Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Phaser

The designer seems to have borrowed some of the ideas from the Section 31 Phaser.
 

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I think that’s the point. They wanted the phasers from Discovery and SNW to look like the ones from TOS, but to show a natural progression. The phaser from Discovery has a three barrel rotating head, which pays homage to the “lazer pistol” from the original pilot “The Cage”. Where the phaser from SNW is only slightly different from the one from TOS, set within ten years of each other.
 
So the paint I used in these photos (Which is quite close to the screen used color) is a high heat engine paint found at places like O'Reilly Autoparts. It's called VHT and the color is Titanium Silver Blue.
 
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Also, if you haven't seen the lates episode of The Ready Room with Wil Wheaton there's a great segment with the Prop Master where he lovingly shows off the props. The Hero phasers were all machined and anodized aluminum! ....

 
Any chance you remember what paint you used for the blue? I'm building one myself and i'd love to get close to your paint job.
 
These look great! Someone should do this build (if they haven’t already) with internals. I’d love to see a working aspirator/ sight assembly! Hero kits for Christmas?
 
For the blue, I also used the VHT SP403 Titanium Silver Blue that was recommended earlier in the thread. The metallic black is a VHT of the same type that was next to it at the store (SP405 Pearl Black?)
 
Hi Valor - Is your SNW phaser pictured here also painted the VHT titanium silver blue you recommended in subsequent post? It appears darker than your earlier version, which I agree is correct.

Problem is, I bought a can of that VHT (which many other builders seem to be using as well) and it’s turning out way too light for me. That’s true regardless of what primer color I use (gray or black). My can of this VHT is spraying as essentially a “baby blue metallic” (see painted test strip). I was hoping the paint would darken like many do, particularly metallics, after I applied a clear coat. Sadly, I’ve applied all the clears I have (Tamiya TS-13, 65, 79, and 80), but none of them darkened the paint to a noticeable degree.

Based on the close-up shots of the SNW props taken at the Chicago event and from screen grabs I’ve seen, the phaser definitely has a slight blueish hue, but it’s otherwise more of a dark gray metallic (which your version attached here seems to match).

Thoughts?
 

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Hi Valor - Is your SNW phaser pictured here also painted the VHT titanium silver blue you recommended in subsequent post? It appears darker than your earlier version, which I agree is correct.

Problem is, I bought a can of that VHT (which many other builders seem to be using as well) and it’s turning out way too light for me. That’s true regardless of what primer color I use (gray or black). My can of this VHT is spraying as essentially a “baby blue metallic” (see painted test strip). I was hoping the paint would darken like many do, particularly metallics, after I applied a clear coat. Sadly, I’ve applied all the clears I have (Tamiya TS-13, 65, 79, and 80), but none of them darkened the paint to a noticeable degree.

Based on the close-up shots of the SNW props taken at the Chicago event and from screen grabs I’ve seen, the phaser definitely has a slight blueish hue, but it’s otherwise more of a dark gray metallic (which your version attached here seems to match).

Thoughts?

The paint is a bit of a story. Here goes. I personally found the VHT SP403 Titanium Silver Blue and thought it was a very close visual match to the color I was seeing in the Chicago pictures. I've finished many phasers with that color. A while back another person who claimed to have a connection to the production told me about an AC Delco 46 WA 928L that was supposed to be what they used on the screen used guns. I bought a can of that and did a couple guns. It is a darker silver blue. My opinions is that it is actually a bit too dark compared to what I see on screen. We now know that the hero guns from production were anodized metal. No paint. No, who really knows. I went back to the VHT bacause I feel the lighter color matches the FEEL of the color on screen, under studio light. My personal opinion :)

I'm not sure why yours looks so light. I also spray mine over a black primer and it never gets quite that light looking as yours. Wish I could help more.

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