[mrerick]

Hi, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Artillery LP08 Luger.

It would be wise to do what you can to stabilize the active rust and pitting areas.

Start with a good long oil soak. Take the grip panels off. First pics were of a very dry and oxidizing gun. The active brown oxide (rust) areas will continue to deteriorate the gun and do pitting damage. Do your best to remove it where it occurs without doing additional damage.

You can use well oiled 0000 grade steel wool to carefully remove the red oxide. Do it gently, take your time and do it by hand.

Someone has replaced your left grip screw with a non-standard screw. This screw uses a very unique thread called a Whitworth profile thread. It's possible that they stripped out the frame when they put the non-standard screw in. Take a good look at it if you can remove it and the grips. See if the other screw will fit into the hole and hold the grip properly. If so, get with someone like LugerDoc and get a proper replacement grip screw.