Home paint jobs - need advice!

[Aiannare]

I wOuld like to paint my ar15 but would love some suggestions before hand. So far, "Kraylon" is ll I've got...

[leadsender]

Prep is a must if you want it to stick and look good, some degreaser or other solvent to remove the oils and grease. What is the "look" your going for. A camouflage type or just a solid color?

[Aiannare]

I'm open to ideas. Could go a flat or some type of unique camo. You have any pattern suggestions?

[Aaron_B]

There is a very informative post by Pat Rogers on lightfighter.net on how to paint your AR and what to use. I beleive he recommends a aircraft grade paint but the name slips my mind right now.

[jpmuscle]

I just finished re-doing my one of my ARs in air cure FDE cerakote, came out pretty nice imo. Prep was straight forward, degrease, degrease, then degrease some more. Ill post a few pics this weekend. Im not expecting to hold up like the oven cure material but it will be much better than krylon.

Also theirs a pretty large section on refinishing on arfcomm just try to weed on the nonsensical material. One of the stickied multicam threads is interesting. Hydrodipping may be another option as well, depends what u want to spend.

[MagpulWhore]

Here is the recommended procedure from the US Army

Before painting your weapon, it’s important that you have a plan for how you want your camouflage to look. Painting a weapon is not about personalization, but increasing its tactical capabilities without impairing its ability to function.

Step One: Gather the materials
 _Chemical gloves
 _Paper towels and clean rags
 _Masking tape
 _Foam ear plugs
 _Clean spray bottle
 _Protective eyewear
 _Newspaper
 _Dry cleaning solvent
 _Spray Paint – krylon works fine
o Black
o Khaki
o Earth Brown
o Deep Forest Green
o Olive Green

Step Two: Clean it up
For your camo job to really stick, you have to ensure that all the dirt, grime, and oil are removed from the weapon. Begin by removing the bolt and bolt carrier assembly, charging handle, and any other attached items from the weapon and set aside. These components will not be put back in until the paint job is complete.
The trick to effectively cleaning your weapon is dry cleaning fluid. don your protective gear and clean the down weapon twice with dry cleaning fluid. This ensures any oils that may not have been visible are completely removed from the weapon. Be sure to capture any dry cleaning fluid in a bucket or solvent tank in your work area.

Step Three: Tape it Up
As with any task, so much of success depends on good preparation. If you do not properly protect the weapon from paint, you can negatively impact its performance. As a general approach, start masking at the rear of the weapon and move forward from top to bottom. For M16 fixed-stock rifles, be sure to mask the buffer tube drain hole and buttstock screw.

1. With the upper and lower receivers engaged by just the front take-down pin, stuff the inside of the upper receiver with paper towels. Do not stuff paper towels into the barrel extension or chamber of the upper receiver.
https://www.m4carbine.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=11628&stc=1&d=1332505656
2. With the weapon still broken down shotgun style, take a paper towel and place it over the top of the lower receiver covering the whole opening of the top of the lower receiver.
3. Sandwich the paper towel by closing the receiver and secure with rear take down pin.
4. Remove excess paper towel sticking out the sides and rear of the receiver. Make sure the remaining paper towel is stuck tight so that no paint will be able to get in between the upper and lower receiver. If it’s not tight, layer more paper towels across until it’s snug.
6. Mask all moving parts: safety selector, magazine release button, magazine catch, and forward assist.
7. Wrap trigger and trigger-well opening so no paint can get inside weapon. https://www.m4carbine.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=11629&stc=1&d=1332505656
8. Tape the iron sight.
9. Tape front sight post, post recess, and the two rear edges of the front sight. https://www.m4carbine.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=11630&stc=1&d=1332505656
10. Insert magazine(s) and paint only the exposed portions.
11. To paint the barrels, remove the bottom rail (if weapon has handguards, remove both) and mask off the complete barrel, front sight assembly, and slip ring.
12. Cover slot numbers on the rails.
13. Insert a foam ear plug into the barrel to protect barrel and bore interior.
A laundry list of taping? Yes. But, every step is necessary to ensure the function or identification of the weapon is not compromised. If your weapon has a component, sight, or accessory that was not covered in this procedure, use common sense to properly mask it.
Step Four: Paint it

Some important points before you start to paint your weapon:
 _Start with a plan.
 _Ensure you have proper ventilation.
 _Do not apply paint to the barrel and front sight assembly of the weapon. The heat of the barrel during firing will burn off the paint.

Remember, “pretty” is not the objective of good camouflage. The goal is to break up the visual signature of the weapon system by blending your weapon in with your environment and uniform. If your operating environment has just light sand, then just paint your weapon tan with limited black breakup. If you are operating in a woodland environment, brown and olive drab with limited black breakup may be appropriate.

If you have an adjustable buttstock, extend it before spraying. Spray thin coats with a light touch. Let the coats dry between applications. Test the cans on paper first to get a feel for how much pressure to apply for a particular flow rate.
Looking for a template? Look to your local environment. One option is to layer local foliage or grasses on the weapon and paint around them to leave a natural-looking pattern.

To blend colors effectively, first coat the weapon with the lightest color you will be using. Next take a darker shade that blends with your environment and paint stripes about four inches apart at a 45 degree angle. You can do this with one or two colors. Next, you need to blend it in. Take a dark color like green or brown and from about six to eight inches away from the weapon lightly dust the gun. After that, take a lighter color (khaki, or tan) and lightly dust the gun. This will blend everything together and dull the finish. Your color palette will depend on the operational environment.
When weapon is completely dry, remove all products used during masking and lubricate weapon in accordance with TM 9-1005-319-10 OCT 1998. If you lube painted surfaces the paint will deteriorate. Wear spots or scratches can be touched up without completely stripping the weapon.

[Toyoland66]

There is a very informative post by Pat Rogers on lightfighter.net on how to paint your AR and what to use. I beleive he recommends a aircraft grade paint but the name slips my mind right now.

Aervoe

[Aiannare]

Thanks everyone! Magpul, that is exactly what i needed, THank You!!

[RGoose]

Most of what MagpulWhore posted is what I do. However, I don't tape up the things like the selector switch, forward assist, mag release, bolt catch. I also remove my optics for applying the base coat of color.

Once prepped (degreased and taped), I'll use an entire can of my base color, applied in thin layers to avoid drips. I'll pick a base color that is the "most prominent" color of the environment I will be in (i.e. FDE or tan for playing in the sandbox). Let that dry completely, then layer other colors in light, random patterns.

There are a few Youtube videos out there that are pretty good at demonstrating how to paint various camo patterns.

[SMC527]

I just use kylon (cause its cheap, and I don't mind if I have to repaint after a while. It takes almost no time)

First, I don't really worry about de-greasing, just taping. I haven't had a paint adhesion problem (so far. Sample size 6 weapons, YMMV)

I follow the "light to dark with a mist of light" pattern, but for the darker colors I take some of whatever vegetation is handy (leaves, twigs with leaves attached, weeds, whatever) and hold them next to the weapon while spraying the swatches of darker colors

[cop1211]

Aervoe

This + sponge technique .

[BCmJUnKie]

The only thing I mask is the optic and Light lens.

I spray right over everything else.

I wipe it off with a rag first.

If Im doing someone elses gun then Ill degrease and mask anything they want. Usually disasemble also

[jonconsiglio]

I wrote something out for someone else recently, let me see if I can find it and I'll post it here for you.

These are my testers before I started on the ARs, SCARs and precision rifles.

Be sure to paint your optics while on the rifle. If you remove them, completely mask off the rail section and mount. If you don't, they will not return to zero like before due to the paint. Also, go very, very light.

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/DSCN0397-1.jpg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/DSCN0405.jpg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/25e6e1fe.jpg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/DSCN0319.jpg

[R0CKETMAN]

Jon

That second pic inspires me to use my Draco as a test subject.

[duece71]

One of my ARs is going to be the guinea piggy for a project like this. After reading about the idea over on Lightfighter.net, it sounds appealing. Especially if it will make my AR dissappear in a ninja style fashion! :ph34r::laugh:
Aervoe looks like it should fit the bill.

[a0cake]

Yeah, you definitely don't need to tape off all the stuff the Army says you do. Just plug the barrel and tape off the optic lenses obviously (also the iron sights). Also don't paint any rail sections where optics or aiming lasers go...basically anything that gets zeroed.

Here's how I paint my rifles for most environments:

Base coat of Krylon Camo - Tan
Krylon Camo Olive Drab through Fishnet.

Ends up looking like this:

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/2011-11-14_17-15-15_355.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/2011-11-14_17-15-37_613.jpg

[jonconsiglio]

Jon

That second pic inspires me to use my Draco as a test subject.

That's why I painted it too. Now, I'm running out of rifles that are cheap or have little use and I'll soon have to start on my ARs and other rifles.


One of my ARs is going to be the guinea piggy for a project like this. After reading about the idea over on Lightfighter.net, it sounds appealing. Especially if it will make my AR dissappear in a ninja style fashion! :ph34r::laugh:
Aervoe looks like it should fit the bill.

Once I talked to AShooter on Lightfighter about painting, I decided to go for it. I posted mine over there a recently. I did it per Pat's way but added my own style to it.

Aervoe is really great stuff. I used some Krylon, but mostly Aervoe.

[jonconsiglio]

Yeah, you definitely don't need to tape off all the stuff the Army says you do. Just plug the barrel and tape off the optic lenses obviously (also the iron sights). Also don't paint any rail sections where optics or aiming lasers go...basically anything that gets zeroed.




That's what I did with all of mine. I taped off the irons and lenses of the optics (practiced on the cheaper optics), plugged the laser on that crummy little Kel-Tec and put a foam ear plugs in the barrels. Definitely make sure no rail section or mounts are painted.

[jonconsiglio]

This pic might show the colors a little better.

These were done with Aervoe sand, Marine Corps Green, Dark Green, OD Green (also dusted with this), Field Drab then Krylon Brown and Tan for the details.

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/f45be0fc.jpg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/DSCN0445.jpg

I also did a 9mm and 22 suppressor with the fishnet/laundry bag pettern, but them I dusted it a bit too much afterward.

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/JJCCMC/9mm-22-Suppressors-02.jpg

[a0cake]

This pic might show the colors a little better.



Overachiever. Joking...looks good.

[jonconsiglio]

Overachiever. Joking...looks good.

It's my cross to bear… ;)

[maddawg5777]

Ive been toying with the idea of painting my rifle for a bit. I really hate the color fill on my spikes lower ( was the only lower in town locally). Im just curious will the color fill still filter through or just add more coats of paint? Main colors will be fde and tan with a light bit of od green for blending. Also anyone have pics of moe handguards that have been painted. Really only seen rails on the pic thread.

[scoutfsu99]

Here is the recommended procedure from the US Army



Holy shit, that is ****ing stupid. Glad we never listened to that. It's not rocket science. If you need to be told not to paint glass or BCG's and what not.....maybe you shouldn't be painting your weapon.

[NC_DAVE]

Be sure to paint your optics while on the rifle. If you remove them, completely mask off the rail section and mount. If you don't, they will not return to zero like before due to the paint. Also, go very, very light.

]

Would not doing this create a big problem? I have painted two other guns and just did my ar last week. It does not have RDS on it yet but I was planning on one in the near future.

[jonconsiglio]

Would not doing this create a big problem? I have painted two other guns and just did my ar last week. It does not have RDS on it yet but I was planning on one in the near future.

Did you paint your rail section? If so, it's no big deal, just wipe it off from that area. The problem isn't so much mounting a new optic, it's the return to zero.

So no, not a big problem, just something to clean up when it's time to install an optic.

[scoutfsu99]

That's never been a problem on any rifle I've painted, both mine and the Army's. I've never even heard of it anecdotally. Where'd you hear that Jon?

[jonconsiglio]

That's never been a problem on any rifle I've painted, both mine and the Army's. I've never even heard of it anecdotally. Where'd you hear that Jon?

Sorry, I should have been a little more clear on that. I've never experienced nor has anyone I know. It was mentioned a few times in the thread on Lightfighter. I don't believe it was Pat's thread, but the "I Blame Stephen..." thread.

I can't see it being a problem with something like a fixed mount. But, I think the concern is more with removing and reinstalling optics on QD mounts, whether a red dot or probably more of a concern, something like an SPR QD mount.

Edit - I'm sure it'll also depend on what type of paint and how heavy you go as well. Maybe it's nothing to be concerned about. I paint them with the optics on anyway, since I don't move then all that much.

[a0cake]

If you've fine tuned tension on a Larue locking lever, just for example, and then paint the rail, you might need to readjust a bit, and it may affect zero...that's all. Also, if you have any slide on accessories such as hand stops etc, which may be tight to begin with, paint will make it more so. This is the only reason I recommend painting with lasers and optics in place and / or not painting where you mount things. It's not really a big deal though.

[jpmuscle]

In reference to my previous post. It isnt 100% flawless but I'm happy with how it turned out. It will be interesting to see how well it holds up being the air cure version. Also for what its worth the color is lighter in the photos than in person.

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j418/John-Ferri/Toys/2012-03-23_17-00-14_257.jpg


http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j418/John-Ferri/Toys/2012-03-23_17-00-34_561.jpg

[dwhitehorne]

Also anyone have pics of moe handguards that have been painted. Really only seen rails on the pic thread.

Here are my two rattle can jobs. I used Rustoleum taupe on the bottom one as a base coat instead of tan. I have moe handguards or rear stocks on all of my AR's

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/dwhitehorne/IMG_4508.jpg