Tag Archives: Blanco

The Ugly Duckling Or The Transformation Into a Beautiful Bird – With A Name.

The helmet as bought.

The helmet described in this article had been on offer on a certain internet auction platform at the UK for at least two years, headlined as “Vintage Pith Helmet World War 1 WW1 British Army First Please see photo” – The seller´s hint to see the photo first made sense: Many collectors probably have clicked to open the page and closed it immediately after having seen a helmet, filled with yellow foam – besides being offered at a price that was anything but a bargain.  Continue reading →

Fifty Shades of White: Blanco’ing a Sun Helmet

The habit of whitening sun helmets is a bit like getting shoes polished. The only difference is that shoe polish preserves the leather and prolongs its life, whereas any white substance on a sun helmet can only have visual and reflective reasons. For a military and civilian environment alike, that may have been sufficient reason why it was done. And how? I tried it myself – the blanco’ing of a sun helmet. Continue reading →