Bobdor
New Member
This is a replica of the IB-94 Blaster pistol used by the title character in The Mandalorian. This specific kit is the “FIELDMARSHAL Aluminum Bergmann Mandalorian Blaster” from Blaster Factory, formerly known as War Machine Paintball. The kit is all machined aluminum with some brass accents, steel hardware, and walnut wooden grips.
These are all the parts that the kit comes with. As you can see it is very detailed and as far as I can tell, screen accurate. The original prop is based on a real firearm, the Bergmann 1894 No. 1 with some small modifications to make it more “StarWarsy”. The finished prop also has a working single action trigger.
The prop in the show is actually a sort of cool gunmetal gray. In my opinion it doesn’t really look painted, it looks more like blackened metal or anodized aluminum. So I wanted to try and replicate this.
My first attempt was to use Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black, which I expected to be… well, black. It ended up coming out a bit more blue than I expected. You can see it here on a scrap piece of aluminum I had.
I ended up trying the finish on a few of the smaller pieces of the kit just to see if the different grades of aluminum made any difference. The more I looked at it, the more I ended up liking it. So, I figured I would just roll with it and see how the finished prop looked. Here you can see the left side of the blaster.
Here is a slightly closer view. The Aluminum black actually pitted the surface a little. This stuff is very nasty to work with. I ended up doing several applications with some 0000 steel wool in between to get a nice even finish.
Here is the finished blaster. As you can see, tons of little details that add a bunch of visual interest.
And the other side with the nice brass accents to add some contrast. The grips were finished with Danish Oil and 800 grit sandpaper.
I hope you enjoyed the build, and as always, thanks for looking!
