50's Era Helmets ?

[Jon Haigwood]

Building a 50's Era Track Nose Model A and thought about getting a helmet for a prop. Not sure what the wore if anything back in the day. I know that after the war they used leather flight helmets and goggles They may have worn the half helmets with the leather ear straps. Are there any scale helmets in scale that would work ?

Bonus Question: Looking thru online pictures I noticed they didn't have any roll bars and not sure about seat belts either ? 

[Mark]

Not 100% positive, but I believe that the Bell helmets were first produced by Roy Richter's company in the mid-Fifties.  One magazine (not sure if it was even a car magazine) published a test on helmets available then, and found all of them to be pretty much worthless.  Richter had one designed that was much better.

Check period photographs, it wouldn't surprise me to see that belts and roll bars were "optional" back then.

[High octane]

The drivers in Monogram's Long John and Cook & Bedwell (Slingshot) dragsters have the helmets you're lookin' for. The roll bars were pretty simple then and the seat belts if any also.

[Spex84]

The AMT '55 Nomad comes with a german-style helmet, as does the AMT '63 Corvette.  I think they were based on motorcycle helmets that were considered cool at the time, but I don't know if anyone actually wore one racing!

 

[Mike999]

Fujimi's 1/24 scale kit #11004 "Drivers" has 2 driver heads with "old fashioned" racing helmets.  Unfortunately the helmets are molded to heads. So you'd have to grind out the heads, or use the whole driver. 

That set is out of production, but has been replaced by kit #11636 "Mechanic Figures & Driver w/Car Interior Accessories."  It has the drivers, mechanics and other accessories.  It's currently available for less than $20 at some online vendors.

The old Monogram Indy Racer kit has a nice period driver figure, but same problem as the Fujimi guys; his helmet and goggles are molded to his face.

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 hours ago, Jon Haigwood said:

Bonus Question: Looking thru online pictures I noticed they didn't have any roll bars and not sure about seat belts either ? 

I'm pretty sure the first mandatory use of roll bars was in NASCAR in the early '50s. They slowly trickled through the sport, but like a lot of things, were thought to be evidence the driver was a sissy. It wasn't until '67 or so that real roll bars that would actually support an open car's weight appeared in European races. Seat belts also took time to become widely accepted and eventually required. It was thought that it was better to be thrown from the car rather than being trapped and crushed, or trapped and burned to death.

If you build an early '50s car with a roll bar, it's entirely period correct (though not common), but they'd generally not be as tall as the top of a driver's helmet, and the material would be smaller diameter than what we generally see today. WW II military aircraft seatbelts began showing up in dry lakes cars shortly after war's end.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[Mike999]

The link below will take you to the 1-hour documentary "Grand Prix: The Killer Years."  Not your track racing, but the 1950s-60s safety gear was probably the same - nearly non-existent.  In the movie Jackie Stewart says his car had 1 piece of safety equipment, and he had to buy it himself:  a wrench tied to the steering wheel, so somebody could remove the wheel and get him out of the car if he crashed.

https://archive.org/details/CPZ-0041

[oldcarfan]

I noticed that The Race Of Gentlemen guys tend to wear period style headgear. Maybe do a Google image search and look through them for ideas and inspiration. Most seem to wear either the leather flight caps and goggles or a half helmet.

[89AKurt]

I built two old Monogram models recently, issued 1965.  I have the helmets, cute with the skull face.  If that works, I'll send them to you.

[Jon Haigwood]

15 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

I built two old Monogram models recently, issued 1965.  I have the helmets, cute with the skull face.  If that works, I'll send them to you.

Thanks but I figured I will scratch build a couple half shell helmets, 

Thanks to all for you information and suggestions. Your a great bunch of Folks here.

[my80malibu]

Quote

You could possibly get a lifetime supply of those from Shapeways. There are those who print in Batches 10, or more at a time.

 

[garagepunk66]

The 1/25 scale Ulrich Mini Men also come with a decent representation of the early postwar Bell helmet. Ulrich has an eBay store and usually has a few available at any given time