This was my attempt at doing an ATACS pattern camo job on my Savage 111FCXP3. I think it turned out pretty damn good. This was pretty straight forward sponge job, tan base, 3 color base random stripes, sponged using those base colors then mixed colors to get different shades of green and brown/tan to add depth. I took some progrees pics just in case you all liked it and wanted a basic tutorial, but not going to spend the time to write it up and post the pics if you guys hate it. Let me know what you think



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Thats awesome, and I would love to see a pic tutorial

Very Nice!

Love it! We need the tutorial!

Alright then!!! Pictoial/tutorial inbound

Nicey done!!!

Great job

Thats purdy!





Good job.

Yup

Very cool, want to see the tutorial.

+1

I am thinking about painting my AR with the A-TACS pattern and would love to see a step by step tutorial.

First off would like to thank jrn156 for his sponge camo tutorial as this was the inspiration I needed to attempt an A-TACS pattern.

Supplies needed:

Rust-oleum Specialty Camo paint in three colors. Tan, dark green, dark brown (Home Depot)
1 large sea sponge (Home Depot)
Couple pieces of cardboard to use as a palate
A picture of A-TACS to use as a reference



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Started out by first taking the rifle apart and washing the stock in the tub with hot soapy water. I used Dawn dish soap. Works well to break down any oil present on the stock.



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After drying with a towel I finished the drying using my wife’s hair dryer. Works good if you don’t have compressed air available.

I then shot the entire stock with the lightest color I had, the tan. Took several coats to get it covered and then let it dry overnight.



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I then shot it with the other 2 colors. I randomly painted some what of a traditional camo pattern. I did this while the stock was hanging. I then let this dry for ~30minutes.



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At this point you are going to want to cut some pieces off of the sea sponge. I cut about 10 1”x1” chunks for better control.

Grab your tan color and your cardboard palate and spray a good amount of paint on it. You don’t have to work too quickly but the paint dries pretty fast.

Dab your sponge in the paint and then “dry” the sponge off a bit by dabbing it on the cardboard. You are now ready to lay some paint.

Start by gently dabbing the sponge on the space in between the different colors. You are kind of “outlining” each color. Randomness it key hear so don’t make it look like you are purposfuly “outlining” by making it too thick. Just nice light dabbing. Let that dry for 10-15 minutes.

Then set that sponger aside and get a fresh palate and spray some dark brown on it. Dab the sponge in the color and then dry it off using the above technique. Then lay down some dark brown back over the highlighted edges around the dark brown you painted. This softens the edges and blends them together.  Let dry for 10-15minutes. You will repeat this with the dark green.



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Then start mixing colors. I did a light green, mixing the tan with the green, and a light brown, mixing the tan and brown. The start dabbing and blending. I did a couple different variations of light green and light browns. Make sure that the edges of your dark brown areas aren’t  to defined. This will make it look weird. If you screw up, who cares, put some light tan over it and blend again!!!! Good luck and hope this helps




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Awesome tutorial!! Just what I needed to get started. Thanks!

Very nice! Good clear instructions and I never thought of mixing the paints and doing additional sponging, good thinking! it's like 9 colors for the price of 3.

nice tutorial, thanks for taking the time to post it

Anyone have any experience with the durability of this label of Rust-oleum over the other brands of paint typically used by ARFcommers for this purpose?

I have been seeing a few of the Army surplus places offering a flat ALKLD enamel spray paint that is supposed to be salt spray, impact, and and corrosion resistant lately...of course .mil-spec

There is also the option of using Krylon in case you hate it and want to strip it off later...

good job!

Great job again and thanks for the tutorial!

Thanks for the tutorial and getting me started on a new project

TAG. I have a 10/22 stock I have been talkin about doing.

Destined to be copied many times!

THANKS


 

Cool - I'd like to see how well it blends in the woods?

In my AO pretty good. Unfortunately I am not going to use this stock so the barreled receiver isn't in it anymore. I will put the stock in the bushes and take some pics. Iam going with a Bell & Carlson Duramaxx. I ordered a black one, so I will be doing this same camo scheme with this stock and with learning from my first go 'round and make it even better this time. Might be throwing this stock on the EE.

Very cool I have found the camo I'm going to use on my next project.

Excellent work OP. Truely impressive.

R/

Trying to do my knife sheath. sure as hell ain't coming out like I want it to...

I think I can't get the right amount of paint on the sponge. either too much, or too little =/

I reset and put a layer of khaki. gonna try again now. one side came out real nice