As a former F-1 user, now converted to Nikon, allow me to offer a little help. I always really did like my F-1. It was a tank and went a lot of places with me.

First, you do not say what film you are using. Is it color or B&W? If it is color, then you must match the light source color temperature to the film type. My suggestion for color prints is to get some color print film made for daylight (normal stuff) and use more than one electronic flash. Use them at angles with diffusers, like a vee. One flash will be the master and one will be the slave. You can connect them electrically or get a photo-sensor to trigger the remote, depending on the flash model. There are many types of diffusers available, and you can even use the bottom off of a rubbing alcohol bottle that is translucent and colorless. Cut off the bottom end at about 1.5-2 inches and it will slip over the flash head. You can get some adjustable flashes to vary the lighting ratio from left to right or right to left with a dial, or you can buy cheap flashes and vary the distance to vary the ratio. Remember the inverse square law and it will tell you how far to set the slave back. You are going to have to experiment or buy a flash meter and maybe an incident light meter, too.

The bulbs that were referred to only cover the tungsten spectrum and there are two light temperatures. There are only a couple of slide films left that operate at those crazy temperatures--3200K and 3400K. Electronic flashes operate at 5600K-6000K, which is great for daylight films. I have used the bulbs, built holders for diffusers, and so on, and they work OK for the remaining tungsten slide films and the 1 or 2 tungsten picture films, but it is a hassle.

Years ago, in a 1955 or 1956 Gun Digest, they had a setup to use and showed how to fill shadows with a moving light. You could get a used copy and read the article.

Any tungsten or fluorescent or flash light will work for B&W film. You can get the new color-type B&W film easily. It is not a silver image film, it is a dye image film and will develop at the 1 hour photo labs in C-41 processing. It has good detail, is ISO 400 rated, and I like it. There are a couple of types available, and your photo lab will prefer one or the other. Big deal is they print B&W on color paper and the prints come out a little pink with the wrong one. One film is meant for color paper, one film is meant to print on old-fashioned B&W silver image paper.

It helps to fill the writing with white stuff so it stands out, if you want that effect/detail in the pic.

I seldom photograph firearms, so this is general information that would apply anywhere. If you can afford it, use the best lens you can get your hands on, like a 90mm-100mm Macro. Cannon made some compound type screw on close-up attachments that were really great. I had some and took many good pics with them. Extension tubes work pretty well and reversing the lens is an option, too, at hight magnification.

Nowadays, I use macro lenses (I have the 105mm & 200mm Nikons) and sometimes drag out my 4"x5" for which I have a 120mm Macro-Symmar lens, which is spectacularly sharp.

Good luck.

Yes, I had forgotten about those blue lamps. However, they are 4800K and for critical work, one might want to cool them off a bit (82A, 1/3 stop). In addition, the life expectancy is very short (means you have to keep them turned off except when actually snapping the shutter), especially for the 250W version, otherwise they die or get color shift. The lifespan on the 500W version is longer, but they are very expensive. Porter's Camera has them online.

>They were only 15 years old, too<

At 15 years, the color is certain to have shifted. The rating on them for accurate color is a tad shorter than that.

Reminds me of the old C&W song about a drinking relative, where the drinking killed him at age 102.

Have fun.