Gun Metal Blue????

[Romell R]

Does anyone have a suggestion for a paint thats the color of a blued gun? or gun metal bule?

[Kit Basher]

I'm just guessing, but could you use a dark metallizer and spray over it with transparent blue?

[Agent G]

Romel with my armor builds I use any old dark metallic gray as a base coat. I then mix Tamiya smoke and Tamiya clear blue 50/50, thin it a bit with Tamiya acrylic thinner and paint over the dark gray. Thinned out a bit, these colors dry to a semi gloss and really add to the effect.

MM acryl "Gunmetal" is a pretty good color straight from the bottle. I still over coat it with the Tamiya mixture though for a realistic gun blue.

G

[Romell R]

Romel with my armor builds I use any old dark metallic gray as a base coat. I then mix Tamiya smoke and Tamiya clear blue 50/50, thin it a bit with Tamiya acrylic thinner and paint over the dark gray. Thinned out a bit, these colors dry to a semi gloss and really add to the effect.

MM acryl "Gunmetal" is a pretty good color straight from the bottle. I still over coat it with the Tamiya mixture though for a realistic gun blue.

G

Hey thx agent i'll give it a try!

[LoneWolf15]

Romell ,

Floquil makes a gun metal blue , look for it in the train section of your local hobby shop .

The Old Man

Edited June 2, 2011 by LoneWolf15

[MikeMc]

What about the real bluing over future over a black base?

[Jim Gibbons]

Humbrol has a great enamel Gunmetal paint. You apply it, let it dry, and buff it out. Very realistic. Here's a link to Airfix USA where you can order it. The steel is also excellent, and works the same way.

http://www.shopatron.com/products/category/Metalcote/359.2.1.1.26924.26926.0.0.0

[DanielG]

Gun 'blue' is more black than blue. Tamiya dark blue sprayed over black is pretty close (or maybe their clear blue over black, have not tried that). Any how the point is to get a nearly black finish. The finish used to be called browning or blackening and is basically rusting the metal over and over naturally or with chemicals until the desired colour is achieved. You can also decide on the level of shine, some finishes are not a high gloss. So just take a look at what you are trying to replicate and choose your paint colour. No one can say you are wrong.

[Agent G]

Daniel I'm doing research for another project and you just might have the answer. About when did the "classic" bluing process become widespread?

I need to replicate a finish on a flintlock pistol circa 1650 and I'm thinking browned.

G

[DanielG]

A brown finish would more than likely fit right in. If we are talking about an actual replica pistol you can get browning solutions that will do the job (on steel) or put the pistol barrel in a damp place, let it rust and scape it off with steel wool and repeat until happy with the colour. For small parts I used to leave them set in a briny solution until covered in rust and scape and repeat etc. Small parts like screws etc. can also be heat blued, they are polished bright and then heated until a nice rich blue colour is reached then allowed to cool and oiled. You can also heat them red-hot and dump them into old engine oil and get a blue-black colour. If on pot metal or plastic then we are probably going to use a paint mix, polished smooth.

Some military arms were polished bright (so they were nice and shiny on parade!). The accepted practice was to burnish the barrel with the ram-rod.

If you are trying to replicate a factory finish I would suggest scouring the interweb and books for relevent pictures of new arms, the best examples being dueling pistols, they were nicely boxed and little used.

Military finishes could be bright to black and anything in between.

I hope this is of some help. If you have a particular arm in mind give me a PM and I will try do dig up some relevent info.

[Agent G]

Gotcha thanks!

I have a 1/10th scale bust of a "Pirate Captain", think a film just released (part IV, and he's holding a flintlock in his right hand. I was almost sure it would be browned in the 1700's, but didn't quite know.

G

[sjordan2]

Hmmm. This might get more specific if you describe your actual application for this color.

[DanielG]

Gotcha thanks!

I have a 1/10th scale bust of a "Pirate Captain", think a film just released (part IV, and he's holding a flintlock in his right hand. I was almost sure it would be browned in the 1700's, but didn't quite know.

G

It would probably have been well used and would have dark areas near the stock and barrel bands etc. and worn in unprotected areas, just imagine where your hands would cause wear and tear. You could also give it a bronze barrel and escuteons etc, this was common for arms meant for sea use.