H0llyw00d
Sr Member
Hey Guys, pretty cool mod here.
After extensive research for my Han ANH DEC/Denix build, I became convinced that the original prop was painted body/blued scope/parkerized flash hider. For those that are unaware, the MG81 (from which the FH came) was a WWII era German machine gun, parkerization was new tech at the time and the Wehrmacht used it extensively. It would explain why there is such a discrepancy between the colors and textures of the original prop.
I make my props to be played with and weathered through use, so I display my DL-44 in a leather Costumebase holster:
Originally, I painted the entire prop with 3 coats of matte black and 3 coats of polyurethane. The paint on the flash hider, however, rubbed off in certain places due to contact with the holster:
I feel this is another argument for parkerization on the FH because this would have happened to some degree to the blued finish of the original prop as well, though there is no evidence of it. Parkerization is an EXTREMELY tough coating and could shrug off holster-wear... no sweat.
I decided to try out a baked-on parkerization-like coating on the flash hider to test my hypothesis. I chose the Brownells dark parkerizing gray baking enamel that I have had good results with in the past with real guns:
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...-parkerizing-gray-sku083046808-1143-4084.aspx
It was very easy to apply. Three light coats - 20 minutes apart:
And after baking for 30 minutes at 300 degrees...viola
Couldn't be more pleased with the results. I would recommend it for as-issued builds like mine. Not sure how or how easy it would be to weather. Mine will be weathered through playing with it like the giddy 8-year-old it makes me feel like
'Cause my blasters got's ta' have the "Pew, Pew"... this one has a repurposed '15 Disney Rebel Blaster sound board and 10mm super-bright LED:
Now all I need is the stiffy-producing functional scope from Todd's Costumes next week and my build will be...COMPLETE (said in Palpatine voice)... so psyched...
After extensive research for my Han ANH DEC/Denix build, I became convinced that the original prop was painted body/blued scope/parkerized flash hider. For those that are unaware, the MG81 (from which the FH came) was a WWII era German machine gun, parkerization was new tech at the time and the Wehrmacht used it extensively. It would explain why there is such a discrepancy between the colors and textures of the original prop.
I make my props to be played with and weathered through use, so I display my DL-44 in a leather Costumebase holster:
Originally, I painted the entire prop with 3 coats of matte black and 3 coats of polyurethane. The paint on the flash hider, however, rubbed off in certain places due to contact with the holster:
I feel this is another argument for parkerization on the FH because this would have happened to some degree to the blued finish of the original prop as well, though there is no evidence of it. Parkerization is an EXTREMELY tough coating and could shrug off holster-wear... no sweat.
I decided to try out a baked-on parkerization-like coating on the flash hider to test my hypothesis. I chose the Brownells dark parkerizing gray baking enamel that I have had good results with in the past with real guns:
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...-parkerizing-gray-sku083046808-1143-4084.aspx
It was very easy to apply. Three light coats - 20 minutes apart:
And after baking for 30 minutes at 300 degrees...viola
Couldn't be more pleased with the results. I would recommend it for as-issued builds like mine. Not sure how or how easy it would be to weather. Mine will be weathered through playing with it like the giddy 8-year-old it makes me feel like
'Cause my blasters got's ta' have the "Pew, Pew"
... this one has a repurposed '15 Disney Rebel Blaster sound board and 10mm super-bright LED:Now all I need is the stiffy-producing functional scope from Todd's Costumes next week and my build will be...COMPLETE (said in Palpatine voice)... so psyched...
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