What I've been up to the last few months (Pic Heavy)

[gunrunner32]

Here are some of the projects that I've remembered to take pictures of over the last few months.

Benelli Nova in a Multicam pattern:


Pair of Colts, a 1908 and a 1911, done in a mix of grey and aluminum:


S&W 442 after a pink and black zebra mated with it:


An AR15 in something I like to call "Scortched Earth", everything started in Magpul FDE, then I altered the baking process a little to get this effect on the metal:



A little freehand on an AR15 in 300BLK:


Showcasing the 300BLK on the right that was done in a finish called Micro Slick:


Another AR15 done in Coyote tan I think...might be FDE, I forgot:


A 700 in 300BLK done in grey, black and red:



This one shows the process, started out a black stock, first set of pictures are of the first 2 layers that were done, last pictures show the stock completed, bottom metal came in late, but will get done tomorrow in FDE like the rest of the rifle:







And I know John already showed this one off, but this was my favorite picture of his rifle (**Won Picture Of The Week From Cerakote/NIC Industries):


I'm always up for some constructive criticism. Enjoy

Edited December 19, 2012 by gunrunner32

[Shug]

That is some sweet work

[LagerHead]

Man, I need to get off my butt and learn how to this. Those guns look SWEET!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Gunrunner32, those are handsome. Takes skill to make such fine finishes, and an artistic eye as well.

Has anyone ever asked you to try to duplicate the surface appearance of Beretta Inox? I know nothing of paint. Dunno if a fella could "nail" inox with just paint. Maybe. I read one time that a few inox 92fs sneaked out of the factory with painted frames, which looked like any other inox til the finish started wrinkling. Maybe my inox 92's have some kind of paint but it sure looks anodized as best I can tell.

Or would an inox color be closer approximated on steel by a "frosted" bead blasting covered by some kind of semi-gloss tough clear coat?

Just curious. Inox Cheetahs are rare as hens teeth. In fact, maybe the few shiny ones were nickel rather than inox. But inox is so purty, if'n was eventually able to find a decent price on one of the older single-stack non-decock blue cheetahs, hadn't thought about it til right now, but maybe it could be "turned into" inox with some kind of paint or surface treatment? Edited December 9, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[leroy]

It is art my man!! It looks great!!

keep up the good work.
leroy

[Guest 6.8 AR]

You've been busy. Those are pieces of art, no doubt. Good work!

[Guest sL1k]

My fav is the black Remington 700 with the red movie themed "300" on it. Second is the scorched earth. Great work!

[Grand Torino]

[u]Dude you've really got it going on......congratulations [/u]

[gunrunner32]

Thank y'all for your comments. I really enjoy doing this stuff, I like the camo patterns more than anything. I never know how it's going to look until it's all completely done. I just started doing the flutes so that's something new that adds a nice touch I think. I'll keep them up and fill everyone in as they get done.


This somehow made it to just after my first post...should have been down a ways.... Edited December 10, 2012 by gunrunner32

[TGO David]

Guys, I've deleted some posts in this thread for an obvious reason. We have Vendors here who have gunsmiths on their payroll and who do firearms refinishing. If this thread turns back into a discussion of whether this is being done for profit or not, I'm deleting the thread entirely. I would hope that our members would do the ethical thing and seek professional services from the Vendors that we have supporting the site.

Gunrunner was a Vendor here a few years ago. The door is open (and more affordable now) should he desire to go that route again and provide this as a service to others.

[gunrunner32]

This post was only to show off some of the more unique things I've done. There is no advertising or services being offered by me, I know people are curious and it had not been addressed. Again this is me showing off hence why it's in the show and tell section.

And David...you've got mail. Edited December 11, 2012 by gunrunner32

[JohnC]

These all look awesome!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gunrunner32]

If JMB had been around during the time of the Romans, it would have been more interesting and his creations might have looked something like this:





Supposed to look bronze, stupid lighting made it look all silvery.

Edited December 19, 2012 by gunrunner32

[gunrunner32]

[quote name="Lester Weevils" post="857235" timestamp="1355070540"]Gunrunner32, those are handsome. Takes skill to make such fine finishes, and an artistic eye as well. Has anyone ever asked you to try to duplicate the surface appearance of Beretta Inox? I know nothing of paint. Dunno if a fella could "nail" inox with just paint. Maybe. I read one time that a few inox 92fs sneaked out of the factory with painted frames, which looked like any other inox til the finish started wrinkling. Maybe my inox 92's have some kind of paint but it sure looks anodized as best I can tell. Or would an inox color be closer approximated on steel by a "frosted" bead blasting covered by some kind of semi-gloss tough clear coat? Just curious. Inox Cheetahs are rare as hens teeth. In fact, maybe the few shiny ones were nickel rather than inox. But inox is so purty, if'n was eventually able to find a decent price on one of the older single-stack non-decock blue cheetahs, hadn't thought about it til right now, but maybe it could be "turned into" inox with some kind of paint or surface treatment?[/quote] The only thing I could think of after finally looking up an inox would be something that I've done for some friends who wanted their Sig SRT kits to match he original finish of their Equinox's, I did a bead blast with electroless nickel plate with a light bead blast again after a soak. It gave them a "frosted" nickel look, also just a blasted surface with electroless over top is kind of like what's on the inox. I got the kit from Caswell and was too easy to use.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

