Removing paint from a Deepeeka "macedonian" helmet

[Virilis]

Hi there!

I have a Deepeeka macedonian / thracian helmet which has this awful fake bronze paint in it. I know it has an iron core and it would look great exposed. So here is my question:

-how can I remove the paint? With sandpaper it seems to be a bit too hard and the decorations & grooves on the surface makes it impossible to reach the bottom of all the tiny curves. Are there any good solvents for the job, perhaps?

Thanks in advance :wink: ...

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Have you tried paint stripper?

Or Caustic soda?

[Virilis]

Have you tried paint stripper?
Or Caustic soda?

No, I just tried with a sand paper :oops: . Just remembered that my friend is working at a industrial paint factory which makes paints for tankers, for example. I think he can help me with this...

[M. Demetrius]

It would help to find out what kind of paint it is. Different paints respond to different chemicals. Check with the Deepeeka folks, would be my first suggestion.

[Gaius_Calvus]

Yup. I use a commercial paint remover that comes in a spray can to remove the lacquer from the outside/black paint from the inside of my DPKa helmets and it is pretty easy to do.

Good luck!

Edge

[M. Demetrius]

If you plan to glue anything to the inside, it is very smart to remove that black paint. Wish they'd just skip that step, don't you?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yes i do too. I can't say I 've had any problems glueing in liners, but removing them to clean them is a pain with all that black paint stuck on...

[Matt Lukes]

Same here- a regular gel commercial paint stripper got the black paint out of my commercial helmet just fine. I'd think it fairly unlikely Deepeeka would be using any odd paint that'd be resistent to paint stripper...

[Virilis]

Same here- a regular gel commercial paint stripper got the black paint out of my commercial helmet just fine. I'd think it fairly unlikely Deepeeka would be using any odd paint that'd be resistent to paint stripper...

I used the commercial gel paint stripper and what a surprise; it worked ! The bigger surprise was that under the paint was COPPER!!! Now I have a nice copper coloured helmet with a patina and I am very happy with it!

[Ioannes Vandalicus]

please, can you take photo how it looks now? It sounds interesting

[M. Demetrius]

under the paint was COPPER!!!

I'm reasonably sure the helmet isn't really made of copper. Some chemicals can draw some of the copper to the surface on brass, if the helmet was brass. If not, maybe there is a copper compound in the paint stripper that transferred to the surface. Does it look copper on both the inside and the outside? If so, that would be a good thing to know about!

What brand of stripper? Imagine, painting a design on a brass helmet with the stripper, then rinsing it off, and making the helmet look as if it were plated selectively!

[Tarbicus]

I'm sure I've seen copper versions of these for sale on the internet.

[M. Demetrius]

Well, maybe I'm not SO sure, then. :lol:

[Virilis]

Here it is, I will get a better pic on the daylight! In reality the tone of the colour is more red, like copper, which it also smells. It seems that the helmet is made of iron COATED with copper!? (I scratched the surface and it seems that underneath there is iron...)

I must say that this helmet is not so bad after all (then again I have also a "soft spot" for Alexander the great) :wink: ...

[Ioannes Vandalicus]

WOW hock: this looks cool :!: can wait for more pics