Not gonna lie, at first I wasn't sure it was gonna work, but you've made a believer out of me. It's really starting to come together well! I'm also a fan of the Auto-9, and I like how you've managed to blend the bits together.
Haha thanks! Glad I've convinced you.
Dude I am so jealous I just ordered a printer to play with.
Awesome, good luck. My printer really opened a whole new field of possibilities for me.
I embedded a U-bolt in the handle end, to make an attachment for a totem/amulet/trophy down the road. After everything was glued up, bondo'd, and sanded three times (ugh) it was finally time to hit the main pieces with a base coat of silver (three coats).
Then flat black, I think just two coats. I had added a "clip" to the handle, trying to work out a reasonable feel for where the power mag might be on this thing. Since I had already taken the bottom of the handle for the U-bolt, and because this handle is VERY wide (it's like grabbing a 2x4), this location seemed a likely spot for embedding and ejecting a power mag. I probably overthought it.
Masked off the handle...
...and hit it with some Rustoleum "Oil-rubbed bronze". Then I rubbed some Testors brown paint on the edges and corners. It gave the handle a subtle difference from the rest of the flat black.
I also sanded/roughed down all the edges and corners of the flat black, to bring the base silver back out for a decently weathered, but not grimy, appearance. Also added a little bit if a red stripe on one side. This is the first time I've ever used toothpaste as masking fluid for the "chipped paint" effect... it turned out decent. Also 3-d printed, smoothed, sanded, painted and weathered a claw for the amulet attachment on the bottom.
After all that, I decided to really take a risk and laser on some Mando'a on the handle. One side went just fine; the other melted through the printed plastic and had to be filled, sanded, and repainted. I was not happy.
It's almost finished!