The only thing I could think of after finally looking up an inox would be something that I've done for some friends who wanted their Sig SRT kits to match he original finish of their Equinox's, I did a bead blast with electroless nickel plate with a light bead blast again after a soak. It gave them a "frosted" nickel look, also just a blasted surface with electroless over top is kind of like what's on the inox. I got the kit from Caswell and was too easy to use.

Thanks Gunrunner

 

It would be difficult to find a person more ignorant of finishes than me, but i was "inspired" seeing your excellent posted picture, "Pair of Colts, a 1908 and a 1911, done in a mix of grey and aluminum"

 

Your picture of the painted colts approaches "into the ballpark" of inox. I'm not being critical because you did a fabulous job as best I can tell, but there is something about the picture that says, "paint". I kept looking at the picture trying to figure out what about the image would say "paint" rather than "frosty anodized" given that the color and reflectivity seem awfully close to a frosty anodize.

 

One dumb guess-- Maybe the paint "rounds soft edges" just enough to give the eye a clue, wheras an anodize or plated type of finish is so microscopic thin that it doesn't blur edge detail, and the machined details look "sharper"?

 

On the beretta inox guns, typically the frame is aluminum alloy and the slide and some other parts are stainless. Am guessing the aluminum alloy parts are just some variant of a well-done frosty anodize, but then they do something or t'other to the stainless parts to make the stainless parts appear "near identical" to frosty anodized aluminum. You can see a difference between the finish of the aluminum vs steel parts, but both finishes look so similar that the differences are subtle to my eye. A person with a better eye might perceive the steel and aluminum parts night and day different but my eye sees em spooky similar in appearance, though not identical.

 

I have some stainless guns and one mirror chrome 1911 (or I think its sposed to be chrome). Have admired nickel guns and have read that nickel finish is real durable but never had a nickel gun. The stainless, chrome and nickel are all real purty too, but there's just something about that inox. :)

 

Is electroless nickel fairly long-term durable, compared to electroplate?

 

Just one more dumb speculation in closing, thinking about the "gray and aluminum" paint finish-- Ain't trying to teach granny to suck eggs, just a thought. Maybe this would require impossible precision, or maybe it wouldn't really help the illusion. Was thinking if a fella was good enough with an airbrush, if he could somehow speckle just a little black at an angle so it just sticks to the machined edges of the gun, that perhaps the extra tiny subtle "black outline" on the edges would "make the edges look sharper" and improve the illusion that "it ain't paint"?

[gunrunner32]

Lester,

I agree it does say paint, but as far as durability goes, it's right up there. If it wasn't, there wouldn't be numerous companies using it on their production models.



One thing for comparison of "rounding" soft edges is the thickness of the material being applied. Powder coating goes on between .002-.005", Cerakote (when done right) is .001" and your electroless plating and anodizing is around .0005". While plating and anodizing are durable, they are extremely thin by comparison making the edges a more defined.



The biggest thing about mixing metallic and non metallic colors is that it takes away from the metallic flake and some of the shadowing effects it gives, I probably could have achieved the same effect by mixing aluminum (bright silver metallic) and stainless (darker grey metallic), and this would have kept those shadowing properties of the metallic finishes. Also pictures can do a lot to play tricks on he mind, the "bronze" finished 1911 looks like a dirty gold in the picture, but in daylight in your hands it looks very close to a bronze and in certain angles it still has a hint of the effects of the shimmer gold. The 2 colors I used for it were shimmer gold and burnt bronze. Tus shimmer gold looks like those chameleon paints, it's gold in some angles but also looks kind of silver in others. The burnt bronze reminds me of something if get if I mixed FDE with Patriot Brown and threw in some orange and metallic flake. The metallic colors do a good job of giving that shadow on the edges. For someone to come back in to define the edges with an airbrush would not only cost more, but I don't think at certain angles would look right and would scream faux finish more so than just the base finish coat.



