Hi Power Airsoft Aging Project

So, I saw this thing for cheap and thought how they looked realistic, but not like real guns..
flat black painted looked toyish so I set about turning it into attempting to age it to look like more of a WWII relic.



First I sourced some wooden grips, and also an early style hammer and safety switch for authenticity.
The wood grips are new, glossy and machine made, so I stripped the finish, sanded and gave a few blemishes and added some grime in the checkering from “years of use”, then a touch of oil to finish.





Next was tearing it down to bare parts, bagging in sets so I can remember what goes where, then trialling the finishing. The black finish is hard.. I usually use citristrip on parts because it’s fairly gentle but this did nothing! So I got some harsh stuff from Bunnings and this worked. The parts are moulded so the finish is flat and artificial on the metal - a few swipes of sandpaper gave a machined look which is more authentic.



Finish used is a mixture of Birchwood Casey Super Blue (meant for steel but it does work on some of these alloys as who knows what is in them.. the finish is nice dark grey, patchy but that’s the look I need! Also used Birchwood Casey Aluminium Black on the main parts as it’s darker and the slide didn’t take the cold blue at all!

The frame is a mix of cold blue - gives a brown patina look and some spots like a heat blue finish which is nice, then a thin layer of the aluminium black just to darken it all up.

Also added are some areas of rust - done with a wash of brown enamel paint - applied in the crevasses that would be naturally hard to clean, points of a lot of contact, to add to the age and patina.


Parts of high contact were given some wear through the bluing as would naturally happen, at the moment they are a bit bright raw alloy but should darken over time to blend in more.

Overall pretty happy with the result and was a bit of fun to do! I’ve also paired it with a vintage Hi Power holster..

I owned an original “Fabricque National herstal Belgique” Brownning High Power 9mm Parabelum for years and years.
My dad owned it for many years before he gave it to me.
Mine looked identical to your replica, except mine had a lovely Pachmeyer one piece grip on it, which fitted my hand like a glove!

You’ve done a nice job making it look old and rusted and authentic.
Now I think the right thing to do would be to strip this rusty antique, re-blue it and rebuild it back to its former glory… 😂😂😂