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My first attempt at this on a wip. Any thoughts and suggestions?

Nicely done. Looks spot on.

How did you make it look like that? That looks great!

Looks very nice!

Different metals discolor differently so google might help give some alternatives for future projects. But this one is really nice!

Thanks! I think I'll make this the subject of my next tutorial, so watch this space.

I based the discoloration on steel (I hope!) and used these as source material;

Looks pretty perfect to me!
You need to give us the tips!!

That looks fantastic. Nicely done

Video camera has been set-up and I'll prime a melta tonight! Should get the tutorial done by the end of the week.

Cheers people

This looks great! Can't wait for the tutorial!

Looks the part, for sure. My only quibble, regarding realism, would be the color distribution - i.e. how much area each color on the gradient covers.

When a part gets a spot hot enough for blue, that heat transfers to the surrounding area and dissipates pretty quickly. I mean, you'd still burn the crap out of yourself if you touched the metal a few inches away, but it will have dropped below the temperature threshold for heat discoloration. If anything, your straw edges should be as thin as your blue and the blue as thick as your straw.

As I said, it's really just a quibble. The effect still looks ace! The transparency, the tones, and the transition between colors are all quite convincing.

oadie - spot on mate. It's a very good suggestion as to how this attempt can be improved, so thanks for that. Look out for your mention in the video, as I think it's a good thing to cover in the tutorial!

Very nicely done!

Thoughts: The pipes shown in your example appear to be chrome plated which makes the colors brighter than they would be if the material was plain steel. Your paint job is toned down, so looks like plain steel which is good. I'm thinking you need to consider what the finish on the metal was before it discolored. There is usually some sort of finish on firearms to protect from corrosion. Because the heat has not reached the rear of the muzzle brake, it should be colored whatever the color of the original metal finish was.

Yeah, this is a little nit-picky, but its a way to build on your already excellent concept and excecution.

Bluing is common, but there is also parkerizing and a number of other types of finishes. Here is a nice overview of current gun finishes: http://madogre.com/?page_id=1169 And who knows what finishes will be developed in the next 38,000 years...

Tim