Mal's Pistol from Firefly - need some advice with painting.

darkev2

Well-Known Member
Hello

I'm trying to recreate the Blued (faded/worn) and Brass Color Scheme of Mal's Pistol from Firefly and well I'm wondering how to pull if off. One method I've seen is to coat the piece with a suitable brass paint and then with as close to a Gunmetal Blue as possible (to published pictures) . After that take a piece of steel wool and "wear away or distress" the blue inareas of supposed wear and tear. The other method was to go full gunmetal and then apply brass paint in the "worn" areas of the piece. So before I try either one I was wondering if either was used here.
 

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I just had great success with using graphite powder on a blade runner blaster to get a nice blue-ish look.
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Flat black paint, then I ground up a graphite stick with sandpaper and rubbed it on with cotton balls, sealed with a satin clear coat. I imagine you could either do the same and then drybrush the brass on, or experiment with a brass undercoat.


There is a lot of play you get from the light, and it goes from a dark gry/charcoal in low light to a nice bright ligher grey in sunshine:
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Assuming we're talking about a 3D printed, or cast resin model, I always prefer to undercoat in the "metal" finish, and then paint over that, then knock it back and weather it. But I also like to use sharpie silver and gold paint pens, as well as rubnbuff to help with the weathering.

Rubnbuff has some very nice products, but it's waxed based so you can't paint over the rubnbuff once you apply it. Just let it dry, buff it, and then you can handle it. and it will not dull.
 
Assuming we're talking about a 3D printed, or cast resin model, I always prefer to undercoat in the "metal" finish, and then paint over that, then knock it back and weather it. But I also like to use sharpie silver and gold paint pens, as well as rubnbuff to help with the weathering.

Rubnbuff has some very nice products, but it's waxed based so you can't paint over the rubnbuff once you apply it. Just let it dry, buff it, and then you can handle it. and it will not dull.
Yeah, this would be a great way to go. I think OP could do a great metal finish, maybe with the graphite method, then brass rub and buff would be very effective.

Darkev-- you can use the rubb and buff wet to highlight the edges like in the references you posted above, and then if you coat a brush then let it sit for a few hours to dry out, I have found that the rub and buff is very effective at drybrushing as well which can help bring that brass-worn look back to it.
 

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