British Army Helmets in 1979: Part 3 Internal Security

Unsurprisingly, Northern Ireland became a testbed for new British Army equipment. The MKIV 'turtle' helmet was superceded by more specialist protective headgear as the 'Troubles' wore on.

My favourite from a Winter of 79 perspective is the GRP (Glass-reinforced Plastic) 'Cromwell' helmet. To all intents and purposes a 1970's motorcycle helmet with removable visor.

The Cromwell gave the soldier on the streets far more protection than previously, but significantly reduced the soldier's ability to respond to verbal orders or audible tactical clues. Nevertheless if you want a full on paramilitary look to your forces, then the GRP Cromwell helmet is ideal:

Lessons learned from the Cromwell, were incorporated into the Combat Helmet (Northern Ireland) which appeared in the late 1970's. This was again a modern Glass-reinforced Plastic design and would ultimately lead to the MK6 combat helmet.

GRP Combat Helmet, Northern Ireland: Osprey Elite 044

Security Forces in Northern Ireland 1969-92

I hope you found this short series on the helmets used by the British Army in 1979 useful. You can see that by careful selection of figres you can increase the flexibility and range of miniatures available to you. Once again I recommend Osprey Elite 044 Security Forces in Northern Ireland. If you need just one Osprey title to allow you to paint British Army and security forces miniatures for Winter of '79, this is it.

Cheers

Mark

British Army Helmets in 1979: Part 2 Para & Marine Lids

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Trying to find concrete information on post war British Para Helmets is difficult. Luckily with our focus being on 20mm miniatures not collecting militaria or 1/6th scale warriors, where the smaller detail of liners, straps and such matters far more.

In our 1979 time frame we are basically looking at two models of helmet in service at the same time. The classic WW2 era rimless steel MkII Para helmet which soldiered on with British airborne forces right up to the early-mid eighties and the M76 Parachute helmet, lightweight.

 3 Para going ashore, San Carlos, 1982
M76 GRP Para helmets

The MKII Paratrooper helmet was manufactured in 1944 and saw wide service with airborne troops by the time of Arnhem. There were at least two more post war manufacturing runs - 1953 and 1965. British Paratroops continued to wear the MKII into the mid-1980's where it saw service in the Falklands side by side with the M76. The MKII also saw active service with Israeli & Indian Parachute forces.

1 Para, Londonderry, 1972, 

Riot Visors attached to MKII Para Helmets

The M76 had a lightweight but durable Glass-Reinforced Plastic (GRP) shell. It appears to have been a development of the GRP Combat Helmet (Northern Ireland), which itself was the direct forerunner of the MK6 combat helmet (1987). It began replacing the MKII Parachute helmet from 1979 onwards.

M76 Parachute Helmet, Lightweight

The basic shell of the MKII Parachute Helmet was also used for the RAC (Royal Armoured Corps) 'tankers' helmet. With a new liner, this became the Marine Pattern Helmet.

Marine Pattern Helmet

Photos of Royals in the Falklands clearly show them carrying MKIV ("turtle") helmets. It's likely that the numbers of the Marine Pattern Helmet required for a large scale ground operation simply were not available.

Once camo cover is in place, netted and scrimmed up, there's only a subtle difference between the MKII Para, Para lightweight and  Marine Pattern helmets in 20mm, only then up close and you have to know what you are looking for. Rolf Hedges' FALK1 British infantry in camo helmets are dripping in scrim so can be taken for all three helmet models in a single stroke.

This Para GPMG No.1 snapped in the Falklands, could easily step back in time to stand beside Frost at Arnhem.

Cheers
Mark

British Army Helmets in 1979: Part 1 The MKIV

If you thought the subject of British Army helmets for 1979, was a relatively easy and dry subject, then let me reassure you it isn't. Believe it or not, there were a plethora of helmets in use in the late 1970's and this gives us plenty of opportunity to distinguish our troops, personalise our forces and perhaps even create new formations.

The MKIV/MKV 'turtle' helmet is probably the most easily recognisable piece of kit worn by the 70's squaddie and date stamps our model soldiers as being at the height of the Cold War.

Th MKIV, began life as the MKIII also commonly known as the '44 pattern and first appeared on D-Day in 1944/ It remained in British service, much to the chagrin of it's wearers until replaced by the MKVI Combat Helmet between 1985-87.

MKV was simply a MKIV with a foam liner.

