Battered Trench Gun Cosmetic Upgrade Project

And here's a nice, worn in real steel reference point.-- attachment is not available --

Sgt.Heide did the same project some time back

UNCompany are still out of stock of the heatshield/bayonet lug part.

you can get real wood kits for them on actionhobbies here is link below!
let me know how you get on as i have a few of them shottys that i bought on actionhobbies when they had them in there warehouse clearance section for a tenner a pop

http://www.actionhobbies.co.uk/M500-Sho ... F75.aspx?0

Mine must be different - it doesn't look like the same fitting as on that stock.

I`ve got a feeling that those wood kits are for the M500 gas shotty, not the springer.

I`ve got a feeling that those wood kits are for the M500 gas shotty, not the springer

Probably, coz who's make an actual wood kit for a 20 quid shotgun ? But the fittings may well work.

Either way, here's some progress...

Step one, break it into manageable chunks and sand the whole thing all over with fine sandpaper. I didn't bother stripping the pump from the barrel, but the heatshield comes off really easily, and is metal where the main barrel is plastic. So that will be treated differently.-- attachment is not available --

So first the easy bits...

After a complete sanding, I wet and dried all the plastic "metalwork" then applied 2 coats of fire black (graphite paste) and polished it up.

I then drybushed on some Inscribe (the best) acrylic silver paint in places where you would expect damage - any leading edges or sharp bits. I also rubbed some paint in by hand to enhance the metallic look.

I'm not sure how well the graphite shows up on the photos, but it takes flat plastic and gives it a nice, deep metallic sheen.-- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available --

The heatsheild was treated differently as it's aluminium (I assume). I considered nitromorsing it back to bare metal, but in the end decided to attack it with the dremmel to expose some, but not all of the metal.

I then gave it a light coat of fire black and polished it up. First two pics are various stages of sanding then dremmeling. The final one is the blackened and polished article.-- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available --

The final process for tonight was to sand down the "Woodwork" with the heaviest grain sandpaper I could find to try and create a grain effect.

I then went at the butt with the dremmel to damage it - not 100% happy with the result but it will do.

Finally, I fillered the screw holes with epoxy putty.

The challenge for tomorrow is to work out how to get a brown base coat without eliminating the grain effect. My two options are brown car spray or brown acrylic ink out of the airbrush. I'm favouring the second as it will give the thinnest coat, but I don't know how good the pigment will be over the black plastic.-- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available --

Looks good! When I did mine, I also filled in the "chequer grip" bit on the stock and, cut of the protrusion where the butt pad goes. I had a spare M14 buttplate that I fitted where I cut that off and ground it to shape.

Rather than paint the woodwork, I too sanded the plastic down with 60 grit paper and then, gave it an undercoat of brown plasticote paint, before painting on several coats of dark woodstain and then some satin varnish. I also did this to the cocking handle. So far, it's held up well, even after the soaking and dragging about at Devil's Hill.

I`ve done similar with plastic stocks although I spray them with red primer and brush on some mahogany wood stain. Looks ok until you`re about a couple of feet away.

gave it an undercoat of brown plasticote paint,

Does that not fill in the sanding marks ? I was aiming at trying to keep the sanding showing as woodgrain. Plasticote paint is pretty thick.

gave it an undercoat of brown plasticote paint,

Does that not fill in the sanding marks ? I was aiming at trying to keep the sanding showing as woodgrain. Plasticote paint is pretty thick.

I tried that as my first attempt, unfortunately the sanding just looks like scratches. You need a base layer of wood coloured paint and then add something on top such as stain to get the woodgrain affect. I think there`s a thread on here somewhere by Guinness about achieving a really good wood effect on stocks.

Second try on the paint job today after a screwed up first attempt.

I tried airbrushing ink straight onto the black plastic and as I suspected it did nothing - the pigment isn't strong enough. So I undercoated it in a light baige plasticote and airbrushed it down to a cool dark shade. I then applied wax, but different wax to that I used on the Thompson I did last, and I didn't check the ingredients. Unfortunaely the wax contained turps, and the paintwork I'd so lovingly created wiped clean off

So back to basics today and a new plan. I wasn't 100% happy with the first job anyway, so this time I undercoated it in nut brown plasticote and gave it a hevier coat than last time, then airbrushed it back to darken it down and leave some highlights. The results are below. I haven't waxed it yet.

Oh and for reference, the "metal" guard around the reciever is seperate to the rest of the gun. It can be taken off by taking out 4 screws round the reciever and it just lifts off. The gunr remains perfectly solid underneath and needs a whole bunch more screws removing and fiddling before you get down to any functional parts, so if you did want to do a mre complete paint jb on the reciever it's easy enough to seperate.-- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available ---- attachment is not available --

nice!

Nice job, that`s come out looking very good

It's now varnished with clear car varnish, but it very scratch prone.