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Posted: 6/4/2026 3:14:51 PM EDT
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Hello There! BLUF: I tried searching, but didn't find much info. I am looking to see if anyone has any experience dyeing the old MagPul Sand colored PMags (the off white ones) to a color close to HK's RAL8000? HK's polymer mags in RAL8K are currently very hard to find in the States (not to mention expensive), so I've started looking elsewhere for my HK baby poop yellow fix. I recently picked up some old MagPul 40rd Mags in the off-white "sand" color that were intended to be painted or dyed. I have some Rapco RAL8K paint I could use, but since these mags were intended to be dyed, I figured that would be a good place to start. So, just so everybody understands, I am looking to dye the two white mags to be as close as possible to the mag in the center:  Google gives me these two formulas, depending on which it feels like when I search: "2 caps Sunshine Orange, 2 caps Lemon Yellow, and 1 cap Wine or Dark Brown in hot water." Or this formula: " 1 Part Dark Brown, 1 Part Golden Yellow, and small amounts of Dark Green or Apple Green" These colors seem to be the best options from Rit Dye's own color formula chart. Mustard Seed Dandelion Jelly Anybody have a suggestion before I start trying formulas willy nilly? I'm also cross posting this on the HK Pro boards. Hopefully someone can help. |
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I went the paint route when I wanted ral8000 to match my stock and grip. Did front grip mlok covers and scope. Here 
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Originally Posted By d16man: I went the paint route when I wanted ral8000 to match my stock and grip. Did front grip mlok covers and scope. Here https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/337946/1000013528-3709863.jpg Nice rifle. I have some of the Rapco paint already. Used it a few times and it is great, but paint tends to wear, while dyeing these mags should last a bit longer. Worse comes to worse, I can always paint them down the line. |
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I was curious and fed the picture and task to Claude for the hell of it. I’ve got some spray RAL8000 that I like but it wears extremely quickly. Anyway, Claude had some interesting thoughts. A few important observations from the photo: The target color (center HK mag) reads as a warm, medium golden-tan — it actually looks a touch warmer/more orange-gold than a strict RAL 8000, which is interesting. It may be closer to RAL 1001 Beige or RAL 8001 Ochre Brown in practice, or simply HK’s own color spec which approximates RAL 8000 but varies by batch. The substrate matters a lot here. Magpul’s sand mags were made from polymer, and Rit makes a specific product line for this — Rit DyeMore for Synthetics, which is formulated for polyester and nylon-based plastics. Standard Rit All-Purpose won’t bond well to polymer. Suggested DyeMore starting formula: DyeMore Sandstone - 3 parts DyeMore Golden Yellow - 1 part DyeMore Tan - 1 part DyeMore Dark Brown - just a few drops Key tips for dyeing polymer mags: •Use the stovetop simmering method — heat is essential for DyeMore to bond to synthetic polymers •Keep temperature around 180–190°F; boiling can warp the mags •Time in the bath affects depth — start checking at 20 minutes •The sand base color will shift the result lighter than dyeing something white, which actually works in your favor here •Do a test with one mag or an inconspicuous area first The sand starting point is genuinely ideal for this — you’re essentially just warming and deepening an already-close color rather than doing a full color transformation. |
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First few attempts have been less than successful. Dandelion Jelly results in a very mustard color of yellow. Tried adding brown, but that didn't seem to help much. Tried another formula, Honey Gold Jam, and then added some brown and got a yellowish variation of FDE. I'm running out of things to try and dye as test objects. 🤷♂️ Might try one of the formulas that Google suggested. |
DEUS VULT
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Originally Posted By Alpha-17: "2 caps Sunshine Orange, 2 caps Lemon Yellow, and 1 cap Wine or Dark Brown in hot water." I tried this formula. First attempt, mixed in 1 Quart of water, and tested on one of the magazine's base plates, resulted in a color that was slightly off from my HK mag, but actually a very close match to the butt pad on the RAL8K slim line stock that came with my A4. When I tried scaling this formula up for both magazines (basically, multiplied everything by 4), I got a much darker color than RAL8K. Can't get a picture that captures the color correctly, but it is essentially a shade between Coyote Brown and AK mag Bakelite orange. 🤷♂️ Oh well, colored the mags I have. Not the color I wanted, but I can live with it. I'll have to track down some more sand mags and try again. |
DEUS VULT
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I did some experimenting on this very color. Posted about it in Refinishing: https://www.ar15.com/forums/Armory/RAL-8000-Rit-dye-testing/19-562898/ I think you need the Rit Dye for Synthetics for it to work best. |
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Interesting thread to read. Made me think about this a bit. I'm guessing the different AI responses are due to a couple factors, including: 1) The lenses and sensor devices in different cameras don't necessarily view the same scenes identically. The above picture, as I downloaded it, has no meta data indicating the camera. Different AI's may make different decisions when analyzing the color of the photo due to this, and come to slightly different conclusions on the starting color and ending color you need. 2) Lighting in pictures changes the color of the scene. Different AIs may come to slightly different conclusions on the lighting intensity, temperature, and angle and therefore the "true" color of the objects. More importantly, the AI is estimating the color and the dying process results, knowing that camera and lighting can make a difference. 3) There's more than one way to get from one color to another when you have so many dye selections. Even if all the above were the same, different training in different AI models should result in different suggestions on mixing colors. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same AI spit out several different recipes for the same thing. 4) Some AIs may be taking into account the ease of the process (fewer colors, simpler, easier to follow instructions vs. more refined measurements and ratios), and give different recipes as a result. 5) Different AIs have different training and interpretation of the data they were fed. A slight change in one AI's knowledge base/training could vastly vary the results considering that there were already many dyes to mix to approximate the color. |
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