This is my gray colored AR.  I coated it with KG gunkote KG.  Those people at KG are top notch.  I had some "Flat Gray" which was more of a parkerized black color.  I called them up and after talking with them to explain the color I wanted, they sent me some white pigment at no charge.  This was great for me, as the coating material uses MEK as a solvent which requires it to me mailed as a hazardous material and would have taken a month or $80 to ship.  Great service at KG.  They also have some whacky colors like metalic purple, gold, even a gunblued color.  I was tempted to make it look like a Battlestar Galactica silon rifle all cromed with gold accents...but no.

I mixed the gray and the white together to get the current light gray color.  As I was doing it myself, I also painted all the moving parts (charging handle, mag release, forward assist, etc...) black.  This way, along with my black furniture, I get a gray rifle with black-black parts.  I was going to go crazy and do a digital scheme, but decided against it.  I had actually made stencils where I took photocopies of MARPAT camo and just cut out the pieces on paper.  I was planning to just use water sprayed on the back of the paper to get it to "stick" and conform to the curves of the rifle so that I wouldn't mar the un-cured layers of kote that I had put down.  It actually works quite well and I did my knife with that method.

I first disassembled my AR to it's stripped parts.  I have an armorer friend who assisted me on this process as I didn't have the all the tools necessary nor the experience, and I was unwilling to experiment on disassembly (I did that to a VCR once...once).  It was actually much easier than I thought and it only took a few minutes to tap all the pins and remove everything.  He also helped me remove my pinned mini Y-comp, and subsequnet re-pining and welding the Phantom on.

For painting, I just used my airbrush and just went at it.  I used low pressure (around 12 psi) and a medium aperature setting.  Just enough to get a smooth spray.  I first painted all the parts I wanted black-black; and yes I even colored the ARMS 40 and bolt carrrier...no guts no glory.  Then I hung them on wires to hang from the top rack of my wife's convection oven (needless to say I did this while she was not at home).  Set it to 300*F and for the next hour, painted the gray parts.  I had a YHM LW FF tube and that thing with all those nooks and cranies took almost 1/2 an hour to coat.  Everything else was pretty quick.  I wanted to paint in an F and an S on the right side, but didn't have any stencils handy.  But I did put a notch in the safety to mark it.  Maybe I could have gone to an engraver to etch in the letters (a strippe dlower isn't as intimidating as the whole thing).  Out came the black parts, then in went the gray parts.  A total of 3 hours later I had it all done, and even made it back to work for 1/2 a day.


My build consists of:
Olympic lower, Bushmaster Upper, ARMS 40 from the Kaneohe Gun Shop
Magpul fore end grips and magpuls from Bowers Tactical
Eotech and Stubby ARFX Ace stock from e-bay (before they went kommie)
Yankee hill light weight FF tube, and Phantom 2C from Brightflashlights
PRI flip front sight from RB precisison
Coating from KG gunkote




I really like the ring in ring sight picture I get with the PRI flip front sight.  Coupled with the eotech I just line up the rings to cowitness.

The pictures were taken outside on a bright cloudy day, with a cheapo digital camera.  I elevated my AR off the floor with a can of Balistol.  Added some mango leaves from the yard to break up the back ground.  It sure beats the gun on the floor at nigt with heavy flash (like in my before picture).

Here's the before picture:

I like the gray.  Good job.  Nice contrast in colors.

I like it!  looks like a lot of hard work payed off for you.  I have some gunkoting experience myself and I wasnt too fond of having to strip all those parts down and try and fit them in my oven, so I can appreciate your effort.  

Looks swell
Real nice!

Spiffy!  You deserve a cookie!  Seriously, you did a good job and it looks fantastic.  Very impressive.

Nice!  Kinda has an HK look to it to me.  Ala SL8

I did the same thing with mine by mixing grey and white gunkote 2400....mine is not as light as yours..but came out great.

Quoted: I did the same thing with mine by mixing grey and white gunkote 2400....mine is not as light as yours..but came out great. www.planetblade.com/arins/ARFGUNLong.jpg

Your AR was my inspiration...

REALLY?!?!

wow! that is SO cool...im honored!!

allow me to show you MY inspiration...from bravocompany's site....after seeing this pic,
i new i wanted a grey AR, but i didnt want it that light grey.

that does look very nice...did you paint the inside of the upper/lower receivers as well ?

i painted the inside of mine.  as well as i could.

it looks like his grip has a piece of rubber innertube around it for tack...

and yes, i noticed the pic on your site!!  thanks for all the great parts and prices that helped me build it!!

by the way..where did u buy ur KG gunkote from ?
thanks

KG's site

BooYaa

that looks great!  i would have left the bolt carrier black.  it looks like something HK would put out (usc, sl8).

I was going to paint my bolt carrier black-black as well, but I had already put it away.  Besides if I did, I would see black if the bolt was open and black if it was closed as well.  I was actally thinking of making it OD.  I didnt' paint the interior of my rifle as I didnt' think it was necessary.  Though I didn't do anything to mask the interior either.  For the barrel I put a tooth pick in the gas tube port and masked the threads so that I wouldn't get any in the barrel or threads.

