Here are just some of the first pulls, which are all "bad" pulls by the way due to hollow spots, numerous bubbles, surface imperfections from improper mixing, etc. When compared to just pouring resin, the learning curve is huge when it comes to making high quality rubber items and the process is much more difficult that I had anticipated. I had all but given up at one point in time yesterday.
I decided to use these bad pulls to test different finishes. The best finish in my opinion is the Rn'B finish on the bottom gun that was rubbed right onto the rubber with no base coat of paint. The Rn'B helped to fill in and hide small surface imperfections. The handle was painted with SEM Medium Titanium, and after trying out about 4-5 different SEM colors it seemed to yield the closest resemblence to the ref. pic in the EP 2 Visual Dictionary. The brass accents are gold metallic spray paint brushed on with a small paint brush. The weathering is a combination of black followed by charcoal grey, and was applied with a small paint brush.
The middle finish comes in a close second and is a standard silver metallic paint wiped on multiple times with a rag onto a semi-flat black surface. The brass accents were applied exactly like above. The weathering was applied exactly like above.
The top blaster is the least desireable finish in my opinion because it is standard silver metallic spray painted on. To me it looks too much like the paint finish seen on a Rubies blaster, and therefore makes the barrel look like an untouched Rubies. The gold was also taped off and spray painted. I didn't bother to do any weathering on this barrel.
We took plenty of opportunities to toss around the painted blasters yesterday and they are very durable. There's something to be said about a blaster that can be tossed 30 feet into the air or about a 50 yards distance, and survive coming down on the concrete.
The only immediate wear I have seen is the paint undercoat rubbing off on the small allen head screw on the handle, so it's probably going to be best taping that off before painting the handle, or looking into placing a real allen head screw there when casting. I've already tested placing a real pin in the rear part of the barrel and it worked.
Enjoy,
Cruzer