The Helmet

So I promised an in depth look at each uniform component from a ‘we wear what we want!’ kind of brown coat costume perspective. Instead of bouncing all around, I’ve decided to start from the head down… which brings us to the helmet.

Instead of pulling my own screen captures this time I cheated and just flipped through what they had at Still Flying and so a huge shout out to them – thank you! Now, instead of reposting all those pictures I encourage you to mosey on over to their website and check the screen caps yourself if you’re interested in corroborating the points I make in the post.

Now, in my mind’s eye, I thought (for whatever reason) that extras without helmets outnumbered those who do. Turns out I was terribly wrong, and there are only four people who are shown on screen without their buckets: Mal, Zoe, Tracey, and the guy with his head shot off in Serenity (The Pilot). Sounds like a case of hero-itis to me, in where the principle characters in shows generally eschew meaningful bits of gear in the name of ease of identifiability, comfort of the more expensive talent, and ego of the stars not wanting their face and hair-dos covered. It’s why Spiderman’s always taking his freaking mask off in movies, and the trope can be found in almost all sci-fi and military theater.

And really, in combat, a helmet’s a really good idea. The brain’s pretty important, don’t let anyone tell you different. But then again, an actual metal US Army M1 helmet can run you $80 if you’re lucky on Amazon, to $360 from historic memorabilia websites, to $5,000 for a named and published ETO General’s helmet (though if you buy that and paint it over for a Firefly cosplay you deserve all the vigilante justice in the ‘verse.) It makes sense though, it’s a WWII helmet, and they’re only getting rarer and harder to find.

Luckily WWII reenacting is still a pretty big thing, so you can find fairly inexpensive reproductions. There are also plenty of plastic ones out there, from chinsy plastic costume stuff to airsoft quality to high impact plastic that would protect you from dropping something on your head like a hard hat would. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, as you’re going to paint over it anyway, thus disguising whatever material is underneath. As long as it doesn’t crumple when squeezed it’ll do just fine. Again, if you’re drawing live small arms fire, and you’re in your Firefly costume, you’re probably doing something wrong.

So go do some googling, find a helmet within you visual desire and price range, and buy it. Once you have it, it’s time to make it Browncoat-y. And that’s where I defer to a tutorial posted by the 76th Battalion. It’s a pretty neat tutorial, though it’s specifically designed for the vintage Russian helmet that was used on set along with M1 helmets. I don’t know the model number of that helmet, and I have no idea where to find it, so if you do let me know.

Also keep in mind that the tutorial is also geared toward a metal helmet. If you’re using a plastic one make sure you check your paint’s directions on how to make it adhere to plastic well.

Here’s a link to said tutorial: (I'm a link) and it’s also on the Cortex, the sidebar list of links on the main blog page.

Finally, is the helmet required? No, of course not. It’s really the coat that makes a Browncoat identifiable. Plus, a good mark of a special or irregular unit is its disregard for policies usually considered so important to regular standing armies. So if you want, wear your hairmet with pride Irregular! But if you’re worried about bullets to the brainpan you may want to put one on eventually. Your call.