Soren, thanks for the advice about protecting my shiny erection (!) but as it happens I work in the metal finishing industry and am fully prepared!
I'm going to wipe the tower down with a degreasing solution, dry it with a hair dryer, glue the accessories on while wearing gloves, and then give the whole thing a couple of coats of spray varnish. If it wasn't for the cardboard I'd be able to use all sorts of fancy chemicals on it, but I don't want to risk it getting soggy!
I thought about letting it corrode, or even deliberately corroding it, but I want it to look freshly telescoped when deployed. Possibly some oil stains around the joins, but I think I will just leave it shiny. Whatever finish you want on metal, it'll fingerprint terribly so you need to lacquer it to protect it.
Oh god, I just got Midaski's "Orange" pun, dude, that is terrible!!!
Steve, that's pretty much what I'm thinking of. It's a pretty easy technique and the continuity is important, I agree