2007 Ghostbusters post #2
Let's take a closer look at an untouched part. The main gun body/box for the particle thrower. 
Of course, there are a lot of things missing from that. Six knobs, a couple smaller boxes, the handle, the barrel, lights, paint, decals. It must go into a cocoon first.
In the past, to simulate painted metal parts that had been rubbed bare in spots, I painted everything black then rubbed some silver on the edges. I am trying something new. I'll actually have silver under black and remove the black to expose the silver. These parts show the silver coat. You're looking at the gun body, gun track (goes on the bottom of the body), two side dials, and the heat sink.
One suggestion was to put a high gloss clear-coat over the silver. Then put on the black. The idea was that you could sand through the black and even if you over sanded slightly, you'd eat into the clear-coat and leave the silver intact. However, my clear-coat says not to use it on high luster silver, gold, etc. Is this high luster? Not sure. But we need to do some tests before we go down that road. I could rub off the black before it fully dries. I think I also recall somebody soaping the areas which they wished to remain free of paint. The black would stick to the soap, which, in turn, would barely be sticking to the silver and easily rubbed off.
It doesn't matter much because we're nowhere near ready to to putting black on most of those items. Since the silver only shows at edges (or scratches, I suppose), it can get jacked up without much worry and at least it's out of the way.
Of course, there are a lot of things missing from that. Six knobs, a couple smaller boxes, the handle, the barrel, lights, paint, decals. It must go into a cocoon first.
In the past, to simulate painted metal parts that had been rubbed bare in spots, I painted everything black then rubbed some silver on the edges. I am trying something new. I'll actually have silver under black and remove the black to expose the silver. These parts show the silver coat. You're looking at the gun body, gun track (goes on the bottom of the body), two side dials, and the heat sink.
One suggestion was to put a high gloss clear-coat over the silver. Then put on the black. The idea was that you could sand through the black and even if you over sanded slightly, you'd eat into the clear-coat and leave the silver intact. However, my clear-coat says not to use it on high luster silver, gold, etc. Is this high luster? Not sure. But we need to do some tests before we go down that road. I could rub off the black before it fully dries. I think I also recall somebody soaping the areas which they wished to remain free of paint. The black would stick to the soap, which, in turn, would barely be sticking to the silver and easily rubbed off.
It doesn't matter much because we're nowhere near ready to to putting black on most of those items. Since the silver only shows at edges (or scratches, I suppose), it can get jacked up without much worry and at least it's out of the way.