Total bluing?

[Bwood]

I am considering totally bluing my (metal) blaster because, (a) most real guns are blued not painted, (b) bluing is more durable than paint. Blue Wonder comes in blue and black kits, so that should cover the color differences of the parts. Any thoughts or opinions on this, or has someone already done this, and, if so, how did it turn out?

[The Loyalizer]

To the best of my knowledge nobody has totally blued their metal blaster. I think that's simply a matter of most people striving to reproduce either a screen used appearance, or matching the actual components of the original blaster.

But you are correct, most guns are fully blued except for the grips. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.
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[ironfist]

the ammo clip and the housing are plastic parts, so are the left and right side cylinder covers. the sidkit just did them in metal? So im guessing these you would blue/black.
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The other Karl!

[Bwood]

This would be a Sidkit - all metal. All black parts would be blued black, correct.

[hirohawa]

A couple of years ago there was a Sidkit on ebay that had the entire gun blued. I think it looked really good.

[Staar]

Using a chemical blue (like Blue Wonder) won't work that well on the SidKit. Although I have experimented with BlueWonder on other pewter and it works sensationally well, the metal combination Sid used does not seem to take a blue very well (remember the surface is very soft - far softer than Rich's RAC blaster). On other replica weapons, the BlueWonder turns the surface into that spectacular deep blue that we associate with guns, but the best the SidKit can achieve is a darker more brown finish - which for me was perfect for the finish I was after.


This Denix Colt was stripped down to bare metal, polished and then treated with BlueWonder and moderately aged...

I know there are other chemical blue treatments out there and its possible that they will work better than BlueWonder, but I suspect that if you are after a proper end result, you might need to go down to your friendly gunsmith for advice on getting it done professionally...
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[Bwood]

Thanks, Staar, but this kit represents a sizeable investment already, as you might imagine. That said, I am reluctant at this point to spend a whole lot more on "professional" finishing. After all, it's not a real gun ....

As a footnote, I might add that your use of Blue Wonder on your Worldcon blaster looks completely satisfactory to me despite your misgivings about it's use on Sidkit's metal. A stunning re-creation.

[eltee]

In the early days of the original Japanese "non-guns" that had a zinc content low temp metal construction, they sold touch up blue specifically formulated for this type of metal. You may want to check with Collectors Armoury (sic) to see if they still have that blue/black chemical refinishing compound available. Not knowing the metallurgy Siderio used (or even Rich for that matter) I don't know if it would work, but it might.

When refinishing or touching up real steel, the trick is to polish it to a mirror finish, then wash it in a solvent that will remove all oils, polishing residue, etc. and wear gloves so that no oils from your fingers can get on the gun.

Good luck!!

[Bwood]

Thanks, eltee. Did some research, but couldn't find any evidence of a special bluing for zinc-based replicas. If it was mentioned at all, the makers seem to have used standard bluing techniques on their replicas. Keep 'em coming, guys. So far, based on what I've seen here, I'm still leaning towards Blue Wonder, especially since Siderio himself recommended it in his assembly instructions.