M42 Luftwaffe camo + Introduction

[Snuffegull]

Hi, i think it's time to make my first post here, since it's been quite a while since i signed up
My name is Christoffer, i'm 21, from Sweden. I'm interested in Helmets and fieldgear mostly. I'm into re-enacting aswell.
Recent pic of my ugly mug.

Photo by: Jelmer de Jong

Anyways, just wanted to show you this lid, that got for 30 euros on ebay.
I thought it was an czech re-issue at first, because it was painted black, but it was painted very recently, and only on the outside. I started to strip it, and this is what i found, Single decal luftwaffe, and a two tone, tan and green brush painted camouflage I know, it's not a beauty, but still a nice find.
It's an ET64, batch nr 1657.

Sorry for the bad pic, using my phone. I'll try to get some better ones if anyone wants.

[Helmetluvva]

Welcome (belatedly) and yes we always want better pics

Marcus

[Lou58]

Hi Christoffer, It's alway good when you can remove post War paint, and re-viel a decal, and of course a camo patten, as it's always hard not to damage the original paint job by the soldier while you are doing it

Also mate you look the part as a re-enactor in a black and white photo

Lou

[Totenhead]

Hi Christoffer, It's alway good when you can remove post War paint, and re-viel a decal, and of course a camo patten, as it's always hard not to damage the original paint job by the soldier while you are doing it

Also mate you look the part as a re-enactor in a black and white photo

Lou

Ditto, love the BW picture, thought it was real for a second !!

[coloradocowboy]

Welcome. Cool pic and cool helmet

[KradSPam]

Nice find mate, it's satisfying to save a lid like this.

By the way be careful, you look like you are about to take a 'schreck to the jewels in your pic

[Hoss]

Dam Chris
Cool, you look good mate better than the clean fat **** old gig farts over here.

Eric

[fader107]

Nice job - what did you use to remove the paint?

[Andy C.]

Welcome aboard mate...

[Michael L]

Welcome. You uncovered that decal very well without washing it out. You look the part of a soldat in that foto.

[Bill Hermann]

Welcome Chris, nice re enactor pics. Your helmet looks to have come out well, regards, Bill

[Snuffegull]

Thank you all!

I could have easily ruined this lid, because i didn't think there was any original paint on it.
I pick up some shells every now and then, and restore for re-enactment use, and i was going to do it with this one!

I was about to strip it with an scotch brite disc sander, down to bare metal,
but stoped after just a second or two, before i even got trough the black paint, because it smelled so bad to sand in,
and decided to use paint stripping gel instead.
This gel is pretty good, because it usually only takes the top coat off, if you don't leave it on for too long.

But when i started wiping the black paint of it, i found the decal, and quickly washed the gel off,
and most of the plack paint came off, unfortunately a little bit of camo aswell..

But if i would have left the gel on for longer, it would probably have ruined all the camo!

I haven't been able to get any better photos of it yet, since i don't have a decent camera, i keep buying more ww2 junk all the time, so i can never afford one