www.MG42.us

hi again,

was wondering what you guys think as far as the correct finish or close as one could get

i was thinking HK Satin black over park or Moly resin over park.. want that super glossy look..

Barbcue,

First, welcome to the Forum!

I will attempt to answer your question. From your previous post, you want an authentic, or as close as possible to an original as you can get. If this is corrrect, you certainly don't want a Moly surface, or a "super glossy look". The average MG42 was a salt blued finish (black oxide). They were not super glossy as you don't want them to reflect any light. During the late part of the war, many were clear phosphated, and almost appeared to have no finish at all (that worn off finish look).

To answer your question in your first post, it sound like you need to contact Brian and BRP Corp. They build the best SA MG42 that I am aware of at present, but there is rumors of another fabricator to have one out soon. If you want quality work, you MUST have a gunsmith that is familiar with the weapon to build it for you! My recommendation is to buy one from BRP and pay the $5200 selling price. I bought mine from him several years ago and paid $3800; they do keep going up in value!

I have to disagree with Ab, here. You can get a pretty good (close) finish match with the moly's. If its sand blasted pretty aggressively you'll have a duller finish. Also, with the satins and flat/matte's that are available and a little mixing you can get very close. I used a NOS blued wwII topcover for reference to mix mine. I used satin black, flat grey and satin blue (color is supposed to match the traditional rust blue). When I was done playing, the receiver matched in color and sheen to the top cover.

Best part was I ended up with a more durable finish - nice when your shooting corrosive 8mm or if youre lazy about cleaning when shooting 308 (me, most of the time).

I do agree with "gunslingerdoc" that the Moly Finish can match pretty close. But my post was about an "original" finish, if this is what "Barbcue" was refering to. The Moly would definetly be the better finish from todays technology, but not "original".

Who cares what finish it has, glossy or not you will not go to combat with it, you will go to gun range so WTF? Just use semi gloss engine paint.

Well..... ok. Personally, I like my guns to look like guns. I like the military derived ones to look military....

Building a sa Mg-42 from a torched parts kit and parts from other guns is a bitch. Its the hardest build Ive done. Much more involved than 1919's, ak's , ar's,or fal's. So when you get it done most folks want the finish to reflect the work it took to get to a working gun. No one but the builder really knows the countless hours and fitting, trial, failures, and frustration that goes into getting one of these working. The late comers get the benefit of the blood sweat and tears....but even then its still an involved build and not a cooky cutter type build.

I wanted a nice durable reasonably 'correct' finish for mine. The can of krylon or engine paint sure as hell wouldnt hold up to any decent cleaner. Most of us a pretty proud of our sa-42's weve built. A good decent finish is the icing on the cake.

hakentt wrote:Who cares what finish it has, glossy or not you will not go to combat with it, you will go to gun range so WTF? Just use semi gloss engine paint.

well am trying to think of a finish that BOth::


A.. is durable some sort of paint over park..

B.. covers the weld's, grind marks ,etc.. REAL WELL..!

C.. comes close to that rust blued look as possible... but not mandatory..

I sent some of my parts out to the bluer to have done. Top cover, feed tray, flash hider, charging handle and bipod. My grip stick is aluminum, so its anodized. Right now my receiver is parked, but I'm not real sure how much I like it. I was just looking at http://www.lauerweaponry.com/ and they have a color called gun blue. I may try to do that to mine here in the coming weeks.

Btw, I polished all my grind marks using a rolec scotchbrite and I no longer have any.