Mk2 Helmet Colour

I think its utterly dependant on what was about at the time, i've a 1938 one in a bronze green (overpainted with an olive drab later), others i've seen have been almost chocolate brown or deep green... add to that ones painted and coated in sand or ones repainted by the vehicle workshops.

I dont think you can be too wrong really.

This is my 1938 one

Cheers Gadge. I'm thinking of painting one of mine a stereotypical early war colour, and one a more typically later-war colour. I'll see what I can find in Halfords
Not going to even consider BEF camo, though...

I'm keeping the 38 green and painting my other one dark sand.

With a hessian cover, a scrimmed net and a bit of old bedsheet i can make one or the other look right for any period.

I have a turtleback MkIV that i'm looking for a buyer for for Grange farms marshall but i may keep it myself for late war inf.

Early ones ive had with early MK1 liners have always been a glossy non textured chocolate brown colour.

My 1943 dated shell is painted in chocolate brown (Service Brown?). I repainted using Plastikote Matt spray enamel. Try B&Q or craft shops for this.

My 1943 dated shell is painted in chocolate brown (Service Brown?). I repainted using Plastikote Matt spray enamel. Try B&Q or craft shops for this.

Was the Plastikote brown a good/close match? If so, I think I might just do the same

I'm keeping the original paint (scratches and all) on my helmets.

I'm keeping the original paint (scratches and all) on my helmets.

Under normal circumstances I would, but these two I've picked-up cheap have been given a liberal slapping of NATO green. Prob' by some surplus shop or amature dramatics club. Underneath one is RAF? light blue, and the other is a charcoal gray. So I thought I'd make 'em useful and "infantry them up".

Don't blame you for doing that. They'd already been mucked up!

One of mine is a WWI shell and still has division markings on it. That's not getting touched ever! The other one has nice brown paint, just fairly worn in.

I did get hold of 4 helmets with several inches of thick nasty stuff on them and all made shiney to make them look like medieval helmets. They had to be thoroughly stripped and repainted before being sold on. What some dramatics companies do makes the stuff we do to our kit look tame sometimes.

My 1943 dated shell is painted in chocolate brown (Service Brown?). I repainted using Plastikote Matt spray enamel. Try B&Q or craft shops for this.

Was the Plastikote brown a good/close match? If so, I think I might just do the same

The Plastikote is a pretty close match, but not exact. The shell of mine had gone pretty rusty on the outside hence the need for a repaint. Your light blue on might be Police.

Following on from the Mk II helmet colour, what's the correct colour to paint airborne lids, i.e one of Heide's repros?

Bearing in mind i'm colourblind, a named colour would be helpful!

I've done some digging on behalf of all us Brit players.
If anyone wants to get/buy paint for anything they need painting and want the correct pre-NATO British colours, then these are them (in both original 'BS 381C' code and RAL code [where I've found a good match] - depending what your local paint-shop uses):

General Purpose - Boxes, Tins, Signals Equipment, Vehicles, Helmets, Weapons, etc...
"Service Brown" - BS 381C colour 499 (I've found that RAL '8014' and BS 381C '499' are virtually identical)
"Olive Drab" - BS 381C colour 298

Specialist/Other - Helmets, Weapons, etc...
"[Middle] Bronze Green" - BS 381C colour 223
"Olive Green" - BS 381C colour 220

Do Halfords mix up to BS 381C standards, or only RAL?

I do know that 'Service Brown' (BS colours) can't be mixed by Dulux/Crown type places which is a shame as they can do RAL colours - I use 'eggshell' paint for German kit.
However, if you think RAL 8014 is equivalent then that avenue is open.
Quite why these domestic & professional wall paint mixers have RAL programmed into them and not BS I have no idea.
But any industrial/car paint shop can mix BS colours in solvent based mixes without problem. I'm not sure whether Halfords is the best place to go anyway - quite apart from pot luck with staff they don't mix custom colours in store anyway as they order it, at least the Derby ones do.

I do know that 'Service Brown' (BS colours) can't be mixed by Dulux/Crown type places which is a shame as they can do RAL colours - I use 'eggshell' paint for German kit.
However, if you think RAL 8014 is equivalent then that avenue is open.
Quite why these domestic & professional wall paint mixers have RAL programmed into them and not BS I have no idea.
But any industrial/car paint shop can mix BS colours in solvent based mixes without problem. I'm not sure whether Halfords is the best place to go anyway - quite apart from pot luck with staff they don't mix custom colours in store anyway as they order it, at least the Derby ones do.

Ive worked in a paint shop now for over 20 years and both Crown and Dulux machines can mix BS colours-unfortunately not the same BS range-think from memory the BS range we have been using is something like the BS4800 range.

In all the time i have been working i have never managed to find a correct colour for US OD or Brit using any source be it BS,the limited RAL colours that are in the machine or the various NCS and other ranges that Crown and Dulux have made over the years.

HOWEVER by accident and unfortunately i cannot remember what i used i now have a perfect match for Brit early war Brown helmets in a Crown Satin paint. Being in the game now for 20 years plus and having mixed 10000 of gallons of paint you would think i should know what tinters to add to colours to change them-WRONG.

I mixed a litre of a RAL green(no idea which one it was now) that looked on the chart quite close to US OD-it was nothing like it so i started adding various colours and it turned brown .It lay on the "wrong" shelf at work for a while as it was meant at the time to be for US helmets i never thought about using it for Brit helmets until i came accross it lately and its spot on to my early Brit MKII

Ive worked in a paint shop now for over 20 years and both Crown and Dulux machines can mix BS colours-unfortunately not the same BS range-think from memory the BS range we have been using is something like the BS4800 range.

Yes, that's right - I meant the 'old' (but still current) BS381C standard colours which don't seem to have correlation with 4800.
BS 4800:1989 Schedule of paint colours for building purposes - Which is why it applies to 'decorators' paint mixing
BS 381C:1988 Specification for colours for identification, coding and special purposes
Specifies numbers and names and illustrates 84 standard colours. The colours do not constitute a coordinated range and are not limited to any particular medium (eg. paint, plastics etc.). Retains 23 colours from the previous edition now regarded as obsolescent. (Updated to BS 381C:1996 91 standard colours)

We also use BS381C for reference colours at work. I see the 1988 version has in Appendix C a cross ref of some of the colours to BS5252 shades which in turn may cross refer to BS4800 ( which I do not have a copy of).

eg it gives Middle Bronze Green 223 as resembling BS5252 14 C 40. If the information is useful I will post more of the cross references.

14 C 40 is a current colour and from memory 14c39 is also a green colour.

Does any of you know what they mixed in to the paint to make the helmets rough textured?

Just plain old sand as far as I know.