Paint'n plastic to look well...not plastic

In preparation for my (and my gf's) Halloween costumes, i cracked out the acrylics and had a bit of a play, I haven't got the goggles yet so i had a bit of an experiment with an old Tommy gun that was laying around (from a gangsta costume years ago)- I love how I have all these props and paints hanging about :D so for about 15 mins or so i had a play with silver, black and 'burnt seanna' brown and just mucked about for a bit. And these are the results...

To be fair for my first ever try at anything like this (things like painting war-hammer figurines I despise with a passion ) I'm pretty chuffed, admittedly i went a bit mental towards the back of the gun, but it seems that dry-brushing is totally the way forward... smudging and rubbing thinned layers seems to work for crevices (wipe the remaining paint of surrounding areas), but I'm not a fan for using it in other areas. I was contemplating using gold paint and giving a bit of a steampunk style to my goggles although i really like the gun metal colours :D 

So: 

1.rough up plastic with some sandpaper

2.Paint with a black undercoat

3.Dapple with a dark grey/silver with a dry brush

4.Repeat with lighter metallic colour

5.use dry brush and highlight colour to crate scratches

Unlike today i would totally let layers dry completely and probably use much less paint (thin them up with water or something)  and give my goggles some dents and scratches with some form of heavy duty tool...but for 15 mins I'm pretty chuffed