helmet transformation

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Hello people,
Some time ago i purchased a cheap helmet on e-bay. The whole thing costed around 75 euros, postage included!
It is made of three parts,two for the bowl and one for the rest, and it's very thin,perhaps 20 gause brass, patinated relatively evenly. I decided that it was cheap enough to trust my hand in modifying it, especially when i realized that the cheek guards were so long that turning my head and looking down resulted in the cheek guards empeding my movements. I also decided to keep the patina, since i don't particularly like brass and this would me my cheap not-so-cared-about helmet.
So here is a photo of the original helmet when i received it (crest is a DSC crest for my illyrian helmet)
[attachment=1079]DSC04828.JPG[/attachment]

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First movement was to bend the nose guard outwards to fit me better,and push the cheeks closer together to fit tighter. These had already been done before taking the above photo,and it was a matter of seconds.

Second thing was to cut the cheek guards shorter. I re-arranged also the little "groove" on the sides. This i did with a pair of metal scissors. And the helmet looked like this:

[attachment=1081]DSC04841.JPG[/attachment]

With some help from some jeweler friends i drilld new holes along the cut edge.

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So yesterday i started making the liner. It's all made of wax treated goat leather, sewn on the edges, without the use of any glue. I re-enforced the edges with the same leather lining using the flesh side out.
The lining is made of two pieces,one for the top of the head with the triangular cutouts and nose guard, and one for the rest. The result is that you wear a very comfortable soft hood that absorbs the power of strikes. I'm happy with the result, and i preffer it to my other possible option of glueing a felt liner and finishing only the edges with leather. Took me one day and a half to make.

[attachment=1083]DSC04911.JPG[/attachment]

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Now there remains some painting perhaps. Ultimately,i'd like to add a high crest to it,to complete the totally archaic look,but this will take some time.
Khairete
Giannis

[M. Demetrius]

Good job! None of that is as easy as it looks, folks.

[Virilis]

Very well done, Giannis! I think this the first presentation of a 6th c. bc helmet I`ve seen!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Good job! None of that is as easy as it looks, folks.

This is spot on! It always looks easy untull you take it in your hands...

Virilis, it is indeed a rare thing to see,and it is a pity,because in my opinion these helmets look great.And this was a rather ugly helmet comparably.
Kineas now has a very nice helmet. I guess he will post pics when he has it complete.
Khairete
Giannis

[Vindex]

That's an excellent transformation. Can't wait to see it with it's crest.

[Strategos]

Hey I know that company, I bought my Illyrian Helmet there . Fortunately they are located in my hometown so I could examine the whole range, and I have to admit that these helmets provide a perfect base for such modifications.
However, I removed the paint and I have to say without polishing it stays in a good natural (and dark) colour shade. For a friend, I purchased an archaic corinthian which will be modified this winter.
At the moment, they are sold out, but I have been told that new helmets are ordered, maybe with some new models...
Yours looks really good, Giannis.

Best Regards

Strategos

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

That is a good Job, it is very close to the artifacts I have seen of this type of helm!
They too are very thin..

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Willi, this is true,they are sold out but a friend that asked them told me that they will have new ones next month!
I polished a small part of the inside and mine is a bright yellow brass,so i didn't polish it.
I think i have seen the archaic helmet you're talking about,and i think it doesn't even need modification,just add the linning. I saw it in one of your posts in the hetairoi forum.

Byron,thanks. The middle archaic helmets tend to be a little heavier than the later archaic an classical corinthians. However,they are still thin. Problem with this helmet is that it is not work hardened,which makes it unsuitable for full contact fights. For instance, Kineas (C.Cameron) broke his nose from a shield strike on the nasal of his deepeeka corinthian helmet! This helmet is probably thinner than the deepeeka helmets!
I very much ancourage the modification sof such helmets though. I hope the above photos demonstrate that they can be accurate and more impressive one would imagine.
Khairete
Giannis

[Strategos]

Yes, its the one with the snakehead eyebrows. Modifications will not so much touch the metal of the helmet, but we will add a high crest (black horsehair and matching the snakes)a little bit of colour and a lining.
I totally agree with you, that such helmets are very useful, and they add much variety to the appearance of a Phalanx.

Best regards
Willi

P.S.: New helmets next month would be quicker as I have been told (It was September back then)! I am very exited! :grin:

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Oh that one! I thought it was another one,looking older and cruder but very ancient.
I considered it for some time to buy the snakehead and i actually bid for it,but it went too high.
Khaire
Giannis

[Daniel S.]

Wow -- when I saw that first picture it was hard to see how you could transform it into something useful and yet you managed to!

The older style Corinthian helmets is what got me interested into Greek armour in the first place so its great to see more reproductions of them.

[Dany Boy]

Very good looking performance Giannis
You have done very good work reshaping this Early Corinthian replica, if I can qualify this (in round) Calotte Corinthian which has not (inner rim) to mark the border line between the front face armor and calotte.
Working with leather is (ungrateful) job and it’s not easy at all.
Because of this very few people take the decision to involve in business like this one.
I am wondering why no one from the well know firms which claim they has leading positions in producing Greek armory replicas doesn’t offering similar (Early) Corinthians like this one!?!?
At the same time if we click in eBay with code words (Corinthian helmet) we’ll have the opportunity to find so many good for nothing replicas some of them are not only waist of working time and waist of space but literally waist of Raw Materials!
Whatever your Corinthian is looking great.
Thanks for sharing this working process.

[Dany Boy]

[attachment=1564]1311114890.jpg[/attachment]
Ups-Sorry
Surprise, surprise!
Manningimperia is offering something very good.
http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?...=3&c_id=56

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Exactly,i was about to show you this. Thanks very much for the flattering comments. I gave the final touch to my helmet with the addition of painted decoration, and now it looks like this
[attachment=1565]DSC04953.JPG[/attachment]

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Khaire
Giannis

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

The finished helmet in Marathon

[attachment=2002]retratos11.JPG[/attachment]

And i also modified(painted) my MI helmet. Some customization never hurts, but i hope you like it.
I did everything freehand, took a whole day to paint!
It looks better in reality, and yet better from some distance. I'm also wondering what it looks like with the rest of the kit, but it will be some time before i go out and wear it...
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Khairete
Giannis