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Quoted: I mentioned in the OP that one of the advantages of this kind of paint pattern is when you upgrade your rifle parts or accessories. My LaRue UU 6.5 has been an amazingly accurate rifle, but the RAT stock just wasn't giving me the cheek rest I want on a long range rifle. I want sure I wanted to go with the UBR like my .308,(super solid, but spendy, and heavyish)and decided the ACS is right for this gun. ACS was black. Didn't tape anything off today, just wiped down the stock and area around it. It took longer to get the materials out than it took to paint the new stock. Paint was done in about 15min. Now it looks like it was in it when I originally painted the rifle. https://i.imgur.com/jONV1GL.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ZMFDlod.jpg View Quote Looks great!! I need to sack up and try this, but imma scared..... |
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To me, that is the toughest part, finding the correct colors for your particular area. The second is, it might look like crap in your garage, but awesome in the field.
I equate it to looking at an oil painting. Getting close, and seeing how the paint textures and colors look vs standing back and seeing how those look completely different in the total work. Not sure if that makes sense. |
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Quoted: Update: Success on the hunt. This is my old hunting rifle, Remington 700 SS in .338win mag. Updated with camo and a new/old scope. Looks good on the side of the hill. https://i.imgur.com/EA6LHbV.jpg Almost dissappears ...... https://i.imgur.com/pE9bfrG.jpg View Quote Nice bull and nice paint job! |
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Quoted: To me, that is the toughest part, finding the correct colors for your particular area. The second is, it might look like crap in your garage, but awesome in the field. I equate it to looking at an oil painting. Getting close, and seeing how the paint textures and colors look vs standing back and seeing how those look completely different in the total work. Not sure if that makes sense. View Quote This is a good description. I try to get students to look at their work in a blank stare. Don't focus on any one part just look through it. See what stands out too much, or not enough. Make corrections from there. Stand back from it 10feet. Things look different than when you are 6 inches away and focusing on a single color or spot. I get back from my guns several times during the painting process. Look at them from a distance. Go from there. |
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Is there a rule of thumb on number of colors? 3 colors vs. 4 colors is my usual decision?
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Quoted: I like 4 Values, although two of my usual are about the same lightness/darkness. If you don't include black as a color, then yes, three colors and black. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Is there a rule of thumb on number of colors? 3 colors vs. 4 colors is my usual decision? I like 4 Values, although two of my usual are about the same lightness/darkness. If you don't include black as a color, then yes, three colors and black. Can you explain ( or point me to a link) to explain the difference? I never had the opportunity for art education so I’m way behind the curve (too many math classes) |
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Quoted: Can you explain ( or point me to a link) to explain the difference? I never had the opportunity for art education so I’m way behind the curve (too many math classes) View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Is there a rule of thumb on number of colors? 3 colors vs. 4 colors is my usual decision? I like 4 Values, although two of my usual are about the same lightness/darkness. If you don't include black as a color, then yes, three colors and black. Can you explain ( or point me to a link) to explain the difference? I never had the opportunity for art education so I’m way behind the curve (too many math classes) Ok, think of VALUES as light and darks We want a very light value color, a medium light color, a med dark value, and a dark or black value. Colors are hues. Your hues or colors could all be on the green side of the color wheel, but one might be a light green, one an olive green, one a more dark green, and finally we might use a black. Most of my colors I've chosen are in the brown, or tan family of colors. I've substituted a med value, olive green, from time to time, taking out the Coyote or Earth Brown color. When my student wanted to do a snow camo, he chose colors/hues mostly on the blue side of the color wheel. I am have to go check again. He picked white as his light value, light blue, med blue/gray, and black. His dark value could have been a dark blue or dark blue/gray, and worked pretty well too. We also don't want our hues/colors to be too intense. Intensity is how bright the colors are, or how saturated they are. Super bright high intensity colors won't work real well for our camo purpose. Think more neutral/pastel type colors. Instead of a bright turquoise blue hue, we want more of a grayishblue. Then we have to get the value, or darkness of that hue we want. Make sense? Look at my painting in my avatar.....super high intensity colors, but still lots of value contrast(darks and lights)that make the bison look 3D. Value contrast, or differences in lights and darks, help to break up our weapons outline and make the camouflage more effective. The hues/colors make it blend into the surrounding environment. Snow, desert, jungle......alpine. |
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Quoted: Ok, think of VALUES as light and darks We want a very light value color, a medium light color, a med dark value, and a dark or black value. Colors are hues. Your hues or colors could all be on the green side of the color wheel, but one might be a light green, one an olive green, one a more dark green, and finally we might use a black. Most of my colors I've chosen are in the brown, or tan family of colors. I've substituted a med value, olive green, from time to time, taking out the Coyote or Earth Brown color. When my student wanted to do a snow camo, he chose colors/hues mostly on the blue side of the color wheel. I am have to go check again. He picked white as his light value, light blue, med blue/gray, and black. His dark value could have been a dark blue or dark blue/gray, and worked pretty well too. We also don't want our hues/colors to be too intense. Intensity is how bright the colors are, or how saturated they are. Super bright high intensity colors won't work real well for our camo purpose. Think more neutral/pastel type colors. Instead of a bright turquoise blue hue, we want more of a grayishblue. Then we have to get the value, or darkness of that hue we want. Make sense? Look at my painting in my avatar.....super high intensity colors, but still lots of value contrast(darks and lights)that make the bison look 3D. Value contrast, or differences in lights and darks, help to break up our weapons outline and make the camouflage more effective. The hues/colors make it blend into the surrounding environment. Snow, desert, jungle......alpine. View Quote Well explained sir! Not that I was the one who asked but thank you. |
