Camo Paint Tutorial - By vedubin01

[JE3146]

Saw this on AR15.com. Hope you all enjoy.



UNDER $50 Cammo Paint Job!

Today I got a local person of the AR15.com community to allow me to paint one of his service rifles in woodland cammo for this write-up. Little did I know it was the "Aristocrat" of AR15's. This is a full SPR from MSTN. With real brake and all. Well my knees were shaking when I opened the door to see this Holy Grille of ARs. Well I have done several but this is going to feel like the very first one. Nervous as hell!

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/8f13a288.jpg

Well the supplies used in this paint job is the following:

1) Testors air brush kit (found at Walmart in the toy section)
$20
1) bag of steel wool extra fine (Local Store)
$3
1) Krylon cammo Green (HomeDepot)
$3
1) Krylon cammo Brown (Home Depot)
$3
1) Krylon cammo Tan (Home Depot)
$3
1) Helmsman Spar Urethane (Home Depot)
$4
1) Acohol (Local Drug Store)
$1
1) Painters tape (Home Depot)
$1
1) Nerves of Steel (only God knows)
$Priceless

Total
$38 + tax for uncle sam


Well first is first, start by cleaning the gun with alcohol to remove all the oils from the rifle. Second take the tape and apply in all areas that you do not want to be painted. (Markings on scope, Scope lenses, etc..) I remove charging handle and do not paint that for it sees lots of wear and I do not like paint chipping or coming off due to wear. Also remember such items like Hogue grips are not recommended to be painted. Because of the flex in these products, paint will dry stiff and will start to flake off due to wear. So I mask them off also. This has the standard A2 handle so that is fine to paint and will hold up well with time. Make sure you give your rifle one more look over because the next steps are a no turn back process.



http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/0d5409b1.jpg

Ok, you have gotten your Gun cleaned and items that you do not want to see paint taped up. Next you want to be painting in ideal conditions. Warm weather and not much humidity in the air. You can also paint in the garage if you like but your looking for about 70 to 90 degree weather to do this in. This will give you time to apply the paint and allow paint to dry in ideal conditions. If colder, time for drying is longer, and if warmer paint will dry fast and will not allow you to correct for error. (ITs cammo not a Picasso so little errors add style to your paint job)

Set up an area that will allow little to interact with the paint (Ex. Bugs, Dogs, Wife etc..) Have a vision and mentally get ready for the next step. I hang my rifle with an old magazine that is attached to a rope or wire. You can use sling loops or what ever you see fit. You just do not want the rope or wire to interfere with the paint. Once that is done take your (Tan) cammo paint and apply it to the Rifle.
http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/82ca306d.jpg
http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/d7bcfa39.jpg
(To prep the paint place the can in hot water for about 5 mins or so. you are applying this paint to the rifle directly from the can. This will bring up the pressure inside the can and thin out the paint for a more even spray)

[JE3146]

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/b929cb4c.jpg
http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/f28ff8c7.jpg

Remember light even spray, You can always go back and add more. I will add about 3 coats of paint for a base coat. Now after you pick your heart off the floor because now your Ar looks like some cheap toy at Toy R Us, allow dry for about 30 mins to 1 hour. This is dry to touch not cured. When painting out of a can you will find that the finish of the gun is not smooth. Overspray is all over the gun. Take the steel wool and lightly rub the surface of the gun, removing all over spray. You will see that the paint will start to show the color of the gun through the paint. Repeat steps above till you have a smooth solid Tan rifle.

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/58667e16.jpg

(Please note everytime you use steel wool, fibers will be left on the rifle. Make sure you remove all fibers before repainting the rifle) Hairdryer, Leaf Blower, and or a cotton T Shirt!!!!!!!

Once you are happy with the base coat, allow it to fully dry. This could take up to 3 to 4 hours. Do not rush this process. As in this paint job I went ahead and placed the scope back on the upper rail for the airbrush work. This will allow it to continue the lines from the upper to the scope. This will come back off for the clear coat so the entire gun is coated in the Urethane.

