joerookery
Well-known member
Most of the decent texts describe the modification of 1860 and earlier helmets to bring them into the Model 1867 configuration. I thought the forum members might be interested in seeing some details of the work done on the helmets.
The first photo is a helmet modified to 1867 configuration. The helmet was lowered, the original front plate holes and holes for the cross base were plugged. The body was reversed so the plugged holes were in the rear and new front plate holes made on either side of the sewn seam that used to be under the rear spine in the 1860 configuration. New front and rear visors were also attached.
The second photo shows the front of the helmet without plate and the rear of the helmet.
Interestingly, on this particular helmet the 1867 front plate mounting system was not used. The screw post and nut from the earlier front plate were retained. In the rear view the plugged holes are just visible.
The third photo shows the hole plugs from the inside. As can be seen on the plug from which the leather cover is missing, the plugs were sewn in place. Visible at the top of this photo is one of the plugged cross base holes, also sewn in place. The second image in this photo shows the inside of the body where the chinscale mount nut is located. The hole below the nut is the chinscale mount location in the 1860 configuration. Notice that the hole is just about at the bottom edge of the helmet body. This gives a pretty good idea of how much leather was removed to lower the helmet body. The stitch line from the original side re-enforcing panels that were removed is also visible.
:cheers:
