@Cotmm
unless a bunch of people want to start buying Armoircades all of the sudden.
Judging from those comments over on klov, not too soon
I had toyed with the idea of wood gears, but I think brass would be a bit more in keeping with the design. I'd still love to see some wood gears in a build though. One project I always wanted to take on was building an all wooden clock.
@captaincatalyst
Yeah, that plastic paint hasn't given me very good results the few times I've tried it, and they definitely don't have a good range of "steampunkish" colors.
But I've had excellent results so far with the combination I outlines on this thread for painting my buttons.
basically, I did this
1) start with the normal shiny plastic HAPP buttons.
2) disassemble and take very fine steel wool to them to rough all the exposed surfaces up.
3) mask off the threads
4) spray with rustoleum heavy duty primer
5) let dry thoroughly
6) hit them with very fine steel wool again, lightly, just to smooth out any rough spots.
7) spray with various metalic enamels. I used rustoleum and valspar mostly, because that's what was at Hobby lobby and home depot/lowes.
brush on non-water soluable india ink, then rub/wipe of quickly. This REALLY makes the metallics pop and gives the finish a depth you won't get any other way.
9) buy a bottle of Future Floor Wax.
10) Get a large tray and some paper towels.
11) squirt the future all over the painted pieces holding them over the tray (I airbrushed them originally, but I found just squirting it on right out of the bottle works even better, thicker coat, faster to apply, no cleanup)
12) hang the pieces to dry, and use a little paper towel to dab up any drippy spots on the bottom of the items while the future is still watery.
13) after about an hour or so, repeat steps 11-12, then repeat again (I put three coats on).
If you want a little duller finish (Future is SUPER glossy normally), get some tamiya flat acrylic (you can usually find it at high end hobby stores), and mix some with the future. Just how much, you kind of have to play with.
Several people have said online that if you mix some SIMPLE GREEN (another kind of floor cleaner I think), with the future, you'll get an incredibly glossy finish, much like a wet look. But you need to be extra careful about dust if you go that route.
As for durability, I treated all the buttons on my cabinet (the +buttons+ mind you, that get beat to hell when you play anything) and they look the same as when I finished them out originally. I can't detect any wear at all on them. My entire CP I treated with 3 coats of future as well, and it (and all the stamping design I applied) still look like new. Just wipe with water. Don't use any ammonia cleaner (or alcohol based I believe), or it'll take the future off.
As for guns, that's exactly how I plan on doing them. Granted, if you bash the gun, drop it on a hard floor etc, it'll likely scratch, but any paint would do that. Treated decently, I can't imagine there being any problems with the finish.