So far so good, the hard part is over with. That first step in applying paint to something as nice as this is over. Next I transfer the paint (Green and Brown) into separate bottles. This is messy and not the funniest but works well to get paint into the bottles for the airbrush. I use a water bottle. Take the spray can and unload the paint. You can see how much you have in there by moving the water bottle around. You want enough to fill the air gun bottle up say 3/4 of the way. I find that I use more green than brown in my paint jobs so its up to you on how much you want to use. If you read Brasspiles (Member of AR15.com) cammo guide it will show that bigger patterns are better for longer range hiding. Loss of words there but you know what Im talking about. If you go with a close pattern it will all blend together and look as one color from a distance.

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/51485008.jpg

allow paint to sit for a few minutes to allow all bubbles to sit. It will look carbonated because of being pressurized in the can. Then take the paint in the water bottle and fill in airbrush gun. Follow instructions on how to set up airbrush gun. The gun has a nozzle that adjust in and out by turning the tip. This will will allow you to spray a lot or a little at one time. Test it out on paper on how big a line you want to come out of the gun. I go a bit bigger on the green and small on brown. Brown is an accent to the gun not a fill color like the green is. You can also go more colors if you like but I choose 3 due because I did not want to have so much going on the gun. Once you have the spray you want, apply paint in some big pattern. (Note when using this style of air gun make sure that you blow off the first several seconds of the compressed air. You will see what I mean when doing this.) Make sure no smoke looking stuff is coming out of the gun from the can. Do not make sharp looking edges this will be points that one can pick up on the gun. Keep the gun flowing and do not stop in one place when spraying. This will cause build up and runs. IF you get a run allow to dry and use the steel wool to remove the run and fill back in with the airbrush. This also works with finger prints!

[JE3146]

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/831991b3.jpg

Once you have the green applied allow dry time of 30 minutes or so and repeat process with the Brown. I use the brown to separate the green from the tan. This way it will blend in from far and not have some colors sticking out or clashing!

This Pic is in bad lighting and paint is super wet!

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/ohtwo/gun/58e6d745.jpg

Wow now the gun is cammo'd! Looking sweet but still not done. Now allow this to dry overnight. Come back the next day and and lightly go over the gun with steel wool. This will knock off any overspray. I mean lightly! This process can be done if the gun spits the paint out instead of spraying smoothly. I hate to see little color dots of one paint in another. IF you see this clean out the tip of gun with paint thinner or gas. And allow dry and repeat steps above. Sorry had to add that. I just hate that happing!

I will then take scope off and wipe down all parts of the gun. Make sure there is nothing on the gun (fibers hair etc..) Then take the Urethane and warm can up like above and apply several heavy coats to this. Do not allow it to run. The drying time for this is much longer than the paint. Do not rush this! You will see your colors step out a bit and make the paint look deeper. There might be a shine on this when wet but allow it to dry. I will place between 3 to 5 coats of Urethane on the paint. Allow dry overnight! I take the steel wool and rub all shine off of the gun. Leaving a flat finished paint job. I will then go over it will some car wax and lightly buff the main areas to seal all pours of the paint.

Well as you can see you have a completed quality paint job for under $50. Allow the paint to CURE! This will be about 1 week in the conditions listed above. Do not rush or over handle it. You can chip the paint before the paint cures. Once the paint cures it is pretty much on there. It will take a beating and last forever. You can clean it with all gun cleaning products and treat it like you would any other gun. I hope this helped someone if they were thinking about painting something like this. Thank you (Member) for allowing me to paint such a Beautiful weapon. Everyone can buy parts to make their gun look cool but you can have something no one else has and that is a custom paint job. Enjoy and take your time! That first part is the hardest and that is only mental so go for it and please post picks of your completed work.

Thanks

Vedubin01

http://img62.photobucket.com/albums/v189/vedubin01/IMAG9047.jpg

[Vincenzo]

Excellent tutorial! Now I just need to buy something to camo...

[Epinephrine]

JE, I sence a home project coming on for you! ;)

[JE3146]

lol.. been thinking about it...

takes balls of steel to do something like that though... i have an airbrush kit though.... and the steel wool.. and the alcohol.. lol all i need is paint...

[Epinephrine]

You could just do like the Air Force CSAR Paramedics do: Take a Can of OD Green and a can on Desert Tan and just paint the damn thing! I may do that. You never see any A4's that are painted, just M4's. I'd be the most bad ass A4 owner on the planet! Just take off my EOTech and paint the gun in 15 minutes. Vola! MUUAHAHAHAHA!!