Hi all,
Just wanted to throw some pics up of my recently completed Mal pistol from Firefly. This was one of Phillipe's resin kits with the added brass thumbscrews and real wood grips. I purchased it from another member here with 99% of the clean up already done. I'm just anal about my prop kits, so I spent a total of maybe 45 minutes with some fine grade sandpaper going over a couple of the seams here and there.
Now, I'm primarily a "Star Wars guy," but since my [late] discovery of Firefly/Serenity, I've become a big fan, and out of all the props on the show, I feel this one is the most iconic. It's definitely not your standard, run-of-the-mil sci-fi sidearm! It has that strange "retro future" look to it, and I just really like it a lot.This will probably be my only prop that I do from this franchise. It was a nice change of pace from my SW props!
Here are a couple of pics.
This is an overall shot of the pistol. The colors are really hard to capture. I painted this in a multilayer paintjob, starting with a flat black base coat, covered by bronze.
The paints I used were spray cans from the Design Master series. They make a product called Mess Master, which is a sprayable compound that softens the base coat slightly, and allows additional coats to 'float' on the surface (their description.)
Once the bronze coat was dry, I used this Mess Master, and then put on a very light coat of Navy Blue, which did break up and take on a pretty mottled appearance. Then another coat of Mess Master, followed by a color called Walnut Wood Tone. Another coat of Mess Master, then a final misted coat of flat black. *Whew!*
Another, closer shot.
I gave the whole thing 24 hours to day, then went back with some 'Treasure Gold' brass. Treasure Gold is a product like Rub 'n Buff, but it comes in a little plastic pot instead of a tube. I used the Firefly, The Official Companion book for reference pics, and used my high-tech index finger to apply the brass.I tried to match the pics as closely as I could.
I also used some Pewter color for the strap around the grips and trigger/trigger guard.
Here's the other side of the gun.
For the wood grips, I used 2 coats of Minwax Royal Walnut Satin stain. Then rubbed them slightly with steel wool.
To attach the grips, I went to Ace and picked up a couple of button head hex screws and a thread insert. I screwed the thread insert into the resin grip frame, then screwed the grips into that. So they're totally removable if need be.
Oh yeah, the only other mod I made was to reposition the safety lever. The person I bought it from mentioned that it had been repaired after he did some clean up around it, and when it arrived, I decided to remove it completely to put it in the 'fire' position. I sliced it off with a razor saw, and mounted it to a small piece of .010" styrene, then sanded it to shape. That way, since the part was already cracked, it wouldn't break completely.
So that's it.
Now my question is, being that I'm not nearly as familiar with Firefly as I am with SW, is it finished??? I've seen some pics that make the backstrap/trigger/trigger guard much more 'steel' looking. Does it need some more pewter rubbed onto those areas?
Thanks for looking! And for any input.
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