My brass and nickel PLATED SidKit Mal Gun

D

DavidS

Sr Member
Frankly, the other two sidkit threads have gotten way too long, so I figured I will start my own, since I am doing something drastically different than what others are doing with their guns.
I really liked the Sidkit when i got it, but did NOT like the blueing and chemical oxidation methods folks have used so I decided to take the HARD and difficult road and get mine plated.
I sent the gun to the same platers that did chrome plating work for me on a ep3 anakin saber so i know they do good work.
I sent them all of the external parts to be polished and plated.
everything except the frame and internal frame peice were polished, brass plated and then slightly aged.
the frame peices were NICKEL plated and antiqued..... they now have the look of a nicely worn/polished pewter.... REALLY awesome affect.

the brass peices are a bit too bright, but i am in NO rush to age this thing and i have decided im going to let it darken natrually.

I will post in progress pictures of this thing until its finished.

heres what we have so far...


first is a picture of the parts before they were plated
and then the rest are after shots
 
:eek :thumbsup Turned out great! Just wondering: How much did the plating service run you? After seeing your results I just might do it myself... :love
 
errr..... we wont talk about the price of the plating lol lol lol ...

Im planning on getting a set of Wakals wooden grips when they are avalbile, so once i get those grips and when its all said at done..... not including labor, this gun will be worth about $600..... hope that gives ya an idea...


Ok so on to the gun...

i sat the parts together here just to give an idea of how it will look....
and sat the grips on it as well...... these are the resin grips that came with the gun that i have painted to give a wood grain finish.

im showing the same picture but in two different lighting settings to show how the color of the brass is shaded
 
This may sound sacriligious...but will you be adding any of the black weathering, or areyou going for the 'as built by' look?
 
patience young padawan!!!

Birdie.... Birdie......

its not finished yet.... lol lol
Just wait and it will all unfold as it is intended too....
hahaha


ok in truth, i just dont know...
The guy that plated it for me told me that chemical oxidizers, like plum brown, blueing solution ect will strip the plating off..... WE DONT want that!!
As you may notice i have several peices that are duplicate peices that i will test to see what i can do on um
 
Looks great David :thumbsup

How durable is the plating? Just a lot of "handling" should start some nice weathering on it.
 
seems durable

i have a spare magazine and a spare thumbsafety that i might test on
however, i THINK they clear coated this thing lol lol

which means itll NEVER tarnish!
 
heh - I do believe you've got yourself the first ever Independent "pimp gun."

well done... I think. :p


:)
 
This is a fascinating project. I'd love to see if you manage to weather it without destroying the plating!

By the way, I think I heard somewhere that you can age brass by suspending it over a pan of ammonia, and the fumes alone will start it tarnishing. I don't know if that counts as a "chemical oxidizer," but it might be worth testing on one of your duplicate pieces.
 
ya know....

this seems sacreligious to do, but im consideirng "aging" it by rubbing black and brown paints on it...
 
just kidding lol


actually, im considering leaving it the way it is

it looks REALLY shiney in the pictures, but ya see, it actually IS aged a bit, its just not heavily aged...
once i get it all built up ill try to take some better pictures so that you can see that the brass is darker, its just a polished surface ya know?

yeh its staying the way it is..
 
Patattack said:
By the way, I think I heard somewhere that you can age brass by suspending it over a pan of ammonia, and the fumes alone will start it tarnishing. I don't know if that counts as a "chemical oxidizer," but it might be worth testing on one of your duplicate pieces.
Click to expand...

The ammonia method you described will darken the brass, but only if it's not clear coated, and will tend to give more of a greenish brown patina if it stays in the fumes too long.

Great looking pistol! Those platers did a really nice job on it!
 
yup they did a great job

and yes, they DID oxidize the brass too

ill just have to take better pictures so you can see waht i mean..... the "shine" is because its well polished..... but its still dark brass in person
 
Careful, careful, careful using the ammonia fuming method. On 2 occasions I have had brass (pieces that were substantially thicker than what your plating is) ACTUALLY shatter after spending some time in the fumes.

For my Thorgrim's Hammer, I bought a chemical called 'Antique Brown Gel' (from sculpt.com), & the longer you left it on, the darker the finish became (so controlling the color of the patina was pretty easy).
 
They did a really great job on the plating. It looks great. What are you going to do about the thumb screws. I see that they are missing from your photos?I think that they would look great nickel plated, not brass. I though I read that someone was looking into making steel sets.
 
And I thought this with the ivory grip was the first browncoat pimp gun. hehe.

Browncoat1.jpg
 
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