As for durability of electroless nickel, I'm not sure. There have been guys that did it to 1911s and have had great results for a while now. My stuff has only been out there for a couple of months, but is still holding up fine. Electroless nickel is there for guys needing a DIY project. A small kit is around 150$ or so for electroless, where an electroplating kit of the same size is more than double that. A good anodizing set up can run a couple thousand. With the nickel and chrome plating you either need to be a chemist or really good at math and keeping time, because it involved a few smelly and sometimes hazardous chemicals and a lot of math to maintain ratios. Edited December 19, 2012 by gunrunner32

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks for taking the time to write an info-packed message, gunrunner. I know from experience that some powdercoat gadgets I've had are crazy-durable finish, and have no doubt that cerakote is tough as nails as well. Wasn't dissing paint. Merely trying to figure out how the eye can tell the diff between paint and some other coating, if the paint happens to be "virtually identical" in color and reflectivity. From what you say, sounds like it is well-known that paint will round off fine details, but it wasn't well known to me. :) Interesting that the eye can see such small differences in coating thickness.

 

All the finishes are interesting to behold, even parkerized. I think CZ Custom paints their fancy models after they do custom-machining and nobody complains about that. My factory two-tone CZ85C-- I can't tell what the heck the finishes are. Maybe a mix between different parts, dunno. The frame looks silvery anodized but dunno if it is made of aluminum or steel. If it is steel it ain't anodized and maybe its paint. The black slide, dunno if it is paint or parkerized or maybe even a non-reflective blue, Beats heck out of me. The add-on Kadet slide, some of the steel looks like paint but maybe its not, and I suppose the aluminum might be anodized or maybe not. :) Ain't gonna take a knife to the surfaces just to satisfy curiosity. :) Whatever the finishes, they must be tough because nothing has got nicked-up on the gun.

 

My monitors or eye might be off, because until you explained that last-pictured 1911 is a bronze/gold color, I had thought it a "warm" silver color. Like stainless photographed under incandescent lighting. But it is easy to see the gold color now that you mention it.

 

The idea of a mix of aluminum and stainless cerakote is interesting. I suck at painting regardless of years practice so if I ever get a gun finished it ain't gonna be a do-it-yourself job. But I might try some cerakote sometime for other objects. Some years ago we remodeled the old house and it had ancient brass-colored door knobs, old-style hinges and face plates, corroded black. With the old "fake crystal" faceted glass doorknobs. I think it is all steel and maybe some cast pot metal in the face plates. It went to shiny metal when I wire-brushed em down, just old brass plate that came right off. Hit em all with hardware store brass paint, then several coats of rustoleum clear enamel to protect the brass paint. Had doubts how long that kind of paint job would stay "new looking" but after about 5 years they are still holding up. It would probably look like hell already if the knobs themselves were painted metal, but they are glass so there's no paint to rub off. Anyway, when I went to all that trouble, gunmetal or brass-colored cerakote would probably have made a lot better sense than hardware store paint, and if they ever need re-doing it will be a no-brainer to try cerakote next time.

 

There are a couple of small USA telescope parts companies that make focusers and such that are so precise-machined they look like jewels made of aluminum. Very expensive, and people buy em not only because of the fine workmanship but because the finish is just beautiful and it lasts near-forever. They do their own anodizing in multiple colors. Saw web pages of their "small time" anodizing setup and its not for the home operator.

 

Back about 1970 drove fork-lift at a factory and sometimes they made me drive a truck full of parts to platers in Chatt and Nashville for nickel and chrome plating. Those plating plants looked like you might get cancer just walking in the door. Big smoking tubs of nasty chemicals. The buildings as best I recall were big unpainted wood beams, looked like a tobacco drying barn. Maybe the chemicals would have corroded a metal building or stripped paint off the wood. Termites would have better sense than go into those buildings.

 

There was chemical residue everywhere from years and years of online operation. Giant stalactites of condensed chemicals hanging off the wood rafters overhead the plating tanks. Not something to put in a basement or garage. :)

[gunrunner32]

I think one big thing about pictures is where they are taken. I commented on another thread, and the best pictures are taken outside on sunny days. Most of the pictures you see above were taken inside under fluorescent lighting or in my living room with incandescent lights through a frosted cover. I know you weren't taking anything away from things being painted. There is a big difference between rattle can and Cerakote though. Some of the chemicals used in plating will outright kill you, if you ingest it. Next time I get a metallic gun ill be sure to take some pictures in better light so it'll show up better. Best way to tell metal type would be by weight or the materials should be listed on the manufacturers website.

[gunrunner32]

Here is the completed rifle from the camo one above. This one was a time consuming one, but I enjoyed doing this project especially with these results. Let me know what you think.

 

[Deerbnb]

VERY NICE !

[urdubob]

super cool!\

[JKGlock17]

i like the work... alot