Worn in Cyma Thompson Experiments

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Feedback would be great, and I've just noticed it still has "Made in China" written on it. Crap !

Looks great
I completely rubbed out the trades on my cyma except for the Thompson one on the top of the receiver

Cad

Looking good . Like the metal and the woods come up well but looks a little "new" some gentle dinks and scuffs might make it look more used?

nice
good work!!

Looks great so far. The wood looks a little too smooth compared to the scuffs on the metalwork though. Maybe put a few dings in it with a sock full of bolts?

Fair point. The wood is actually plastic so I figure a dremmel might be the way to go, but you are all right, it needs some wear.

Dremel marks would be too uniform. Try placing bolts nails and bits of metal on the wood and whacking them with a mallet or something to leave random dents and impressions in the surface.

Just remember chaps this is Faux Wood so hitting it hard with the "high quality" chinese plastic could end up being a cracking (bad) time! I actually like the wood affect you already have but if you was desperate to change it possibly heating it in small places and then indenting it may be a better solution but like i said already it looks good! I would be very happy if that was on my tommy!

I also like what you have done with the rest of the gun too! (although my preffered way to age a gun is to use it (lots!!)) Dont worry about the Made in China mark that should come off quite easy as if i remember correctly its only a transfer type sticker.

Looks superb, mate. Leave the woodwork as it is, it looks fine to me. The wood used on the real jobbies is a nice hardwood and doesn't ding that easily. Look at this for 68 year old woodwork:

Yes, I won't be hitting it with anything ! I do think the wood needs a little wearing in, but more gentle approch is needed I think.

Some of the wear on the metalwork is from use, bu I wanted a more used look than it already had, and the main effort was to get the plastic lower reciever to have a more metal look to it, which is why I went for exposing more fthe bare metal on the top so I could do the same via paint affects on the lower.

All in all, I'm happy, though I have a few small mods to make. I do need to start on the mags now though as they are all still shiny and new.

Don't forget that magazines get a lot less attention. They spend most of their time in pouches and bags, so won't look as worn as the weapon.

Good point.

That looks amazing, interesting choice of materials. Presumably you put the fire blacking on the plastic bits or did you do all 'metal' bits on the entire gun with it?

The use of furniture wax rather than varnish is also and interesting idea, did you use one with a stain in it or a clear one?

I'm looking at doing some wood effects on my M14/SVT40 conversion and trawling for ideas...

I've also got a CYMA Thompson which would no doubt benefit from a similar treatment.

Cheers
Martin

very nice job i too am iterested in doing the same as iv just bought a 1928 and am a bit of a simpleton would you mind explaining how and exactly what you used to do it cheers

Metalwork
Anything genuine metal I wire wooled to dull down the top coat and then went at all the leading edges round the reciever, fore and rear sight and cocking handle to rub off the paint until I hit bare metal. As far as I know it's made mostly of aluminium, so leaving it raw shoul be OK, though belt and braces would be to clear laquer it with car varnish.

I did use some fine wet and dry in places for speed.

I then applied a light coat of fire black with a jay cloth and polished it up with a rag. I've also experimented with oil but it didn't work as well. The fire blacking gives a nice oily sheen very quickly.

Plastic
The lower reciever was also lightly wire wooled, but just enough to rough the surface up. I then applied a heavier coat of fire black and polished as above. Then I used a sponge brush like so...

http://www.foundphotography.com/PhotoTh ... _Brush.jpg

and VERY lightly applied Inscrie silver paint. Dab it on the brush, wipe most of it off on a cloth. When you think you don't have enough paint on the brush, wipe off some more then brush lightly over all the protruding edges to create a similar effect to the wire wooled metal. Inscribe make awesome paint...

http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/product_372360015.htm

Excellent pigment in the silver particulally.

I havent' varnished this, but I probably should have. I'll see how well it bears up in action.

Fake Woodwork The original plastic "Woodwork" was sanded down with rough then fine sandpaper to remove any of the upper coat. Sand it until it's a rough finish, then work it down with light grit paper, but you can keep it reasonably rough. I then airbrushed brown ink over the whole thing, then tactically airbrushed on some black. This didn't get it dark enough, so I then watered down some black acrylic paint and brushed it on with the same brushes as above, left it for about 30 seconds then wiped it off with a cloth. This leaves a darker effect on the wood.

Finally I applied a reasonably thick coat of atique pine furniture wax and plioshed it up to a light shine. Time will tell on this effect !

I did strip the woodwork off to sand it, but everything else I did with the gun assembled. To be honest I probably should have properly stripped it to avoid getting any of the sanding inside the weapon. If it doesn't work next time I use it, my fault

Personally I'm most impressed with how the plastic has come out. I've done a couple of plastic pistols too and they look loads better than they did, so I'll try and get some pics of those up as well.

That is great, thanks.

Martin

This worked for me to recreate worn bluing:
Spray the gun with silver paint, then with matt black. Then buff the gun very lightly with cutting polish (E.G. T-cut) until the silver starts to show through the now thin black layer. Spray matt varnish over the top.

I considered that kind of approach but wasn't sure if that would strip back both layers of paint.