Modifications for realism

Come on guys .... surely some of you have done mods on your replicas ..

Sorry, when you opened the thread I thought that you was looking for information about mods for the 'smelly', I didn't realise it was an open invitation to show off some of our modifications, so here goes.....

First up we have the DW715s, normally the 6" comes in the grey-ish finish but that goes against what the actual finish is on the RS (stainless steel) version. So a quick barrel swap with the BB version, fit some red insert into the front sights and all is right in the world, lol.




Next up, the Nagant 1895. Straight out of the box it badly needed ageing, the safety removing and the screws changing...



I spent a while 'working' on it and it looks far better now....




Next, I love my Colt SAAs, especially the blued versions but they needed a little something. So I found a couple of pictures of the special edition Colt 125th Anniversary editions with the gold plated hammer, trigger, trigger guard, ejector tab, back strap and cylinder spindle....



So I set about making my pair fit right in with those....




Then there's my Webley mkVI which needed an adjustable rear sight fitting to it, so to keep it 'period' matching I fitted a drift adjustable rear notch plate and whilst you're at it it might as well fit a lanyard, polish the grips and have a decent repro leather holster too.



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Then there's all of the smoothbore inner barrels that have swapped out with fully rifled inner barrels -

Colt Python 4"
Colt Python 6"
S&W 629 5"
S&W 629 6½"
S&W 29 3"
S&W 29 6½"

All of the above have had the crosshead screws swapped out for proper slotted ones too.

I even managed to swap out the partially rifled inner barrel in the Nagant 1895 for a fully rifled version from a S&W 686.
I've ported the valve stems on all of my DW715s, Colt Pythons, S&W 29s, S&W 629s, DW first gen's and I've even nickel plated the tips of all my cartridges (well over 250) too...



And then there's my Colt 1911, which started life as a Remington RAC, which I stripped the finish from, lowered and ported the ejection port to make it look like the Remington R1s 1911...



The there's my Dan Wesson (first gen') 2½" snub nosed revolver which is a dead ringer for a S&W 66-2. It needed the finish removing from the trigger, hammer, cylinder latch and cylinder spindle, then I reshaped the hammer and blued the parts, fitted a new front sight c/w red insert....





Then I was lucky enough to get an original S&W model 66 box c/w original leaflets and manuals, I added the greased paper and the S&W barrel cleaning tool...








And just the same as you, I've got the full wood kit for my shell loading Winchester.....






Then we get to 'say hello to my little friend', which has a full phat boy suppressor fitted to it....






And my DPMS, which has had a suppressor, red dot and laser pointer fitted to it....



I do actually have a really nice quick action harness on it now to which makes free standing shooting very accurate....



So, there you go, just a few of the mods that I've done to the guns, oooh ! I nearly forgot....



That was all my own work, started life looking awful....



Well the Mrs is tapping her watch and tutting (I am supposed to be going shopping, lol), so if I remember any other once I'm back I'll add them to this thread.

So basically, yeah ! I've been known to 'fettle' the odd gun, lol

I think that modifying guns makes them more personal to you, so many guys have guns that if you put them on a table you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart from a new, straight out of the box version, but once you started doing the mods it's easier to see what's yours. But then again, selling them on, if you're a collector can be difficult if they've had non-standard modifications done to them.

Personally I like adding my own 'touch' to all my charges and I'm not bothered as to whether it has increased or even decreased their value, as selling them on never really something that I'd consider, I know the Mrs has though, lol

If I had the skills you guys do, I'd have got to work on all my guns straightaway.
But to give you an idea of my ineptitude, as a kid I was allowed out of the practical woodwork sessions after the 1st year, instead I got to sweep up or wander off to chat to my mates in other design classes, on one occasion I was given a hammer and steel bar and asked to remove all the shelving and brackets in a store room, which was much closer to my skillset.(Took me 10 minutes and for the rest of the lesson I chatted to the new head of design about Jaqueline Bisset over tea and biscuits).
As for the Sheridan, tbh the only thing that puts me off the gun is its shiny never been used looks, if it were available in a more aged and battered version I'm sure I'd have bought one already.
I'll be really interested to see what you do with yours Gunman so please do keep us updated on it. 
Seeing the work that you guys do on your guns is like listening to a skilled musician for me, it;'s nothing I can do but something I really enjoy and appreciate.

Apologies for late reply .... You CAN cold blu zamak ... not sure how long lasting the finish will be but if you are aging a replica it looks great as in the Nagant i have just done , though i say you can blu it the finish does not come out dark black ...more of a dark grey. heres a rough idea of how i did mine , there are probably other /better ways but this worked for me.

1. Remove all the old paint/finish

2. Polish all parts as best as possible

3. Thoroughly degrease all parts 

4. Clean off the degreaser using very hot water, the hot water will heat up the zamak dry quickly as you need to keep the metal HOT

5. While the metal is hot and dry brush on the cold blu solution i used Birchwood Caseys Aluminium Blu, i thought it would be better as it was designed for a non            ferrous metal , its important to keep the metal as hot as you can when applying the aluminium blu solution so recommend you do one piece at a time                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
6. It wont take long to turn the metal black ... keep brushing on solution until the piece is a nice even colour all over ... if you want you can use hot water to heat it        back up ... dry it off and re apply the solution again . once the part is blacked wash off with cold water.

7. Dry all parts.

8. using 0000 grade wire wool very gently buff up the newly blued parts ... making sure not to press too hard or you will take off the finish youve just put on

This finish i believe is not as durable as paint but really looks great in my opinion. First pic a standard black out of the box Nagant
2nd pic one aged using the technique described above ... ALMOST FORGOT ....i then covered in a very thin layer of oil as per the real steel versions







   

i know ...im still wondering how to do that ... making them out of wood i think would be tricky given that the front and rear grip panels are so thin ...



i might try to "age" the plastic ones somehow