XRaySpecs
New Member
Hi all,
This is my first time showing a prop of my own here, but I figured this would pique the interest of one or two people around the board!
Let me explain a little first of all:
I got my Mateba a few months back, and was all chuffed to bits with it... right until I watched a YouTube vid of a guy showing off his real Mateba 2006M. The real steel guns looked absolutely great, and suddenly my flat, grey brick of ABS looked like junk. Bah! I thought, and stuck it in its holster, taking it out every now and again and trying to ignore the plastic.
Anyway, I then started building model guns, and realised that I could use one of them as a test bed for sprays that I could then apply to the Mateba.
I checked out a few gun stores, and found a product called "BLUE STEEL" from the company "Carom-Shot." It's spray-on gun blue that can be used on ABS as well as metals.
Here's where we get into the trial and big error bit. I dismantled and polished up my model Walther PP, sprayed on the Blue Steel, and it looked pretty good... but I thought the missing element was more black. Spraying directly onto the grey plastic had left it with a light blue-ish finish.
So, I had the bright idea of airbrushing my Mateba metallic black before I started with the Blue Steel. It was looking good... but I hadn't realised the particulate paint was creating hundreds of imperfections that would screw up the blued finish. (The stuff is extremely thin and pools around the slightest imperfection.)
I got a very bubbly, pockmarked result, so I had to sand the whole thing down, polish it up again, and go back in with the Blue Steel. The video below shows the result.
All in all, I'm very happy! It's miles better than the original plastic, and I've actually already come to like the few remaining imperfections. They give the gun some character.
Disclaimer: You can see the worst-looking bit in this video: look at the left side of the cylinder. I decided not to sand the cylinder back down, since I can hide the bubbly part by rotating it when the gun's on display. I thought I should show what happens when you go wrong with this spray! (Although the frame looked a whole lot worse...!)
[video=vimeo;106360621]https://vimeo.com/106360621[/video]
This is my first time showing a prop of my own here, but I figured this would pique the interest of one or two people around the board!
Let me explain a little first of all:
I got my Mateba a few months back, and was all chuffed to bits with it... right until I watched a YouTube vid of a guy showing off his real Mateba 2006M. The real steel guns looked absolutely great, and suddenly my flat, grey brick of ABS looked like junk. Bah! I thought, and stuck it in its holster, taking it out every now and again and trying to ignore the plastic.
Anyway, I then started building model guns, and realised that I could use one of them as a test bed for sprays that I could then apply to the Mateba.
I checked out a few gun stores, and found a product called "BLUE STEEL" from the company "Carom-Shot." It's spray-on gun blue that can be used on ABS as well as metals.
Here's where we get into the trial and big error bit. I dismantled and polished up my model Walther PP, sprayed on the Blue Steel, and it looked pretty good... but I thought the missing element was more black. Spraying directly onto the grey plastic had left it with a light blue-ish finish.
So, I had the bright idea of airbrushing my Mateba metallic black before I started with the Blue Steel. It was looking good... but I hadn't realised the particulate paint was creating hundreds of imperfections that would screw up the blued finish. (The stuff is extremely thin and pools around the slightest imperfection.)
I got a very bubbly, pockmarked result, so I had to sand the whole thing down, polish it up again, and go back in with the Blue Steel. The video below shows the result.
All in all, I'm very happy! It's miles better than the original plastic, and I've actually already come to like the few remaining imperfections. They give the gun some character.
Disclaimer: You can see the worst-looking bit in this video: look at the left side of the cylinder. I decided not to sand the cylinder back down, since I can hide the bubbly part by rotating it when the gun's on display. I thought I should show what happens when you go wrong with this spray! (Although the frame looked a whole lot worse...!)
[video=vimeo;106360621]https://vimeo.com/106360621[/video]
