When Keith first contacted me I knew I in for a fun ride. Not only is he knowledgeable but he was extremely excited about the very idea of owning another custom gun (he owns a couple of Wong and Merlo guns so I knew I was in good company!). It turns out Keith needed the perfect gun for the Gulf of Mexico to add to his collection. After agreeing on a 67" 5- 5/8" band gun w/ a 3/8" shaft, Keith came up with a special request. He wanted the the gun painted exactly like a yellowfin tuna. Not knowing exactly how I would do it, I agreed that it would make an unbelievably cool looking gun. 

As the time came closer to the finish process, I contacted my friend, and finish/spray expert John Ammenti. After looking at a photo of a yellow fin Keith had sent me (in hope that I could get the colors close) John recommended his brother Jeff for the air-brush work. When the day came around to spray the guns (coincidentally I had a wahoo gun to spray at the same time, see next gun of the month), I have to admit, I was a little nervous. After all, although I had worked with John in the past, I had never even seen Jeff's work. 

Jeff looked at the picture for about 2 seconds and casually said "no problem". He took about 45 minutes to set up, then went to work (John coated the the guns with a special epoxy the day before). My lack of confidence was quickly erased.  With each layer of color, Jeff transformed the gun into a perfect copy of a yellow fin tuna, exceeding all expectations by a long way. Between the brothers, they had created the most amazing finish I had ever seen on a gun.  I couldn't contain my excitement and called Keith to relay how pleased I was with the final result. When we spoke about  about how close it was to the actual coloration, I joked that it may be a problem with sharks. Keith responded with a perfect suggestion for the name of the gun - the "Mako Mistake".  As excited as he was to receive the gun, he was kind enough to allow me to hold on to the gun for another couple of weeks to display at a trade show. Although hundreds of people had seen and handled his gun before he did, in the end it was clear that Keith was, most importantly, the happiest of all.  

The "Mako Mistake" was featured in issue #35 of Hawaii Skin Diver magazine (shown below)