ARMAE Reproductions d'armes et d'armures historiques

Improving a Gallic G helmet

The story began at the end of 2005, when Gaurav Agarwal (Gagan's brother) asked us for advice in order to improve the AH6052 Gallic G helmet. It seems that the commentaries on the RAT pinpointed that this helmet had to be changed, and the RAT was in fact one of the causes which convinced the factory that something had to be done.

We already tried to have Deepeeka modify some of their items, but almost to no avail - except for the Dyptichon - for at this time Deepeeka was very busy developping a new range of german WWI helmets (which is quite a success, to be honest). So, even if the question was only about the brow and the angle of the neckguard, it was quite an opportunity, and we suggested a full modification of the old gallic G - which was more looking like an H helmet than a G one, by the way.

We therefore sent two sets of drawings : one for the old gallic G, and the other for the one to be made. Of course, alongwith the drawings were a full list of written commentaries, and some pictures of real artefacts, to be seen in germany.

AH6052 Gallic G Helmet - old version

Gallic G Helmet to be made

After a while, about one month later, we received a first prototype of the new helmet. A real work has been done, but some points had to be corrected, such as the shape of the cheekguard, the edges of the neckguard.... Here are the pictures of the first Gallic G Deepeeka craftmen made :

So we sent another set of informations, as always using a mix of pictures and drawings. for example :

NECKGUARD
- The neckguard is almost at a 90° angle with the back of the helmet (about 95/100°)
- The angles have to be rounder (see the Neckguard angles files, red lines)
- The rivits used to fix these bands are wider.
- The hold at the back of the helmet is too round, you have to build it more "square", like on the pictures "neckguard hold".

PEAK
- The width of the peak should be the same all along, about 1.5cm.

CREST HOOKS
- There should be a little ball at the end of the hook (see "crest hook" pictures). You could use the imrpovement on all the helmets with such hooks.

BRASS BAND
- The brass band on the front part of the helmet should show six grooves, at egal distance, instead of three in the middle only. See "brass band pictures"

EYEBROWS
- The eyebrow should be a little bit longer, come a little bit higher. See the red lines onthe pictures "Eyebrow".

EARGUARDS
- Please change the form a bit, following the red line on the picture "earguard". The rivits holding them should be a bit bigger.

CHEEKGUARDS
- The cheekguards should be almost flat (see "flat cheekguard" pictures)
- The general form of the cheekguard should be more angulous, see "cheekguard form" pictures
- The triangle at the top of the cheek guard should be rounder at the bottom and wider. See "Triangle" picture, and the red lines.
- The brass edge should go higher, in fact it rool over the hinge, too

Some points still are to be corrected, such as the rivits used to fix the hook piece, the exact shape of the cheekguards, but most of the work was done in less than... three monthes, which clearly shows that Deepeeka's team is up to the task.

It's quite a work, though, but it is worth the try. Following this case, we made the same work for the gallic H helmet, The Italic D helmet, one kind of Mainz sword (see below), one kind of Pompei Sword, one cooking pot and a pilum... but these are another stories ! Something has to be kept in mind, though : making a good copy is a lot of work, and it will be done only for items which will be sold in great quantities...

The gallic G fully corrected is now available, since september 2006 . See it