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@guns762
Have you ever painted an ammo can? I picked up an old fat 50 and the paint is kinda rough. I have all the Alumahyde paint and also have all of the krylon paints to do the sponge painting. Since the can is going to be a safe queen do you think I would be okay with the krylon? Any tips on prepping the surface? It's currently worn out green. Thanks man. |
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Quoted: @guns762 Have you ever painted an ammo can? I picked up an old fat 50 and the paint is kinda rough. I have all the Alumahyde paint and also have all of the krylon paints to do the sponge painting. Since the can is going to be a safe queen do you think I would be okay with the krylon? Any tips on prepping the surface? It's currently worn out green. Thanks man. View Quote Nope, but prep work should work the same. Wipe with alcohol to clean it, then paint. The krylon will be fine, but if you are stacking them together, my guess is the krylon will get worn off over time where it contacts other ammo cans. That probably wouldn't be that noticeable if it already has a base coat OD green. The Krylon would probably be fine. Like I said, that's what is on my Arsenal AK. It's gotten almost all of my shooting time lately, as I have a decent supply of ammo for it, and don't mind shooting it all up. Haven't seen much wear of the paint yet. I've got some smaller black painted cans, I may have to play with now. Paint yours up and post the results! I'd like to see it! |
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Quoted: Well explained sir! Not that I was the one who asked but thank you. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Ok, think of VALUES as light and darks We want a very light value color, a medium light color, a med dark value, and a dark or black value. Colors are hues. Your hues or colors could all be on the green side of the color wheel, but one might be a light green, one an olive green, one a more dark green, and finally we might use a black. Most of my colors I've chosen are in the brown, or tan family of colors. I've substituted a med value, olive green, from time to time, taking out the Coyote or Earth Brown color. When my student wanted to do a snow camo, he chose colors/hues mostly on the blue side of the color wheel. I am have to go check again. He picked white as his light value, light blue, med blue/gray, and black. His dark value could have been a dark blue or dark blue/gray, and worked pretty well too. We also don't want our hues/colors to be too intense. Intensity is how bright the colors are, or how saturated they are. Super bright high intensity colors won't work real well for our camo purpose. Think more neutral/pastel type colors. Instead of a bright turquoise blue hue, we want more of a grayishblue. Then we have to get the value, or darkness of that hue we want. Make sense? Look at my painting in my avatar.....super high intensity colors, but still lots of value contrast(darks and lights)that make the bison look 3D. Value contrast, or differences in lights and darks, help to break up our weapons outline and make the camouflage more effective. The hues/colors make it blend into the surrounding environment. Snow, desert, jungle......alpine. Well explained sir! Not that I was the one who asked but thank you. Thanks, Now get out your duck references and your pencils and let's get the sketch of your ducks drawn, remember fill the composition with your duck, no shading with the pencil, drawn the outline shapes of the water reflections, but no horizon line......... Damn, sorry..........that's what we do after the normal color theory lesson. And in our color theory conundrum. ......where is brown on the color wheel? Answer.......it's usually a dark yellow or dark orange in its high intensity hue. |
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I am considering a camo job on my M1A. But I am colorblind. Any suggestions for figuring out the colors? My wife has an art degree, but I refuse to bring her in on it. She spent most of our early years together asking me “ What does this look like to you?”
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Quoted: I am considering a camo job on my M1A. But I am colorblind. Any suggestions for figuring out the colors? My wife has an art degree, but I refuse to bring her in on it. She spent most of our early years together asking me “ What does this look like to you?” View Quote My favorites are posted in the OP. Substituting OD green for the Earth brown, would be an option for those in slightly less arid environments. It seems to work pretty well everywhere I play around in. Lots of good ideas/color combos from those in different regions here. I've found the set I use, works in the Rocky Mountains, as well as our high deserts pretty well. Choose a set that fits your local. |
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Surprisingly, (or not) everything is out of stock. I will have to start driving around to all off the small shops in nearby towns. If anyone is on the fence about getting started on this, better make up your mind.
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Weather is warming up so it's going to be sponge painting season soon.
Now I'm looking around for some natural sponges at a reasonable price. |
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I've got a student doing a pair of binoculars right now. He's got a rifle stock he's going to bring in next week. Binocs look good.
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Masterful work, 7.62. When it comes to time to touch up a couple of my ARs, I'm going to do this. My XCR already has something similar going on.
