Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[whitesharkseeker]

Did Japanese officers have stripes/bands painted on their steel helmets? I have a 1944 picture showing the Japanese command cave on Peleliu with a helmet in the foreground and stripe painted around it. Very odd.

Thanks in advance, Eric

[gwsiii]

It may not be a stripe, per se', the helmets were stacked after painting, leaving a distinct 'ring' around some showing the primer/old paint. I'll double check though. Can you post the picture? Trey
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[Jareth]

Trey you almost got it right. Some (army) helmets were painted & stacked with the paint still tacky. When they were seperated & assembled (liner, star rivits etc) the completed helmets were touched up with a horizontal stripe of paint. Sometimes this stripe was a very different shade of color. Some believed this was camo but we now know this was part of the assembly process. Not all helmets will have this stripe. I feel certain factories as well as years produced had shellsl painted differently. Most likely the shells weren't stacked due to space constraints. As trey mentioned for a short period of time the Japanese used an orange primer. Most shells were just heat treated (looks like blueing) & then painted. Hope this helps.

[gwsiii]

Jareth, thanks for setting me straight and clarifying. Trey
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