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I started modelling in the 1970s. One day at my local modelling shop I discovers a wonderful new paint, "gunmetal" very different to today's paint, I have spent an afternoon working out how to reproduce it;

Happily its easy 70% black, 30%silver its a darker gunmetal, and IMHO very superior to any citadel make,

and for a "curve ball"

50% gold 50% black is a very interesting version too

In what way superior? Personally I find Leadbelcher excellent.

Wow,

I was told this by an old boy in a historical model store a couple of weeks back.

His store used to have a contract with GW in the late 80s,

My first love will always be Boltgun Metal because I am an older GW gamer, which luckily Armypainter's Gunmetal is a perfect match for.

If you want darker than those, Scale75 makes a paint called Black Metal, which is darker than Leadbelcher, dark like Hematite.

Reaper also makes a dark metallic color called Adamantium Black.

In the FX shop I worked in, when we had weapon props that we wanted to look like "metal" we'd use a mix of gloss black and graphite powder (pour powder over the painted area while the paint is STILL WET).

When the paint dried, we'd brush off the excess graphite and then buff the everliving crap out of it. Looked like steel without having to get stuff vaccuum metallised.

That said, "gun metal" paints were around a fair bit before GW and their paints hit the scene.

I've had a custom flat black, silver metallic mix forever.

Though I've usee silver for metal since forever, I've always found silver metal to be silly.

Gun metal doesn't exist.
Guns are blued, parked, anodized, or painted.

There are quite a few different forms of bluing from rust blue to hot salt blue over a high polish that can be almost liquid beauty.

Park can be varying shades of grey-green to grey-black but never a true black, even using manganese-phosphate.

Painting can be any shade, though the flavor desure in this era is FDE or CAYOTE tan/brown, though multi-cam is stupid popular as well in some circles.

The only time you have anything bare metal on a gun is when it is polished or stainless and it is considered not good for corrosion and need extra care.

Still though it would look kind of silly to use actual finish colors on miniatures so we tend to use silver. I just prefer a kind of grey park effect by using a Matt dull/dark grey silver and then putting highlights in as scratches on edges. But for basic game models, silver it is, just built off the same matt dark grey silver.

 chromedog wrote:
In the FX shop I worked in, when we had weapon props that we wanted to look like "metal" we'd use a mix of gloss black and graphite powder (pour powder over the painted area while the paint is STILL WET).

When the paint dried, we'd brush off the excess graphite and then buff the everliving crap out of it. Looked like steel without having to get stuff vaccuum metallised.

That said, "gun metal" paints were around a fair bit before GW and their paints hit the scene.

Rubbing a pencil edge across the model does the same effect. Black undercoat required.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:

 chromedog wrote:
In the FX shop I worked in, when we had weapon props that we wanted to look like "metal" we'd use a mix of gloss black and graphite powder (pour powder over the painted area while the paint is STILL WET).

When the paint dried, we'd brush off the excess graphite and then buff the everliving crap out of it. Looked like steel without having to get stuff vaccuum metallised.

That said, "gun metal" paints were around a fair bit before GW and their paints hit the scene.

Rubbing a pencil edge across the model does the same effect. Black undercoat required.

And looks surprisingly good too. That's an old truck for sure.
Also good for simulation of wear and scratches on alll sorts of models and colors. Different hardness pencils produce different results.

We've also got a darker gunmetal metallic in our range, but we are expanding our metallic line soon with some more silver based colours including one that's extremely close to the original boltgun metal colour.

Dunno about gun metal but for rusted used tracks rubbing graphite powder over orange rust tracks looks excellent. Love that carbon

I will definitely have to try the graphite - Thanks for the tip!

meatybtz wrote:
I've had a custom flat black, silver metallic mix forever.

Though I've usee silver for metal since forever, I've always found silver metal to be silly.

Gun metal doesn't exist.
Guns are blued, parked, anodized, or painted.

There are quite a few different forms of bluing from rust blue to hot salt blue over a high polish that can be almost liquid beauty.

Park can be varying shades of grey-green to grey-black but never a true black, even using manganese-phosphate.

Painting can be any shade, though the flavor desure in this era is FDE or CAYOTE tan/brown, though multi-cam is stupid popular as well in some circles.

The only time you have anything bare metal on a gun is when it is polished or stainless and it is considered not good for corrosion and need extra care.

Still though it would look kind of silly to use actual finish colors on miniatures so we tend to use silver. I just prefer a kind of grey park effect by using a Matt dull/dark grey silver and then putting highlights in as scratches on edges. But for basic game models, silver it is, just built off the same matt dark grey silver.

The feeding ramp is polished to a mirror sheen. The slide's been reinforced. And the interlock with the frame is tightened for added precision. The sight system is original, too. The thumb safety is extended to make it easier on the finger. A long-type trigger with non-slip grooves. A ring hammer... The base of the trigger guard's been filed down for a higher grip. And not only that, nearly every part of this gun has been expertly crafted and customized.