Troops deployed to Northern Ireland in 1969 wore camo covered helmets, but as the 'troubles' wore on the helmet was 'demilitarised' and generally seen without adornment. It could also have a perspex visor fitted for riot and crowd control duties.

In the field, the helmet was covered by khaki string netting and adorned with torn strips of light khaki or green dyed burlap and sacking scrim which could be further enhanced with foilage, giving that classic 'Dad's Army' look to the wearer.

In Winter of '79 it would not be out of place for all regular and Territorial Army formations, with the exception of the Parachute Regiment, Royal Marines and armoured vehicle crews, to wear the MKIV/MKV helmet.

Brittannia's 20mm Cold WAR BAOR British have heavily scrimmed MKIV/V pattern helmets which really capture the feel of the 1970's squaddie. You can also buy Cold War British wearing the MKIV/V from Rolf at RH Models and Tony at ERM (Platoon 20).

Part 2 will look at the Para Helmet.

Cheers
Mark

DPM Sapper Joe's Way

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I've been following Sapper Joe's blog and have to admit that I am really impressed by Joe's skill at painting DPM. Tricky at the best of times, he has really pulled it off in 20mm.

 Joe's DPM painting skills (photo used with permission)

Combat Miniatures 20mm British (Corp5 & Urbn7)

Chatting with Joe, he based painting his DPM on the tutorial from the now defunct Mongrel Miniatures website. I've summarised this tutorial below:

1) Undercoat the figure black

2) Paint the whole uniform and helmet with Vallejo 921 English Uniform.

3) Add green blotches of Vallejo 894 Russian Green all over the uniform,

4) Follow with brown blotches of Vallejo 822 SS Camo Black Brown.

5) Don't make the blotches of either colour too big, so as to totally obscure the base colour.

6) Highlight the base colour with Coat d' Arms 225 Khaki

7) Repeat the process with the dark green blobs, applying a highlight of Vallejo 886 Green Grey.

8) When applying these highlights, don't obscure the colour underneath, as this is where the depth of colour comes from. Try to keep the highlight surrounded by a line of the base colour on each layer.

9) Highlight the brown blotches with Vallejo 984 Flat Brown and then add some irregular black swirls. Be careful not to make these too prominent or too thick as they will dominate the whole uniform if you do. Aim for single strokes of your paintbrush for each swirl, with enough paint on it to complete it in one stroke. At this point I painted the exposed parts of the helmet and roll at the base of the webbing with Russian Green as a basecoat.

10) Paint the webbing with Foundry Granite (midtone).

11) Highlight webbing and puttees a highlight of Vallejo 886 Green Grey.

12) Drybrush helmet netting black

13) Paint scrim muted natural colours – earth/tan etc

14) Outline pockets, joins between jacket and trousers, straps and belts etc to separate the parts of the figure and show off the separate items of dress and equipment with a dark colour.

15) Para Berets – Vallejo 33/926 Red

British DPM

Mark adds:

At the end of the day the choice of colours and overall effect is a matter of personal taste when representing camo in smaller scales. If you reduce the DPM camo scheme above within an image editor, you'll notice that the colours start to merge as you make it smaller. This happens in reality when the naked eye views camo over distance. The green, tan, brown, black of DPM, appears as green/tan/ black at 50 metres, green/black at 100 metres and just plain green at 200 metres.

The only change I would make to the tutorial above is that the puttees should be Vallejo 921 English Uniform. I would suggest that depending on the effect you want to achieve, use green as your base colour rather than the 'tan', then use brown blotches to partly cover the tan and green. That way you don't end up with lots of 'tan' in difficult to reach folds and creases.

Highlighting each colour in 20mm and below is, let's be honest, a pain in the proverbial. From my own experience with DPM combats I suggest these rough and ready methods:

1) Use a pointed detail brush to 'paint' Citadel Devlan Mud wash directly into creases and folds.
OR
2) Once you've painted the figure, wash all over with watered Devlan Mud, then highlight using the base colours again.
OR
3) Once the figure has had the basic colours painted, lightly drybush all over with Vallejo 819 Iraqi Sand. Pay particular emphasis to knees and elbows.
OR
4) 1 followed by 3 above.

Now for some eye watering DPM on W40K Cadians take a look at the Dakka Dakka Forum (click here).

I'll take another look at DPM and the variations you can bring to your miniatures in order to differentiate between units/ factions in future posts.

Joe, thanks once again.

Cheers

Mark

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