Gun metal finish on a Plastic Gun

[TommyGunner]

How To Apply a Durable Gun Metal Finish To Your Weapon

Alright so I decided to buy a cheap $20 Colt.45 Commander airsoft Pistol from Wal-Mart. The pistol was a clear plastic pistol with clear plastic mags and is built with some very strong thick plastic. It said on the package that it shoots 310fps, and boy howdy this thing really does. It out ranges my Tokyo Marui Thompson and is just as accurate as my Thompson. So far this gun has already become my side arm of choice for events with the two extra mags I got for it.

Now I initially bought this gun to try out the type of finishing process I will be using on the BAR. And I have to say that the resulting finish came out very, very well. And it is also extremely durable.

Here are some pictures of the final result. The grips were taken off of my broken UHC Colt.45.





Now here is the process that I went through in order to obtain the finish that I ended up with.

Step1: First thing that you will need to do is clean down the gun. This will ensure that all oils from the factory and mold release agents are off the gun and will not hinder the paints adhesion.

Step2: The second thing you need to do is with 150grit sand paper sand down all the surfaces of the gun. This will eliminate the original smooth surface and create a corse surface for the paint to easily bond too:

Step:3 In this step simply go over the sanded surfaces with Steel Wool. This will help eliminate any possible deep scratches that Might show up after paining the gun.

Step:4 In this step you will put down the primer on the gun. Now I went out and bought an industrial outdoor spray paint from Ace Hardware that was designed for adhesion to plastic surfaces for surfaces exposed to high wear and tear. This paint will not scratch off very easily at all. Make sure every spot on the gun is throughly sprayed. Wait until the paint is not wet anymore but is tacky!!!!!! The immediately go onto step 5!!!

Step:5 Now this is a very important step so pay attention. This step concerns applying the gun metal finish on the gun. Now after you have primed the gun and the paint is tacky (not dry but tacky) At Thai point apply the Gun metal finish ( I used Tamiya Paints Gun Metal on mine) The reason for applying the gun metal finish on the primer while tacky is because the gun metal paint will adhere and bond with the tack primer creating a very strong bond with the two layers of paint. This ensures that the gun metal paint will not scratch off the primer.

Step 6: Let the gun dry for one day. Letting the paint cure for at least a day will ensure that everything has hardened and bonded to itself.

If you follow these steps you will get a fantastic end result.

TommyGunner

[migmadmavis]

Very Well Done Tommy Gunner!!

[schmitty]

Very nice indeed. Thanks for the tips, very good advice.

Schmitty

[YankeeDiv26]

Wow. very well done. If a finish as good as that carries over to your BAR, it'll be quite the spectacle.

[TommyGunner]

I will be useing the same process and the same paints on my BAR that I used for this.

I also hope that this will help people with possibly replicating a Gun metal finish on WW2 airsoft weapons that maybe did not come stock with a realistic gun metal finish.

TommyGunner

[Ersatzjack]

Hey how timely. I'm getting ready to repaint the AT gun I brought back from NY. It will be PVC but your tips should do the trick. The gun finish looks very nice. Looks like you got that camera thing figured out too.

Good luck on finishing the BAR.

[gryphon]

That looks good. What did you use to clean the casting oil off plastic surface in the first step - soap and water, alcohol, acetone, xylene, Windex, or...?

[TommyGunner]

I just used dish detergent and water. The dish detergent cuts through the grease and oils on the gun left over. Then I simply sanded it all down to remove the smooth surface so the paint could adhere to it better. Its the same process I use on my model aircraft when I build them.

Your finish on the PPSH came out fantastic though, I love the gun metal grey finish on it. Hows the durability of the finish? And what brand paints did you use?

TommyGunner

[gryphon]

Thanks! The silver-grey undercoat is actually fine powdered aluminum mixed into the first coat pf polyester resin - if you buff it with steel wool, it polishes to a shine like solid metal. The method is called "cold-cast metal layup" and it's one of my all-time favorites - bronze, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, nickel, graphite all come in powder form for different metallics, plus carbon black for a jet finish, even pecan hull flour or wood flour for doing faux wood. The spray coat is two or three light coats of Krylon Ultraflat Black buffed back with 00 steel wool to give it a gunmetal sheen and expose the metal at the edges and high points (I like to use squares of that nylon "steel" wool for this job.) Black automotive primer works, too, if you prefer a lacquer to an enamel.

I bought one of your recommended Walmart springers to convert into a Tokarev TT33 and finish using your method. I'll post pics when/if I ever get around to it....