I have trouble photographing things that are highly polished and shiny. Here is a better picture
The background is black plastic. There are a couple marks up at the muzzle that are little pits and flaws in the metal. Photographs tend to amplify things like that. You could spend a lot more time polishing them down but this gun would not be worth the effort.
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Good question about the brushes. The instructions don't go into too much detail, but between the instructions and some online videos, I think you have a lot of leeway. Mark Lee (the company) says the finish is hard and it takes some effort to card/polish the rust down, and not to worry about hurting the finish, as it is durable. I have done 90% of the polishing with either steel wool (XF stuff) or Dremel wire bristle brushes. For some scrubbing I have used a Harbor Freight brass bristles brush. None of those will damage hard steel like gun parts. I wouldn't use those industrial heavy wire brushes you can fit on a power drill for stripping paint...
Here is the frame after it's second boiling. That means it had been heated, had three applications of solution applied, was boiled once, polished down, three more applications of solution applied, and was boiled again. You can see a couple damp spots still, but the hot metal dries within a minute or two of being removed from the water.
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After one more application of solution, boiling and light polishing it is quite dark. The blued magazine in the photo is in a factory black finish for comparison.
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I can't afford the spendy, high end, collector type weapons so I go for fixer-upper, shooter projects. Plus I like to actually work on my guns. I have more fun with one that I put a lot of TLC into rather than just buying and looking at it. The rust bluing is at least an authentic finish for early Lugers. It's not hard although it is somewhat time consuming.