Plating my Beeman SS1000T

[DIYEngineer235]

I'm seriously considering plating the external parts of my beeman SS1000T.

I was thinking of copper plating the barrel and nickel plating the spring Nottube. I may paint the plastic back cap gold. I figured the two metals would look great on a natural wood stock with a few embelishments.

I'm also thinking of plating the trigger assembly simply to take out some of the slack and smooth out the action a bit.

Not sure what I'm gonna do about the scope itself, but I think I'll plate the scope mounts. Its more of a "strap" mount so I'll copper the strap and nickel the base.

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[woogie_man]

If I remember correctly the wood on the stock isn't that bad.

Really excited to see what you do with the rifle.

 

[Dan25]

I would try a restoration of the original finish. If that is not desirable, then scrap that rattle can finish and consider a camo dip or a more detailed camo job with shading. If you are of the artistic bent you could do what I did to my pirogue. I started with a base coat of olive drab oil base paint with dark red tint added to give it a dull greenish brown base. This color scheme is very close to an old waterlogged log that is common where I duck hunt. Your color base may vary depending on your environment. Then release your inner artists and break out the smaller brushes. Take some of the base coat and add a little dark brown or black, or both, and paint branches on the gun. Next add more darkening agent and trace a shadow in along one side of the branches. Repeat this once more for more shadow effect. The first shadow should be no more than half the width of the first branch thickness. The second shadow should be no more than half the width of the first. If you live in an area with a lot of dead grass then your base coat will be more of a dead grass and the grass drawings will be much more in number and much thinner. The darkening agents will also be different. If none of this appeals to you then consider going full Sadam and gold plate every bit of metal on the thing.

 

[Fuciliere]

I like to see a stainless finish on a dark wood stain or something that is like Japanese black laquering finish (Urushi), I think this has never been done, but if its done nicely, it would come out awesome. look up some sample of Japanese Lacquering stuff.

 

[DIYEngineer235]

I would try a restoration of the original finish. If that is not desirable, then scrap that rattle can finish and consider a camo dip or a more detailed camo job with shading. If you are of the artistic bent you could do what I did to my pirogue. I started with a base coat of olive drab oil base paint with dark red tint added to give it a dull greenish brown base. This color scheme is very close to an old waterlogged log that is common where I duck hunt. Your color base may vary depending on your environment. Then release your inner artists and break out the smaller brushes. Take some of the base coat and add a little dark brown or black, or both, and paint branches on the gun. Next add more darkening agent and trace a shadow in along one side of the branches. Repeat this once more for more shadow effect. The first shadow should be no more than half the width of the first branch thickness. The second shadow should be no more than half the width of the first. If you live in an area with a lot of dead grass then your base coat will be more of a dead grass and the grass drawings will be much more in number and much thinner. The darkening agents will also be different. If none of this appeals to you then consider going full Sadam and gold plate every bit of metal on the thing.

I'm not a hunter so a camo pattern doesn't really appeal to me. I'm really looking for more of a show piece that I can take out and blast the targets in my backyard.

 

[DIYEngineer235]

I like to see a stainless finish on a dark wood stain or something that is like Japanese black laquering finish (Urushi), I think this has never been done, but if its done nicely, it would come out awesome. look up some sample of Japanese Lacquering stuff.

Oh, that does sound good. I could even try doing a tsuka-ito wrap around the grip and stock. My hands are huge so that wight even make the grip more comfortable for me.

Any thoughts on the butt pad? I'm getting a little stumped. I was thinking of replacing it with a shaped flatbar bent into a "hollow stock" style, plating that and adding some sort of cord wrap to pad it. I've actually got some sheep skin leather with wool that I can use as the padding. Hmmm..... I could also try leather stacking to make the pad.

I was a knife smith for a while so I'm pretty familiar with a lot of these techniques.

 

[Fuciliere]

for the grip do what ever you can do to make it comfortable if you're planning to do lacquering route, its gonna be covered anyways, but i would not add a finger groove, just plain straight grip to complement the lacquering finish, do a little bit of small gold leafing pattern design on the grip for foregrip and on the trigger grip and cheek piece, add am adjustable cheek piece too, something like in this link, check it out. https://www.core77.com/posts/67710/Urushi-Ratchet-Handles

 

[woogie_man]

The barrel I believe was silver at one time. The paint should be your standard Krylon paint. Strip it off and look at what is under it, though I do like the gold idea. Would make the rifle look good.

 

[scoutscope]

Sounds pretty interesting. I'd love to see how you do it.

 

[DIYEngineer235]

Got it all stripped diwn today and got my little plating test rig setup.
From what I inderstand, to copper plate stainless, I have to first nickel plate it, then copper it. Or vice versa. I'm going tobdobsome experiments to see what works best before I commit to anything.