My grip does have an bicycle inner tube around it for tack.  In the rain, wearing sunscreen, and bug juice, it just stick to my hand.  If it wears out I just cut another piece.  The cost is about right too...free at the bike shops.

I think I also should have taken a file to the tirigger guard to round of the edges a bit, but I didn't think of that until I was already baking.

Now that I look at it some more, maybe I should have put some random black squares in the open spaces of all gray....nahhh...

While talking with the people at KG, they mentioned that their website needs to be updated (they're working on it).  So just call their 1-800 number and just ask for what you want.

what is the closest to socom flat black in the KG guncote 2400 series ?
is that 2401F Flat black ? gonna order 1 qt :)

Quoted: what is the closest to socom flat black in the KG guncote 2400 series ? is that 2401F Flat black ? gonna order 1 qt :)

Just give them a call and ask them.  Their 1-800 number is on the site.  I onlyused about 1/3 of a pint to paint my AR gray.  Their Flat Black color is super flat and black.

That looks awesome.

Killer!!! If there was a thumbs up animation, I'd give ya two!

Excellent!!  

Here's a pic in straight profile. On the floor instead of elevated for a generic overview:

Nice work, looks all-pro. Great contrast....just very original looking....and that's not easy around here!

OMG! that looks cool as hell! Let me know when you are going to do that again so I can get some parts over to you.

Mmmmm I bet your wife would love to see that picture of the gun parts in her oven.

You should have borrowed one of my mags for that picture though.

Quoted: OMG! that looks cool as hell! Let me know when you are going to do that again so I can get some parts over to you. Mmmmm I bet your wife would love to see that picture of the gun parts in her oven. You should have borrowed one of my mags for that picture though.

Well Scott I'll be glad to kote some parts for you, no problem.  You can even bake it yourself...

I hope to go to the range soon, as I need to re-zero my sights after it being stripped and all.  I'll give you a call.

Quoted: Quoted: OMG! that looks cool as hell! Let me know when you are going to do that again so I can get some parts over to you. Mmmmm I bet your wife would love to see that picture of the gun parts in her oven. You should have borrowed one of my mags for that picture though. Well Scott I'll be glad to kote some parts for you, no problem.  You can even bake it yourself... I hope to go to the range soon, as I need to re-zero my sights after it being stripped and all.  I'll give you a call.

Let me know when you go. By the way you should put a big red "HK" on there. It would complete the look of your SL8 AR . Nah on second though let's just stencil a punisher skull on there instead.

Good looking weapon.  It may just be because I'm partial to the color gray in general, but that rifle gives any camo guns I've seen a run for their money.  I think a gray/black digital camo pattern would look good on one.

Quoted: Good looking weapon.  It may just be because I'm partial to the color gray in general, but that rifle gives any camo guns I've seen a run for their money.  I think a gray/black digital camo pattern would look good on one.

Dura cote sells digital stencils that are precut for rifles.  Bravo Company has some neat examples [clik]  But personally I think all the fancy paterns just turn into a gray and black blob beyond 25 feet.  So I stuck with the straight gray with black furniture and workings.

Its not a color combination I would have chosen, but it looks very nice.  You did an excellent job on it and it is very attractive.  More space-age than current GI combat.  Well done.

that is NICE!

it looks whitish in the oven

Those guns look great.

How durable is a finish job like that supposed to be?  Tough as nails or will it flake, chip etc?  Looks awesome by the way..

SamColt

One of the best "non-black" AR's I've seen.  Bravo!

Looks good.

awesome!

I love it.

Great job, Dragonfly!

Quoted: How durable is a finish job like that supposed to be?  Tough as nails or will it flake, chip etc?  Looks awesome by the way.. SamColt

Sam, expect to deploy a sandblaster to get cured Gunkote off of metal.

Its a pretty tough finish.

Quoted: Quoted: How durable is a finish job like that supposed to be?  Tough as nails or will it flake, chip etc?  Looks awesome by the way.. SamColt Sam, expect to deploy a sandblaster to get cured Gunkote off of metal. Its a pretty tough finish.

I have a friend with the KG kote on a pistol that sees a lot of use and has been in and out of a bladetech kydex holster.  I has yet to show any wear on it.  the spots that rub against the holster a bit shiny, but it's still intact.

+1 on the one of the best non-black AR i've ever seen!   I like your color choices and think your bolt carrier looks better matched to the receiver color!

GJ!

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Eagles may fly, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines!

Quoted: How durable is a finish job like that supposed to be?  Tough as nails or will it flake, chip etc?  Looks awesome by the way.. SamColt

I've got a few KG'd Fal's and I'm a klutz so Im constantly knocking them into stuff/banging them together.  Ive only seen some wear on the metal-on-metal contact areas, like the selector, and the inside of the rec. where the bolt rides.

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