shock:

Re: China made M35 rebuilt

Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 12:45 pm
by Oberleutnant Ulrich
It just goes to show that miracles CAN be achieved!