Mod. 686-3 Midnight Black (blued stainless) w/ 4" barrel. (Pic below was to compare "bare stainless" in background on my 629-4 and "real blue" on my 586 [no dash] in the foreground to the "midnight black" 686 in the middle.)



Some close-ups of the wear and tear on the supposedly "weak" black finished stainless steel (this is after 4 years of duty use in all weather):






This is also after thousands of draws/reholsterings and shooting at least 1x per month (and frequently more) for those four years... I think the reputation the Midnight Black finish got was unfair. I can't imagine a straight blued carbon-steel gun would have held up any better!