Well, after about 200 total hours of work, plus some significant help from outside, I've finally completed my Samaritan. A pair of videos will go up soon detailing the rifling (a friend made me a 9-flute hardened broach to facilitate!) and the final paint finish, which was a chemical blackening sample kit from these guys. Insta-Blak A-380 – Aluminum – Black Oxide – EPi
I had the blackening done at a friends shop that's better set up for extraction etc. The first thing to note about the chemical road is that it's a delicate finish, to be sure. It comes out of the last bath very black, (you can see this in the final knolling pic) but even light handling begins to immediately dirty your hands and brighten up the edges. But the results have exceeded my wildest dreams. It looks so much like 100 year old steel I'm amazed. The volatility of the finish works in my favor for this build. I suspect it will get more robust over time. I'm also still considering some application of china ink or some light airbrush to get the slightest blue tinge out of it. Also it needs more abuse.
The original packed a double-action mechanism plus transmission electronics for the sfx crew to sync squibs. I couldn't fit that much functionality into mine even with the help of the original maker. Mine is single-action only. though the laser does work when you gently pull the trigger. My biggest hassle was trying to achieve the mechanicals with a monolithic back piece, wherein the original rear assembly was two halves. That would have made my job MUCH easier (I considered sending my part out for splitting apart using EDM, but decided against it this late in the game).
I'd still love one day to make one actually from steel, that fires real bullets (though in truth the Samaritan's bullets would likely be grossly underpowered for the size of their powder resevoir).
At any rate, I share this with you all, my fellow obsessives. I've rarely been happier with a final result. Next up: the glowing green tracer round!
I had the blackening done at a friends shop that's better set up for extraction etc. The first thing to note about the chemical road is that it's a delicate finish, to be sure. It comes out of the last bath very black, (you can see this in the final knolling pic) but even light handling begins to immediately dirty your hands and brighten up the edges. But the results have exceeded my wildest dreams. It looks so much like 100 year old steel I'm amazed. The volatility of the finish works in my favor for this build. I suspect it will get more robust over time. I'm also still considering some application of china ink or some light airbrush to get the slightest blue tinge out of it. Also it needs more abuse.
The original packed a double-action mechanism plus transmission electronics for the sfx crew to sync squibs. I couldn't fit that much functionality into mine even with the help of the original maker. Mine is single-action only. though the laser does work when you gently pull the trigger. My biggest hassle was trying to achieve the mechanicals with a monolithic back piece, wherein the original rear assembly was two halves. That would have made my job MUCH easier (I considered sending my part out for splitting apart using EDM, but decided against it this late in the game).
I'd still love one day to make one actually from steel, that fires real bullets (though in truth the Samaritan's bullets would likely be grossly underpowered for the size of their powder resevoir).
At any rate, I share this with you all, my fellow obsessives. I've rarely been happier with a final result. Next up: the glowing green tracer round!