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@guns762 I have a question on nozzles and Alumahyde. I'm having a real issue keeping my nozzles working properly. I was just giving an AK mag a basecoat of Alumahyde FDE, and despite manually clearing the nozzle I still ended up with more of a splattery spray than a mist.
Should I soak in some sort of solvent? Buy new nozzles? |
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Quoted: @guns762 I have a question on nozzles and Alumahyde. I'm having a real issue keeping my nozzles working properly. I was just giving an AK mag a basecoat of Alumahyde FDE, and despite manually clearing the nozzle I still ended up with more of a splattery spray than a mist. Should I soak in some sort of solvent? Buy new nozzles? View Quote I usually take the nozzles off after I spray and blow carb cleaner through them and then air from the air compressor. That seems to keep them like new. I have bought a pack of new nozzles but I haven't needed any yet. Brake cleaner is known to remove dried alumahyde so I would try blowing some of that through the nozzle a couple times and then blow out with air. |
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Quoted: I usually take the nozzles off after I spray and blow carb cleaner through them and then air from the air compressor. That seems to keep them like new. I have bought a pack of new nozzles but I haven't needed any yet. Brake cleaner is known to remove dried alumahyde so I would try blowing some of that through the nozzle a couple times and then blow out with air. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: @guns762 I have a question on nozzles and Alumahyde. I'm having a real issue keeping my nozzles working properly. I was just giving an AK mag a basecoat of Alumahyde FDE, and despite manually clearing the nozzle I still ended up with more of a splattery spray than a mist. Should I soak in some sort of solvent? Buy new nozzles? I usually take the nozzles off after I spray and blow carb cleaner through them and then air from the air compressor. That seems to keep them like new. I have bought a pack of new nozzles but I haven't needed any yet. Brake cleaner is known to remove dried alumahyde so I would try blowing some of that through the nozzle a couple times and then blow out with air. This seems like good practice to me. I found that often, it isn't the nozzles so much, as it is the paint not being shaken up enough. Paint dries down in the straw a bit, and I think it gets chunky. I often clear out a bit of paint after shaking the cans up really well. This allows fresh paint to get to the top and often makes for a better, less splattery pattern. I will test fire paints into a trash can to make sure paint is coming out smooth and not spitting. New nozzles sometimes is the answer. |
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Quoted: This seems like good practice to me. I found that often, it isn't the nozzles so much, as it is the paint not being shaken up enough. Paint dries down in the straw a bit, and I think it gets chunky. I often clear out a bit of paint after shaking the cans up really well. This allows fresh paint to get to the top and often makes for a better, less splattery pattern. I will test fire paints into a trash can to make sure paint is coming out smooth and not spitting. New nozzles sometimes is the answer. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: @guns762 I have a question on nozzles and Alumahyde. I'm having a real issue keeping my nozzles working properly. I was just giving an AK mag a basecoat of Alumahyde FDE, and despite manually clearing the nozzle I still ended up with more of a splattery spray than a mist. Should I soak in some sort of solvent? Buy new nozzles? I usually take the nozzles off after I spray and blow carb cleaner through them and then air from the air compressor. That seems to keep them like new. I have bought a pack of new nozzles but I haven't needed any yet. Brake cleaner is known to remove dried alumahyde so I would try blowing some of that through the nozzle a couple times and then blow out with air. This seems like good practice to me. I found that often, it isn't the nozzles so much, as it is the paint not being shaken up enough. Paint dries down in the straw a bit, and I think it gets chunky. I often clear out a bit of paint after shaking the cans up really well. This allows fresh paint to get to the top and often makes for a better, less splattery pattern. I will test fire paints into a trash can to make sure paint is coming out smooth and not spitting. New nozzles sometimes is the answer. Thanks gents! A little application of solvent fixed the nozzle! Now I have a normal spray instead of a splatter |
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The carb cleaner blow out works, as does the dedicated blow-out nozzles that brownells sells for clearing out the tube. Will say had bad results with can of earth brown, it was damn gritty and no amount of shaking would help, felt like 400 grit sandpaper when cured. So I let it cure, then hit it lightly with some w/d sand paper which helped but was still disappointing.
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You got an epic from me op. Fantastic thread. Thanks for taking the time.
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Great thread. Valuable information post after post. Thanks OP for all the detail!
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Quoted: Had this rifle out in the wild this past week. The coyotes didn't want to play. Had one slight oopsie......rifle came off my front pack, and I ran over it with my 600 lb 4wheeler carrying myself and 100 lb GSD. I wanted to cry. It was in a soft case. I did check zero and it was only off by 1moa right. Anyway..... camo style blends in well in couple different areas. https://i.imgur.com/wmFGqRd.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Kb3PjwR.jpg https://i.imgur.com/I6bNZHp.jpg https://i.imgur.com/iUXqjNr.jpg View Quote Beautiful as always. Glad the rifle was ok! |
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Just came across this thread. WOW! Gonna need to do some painting now.
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Great thread, great thread!!!! So how does this particular paint setup? Is it sticky or rough or smooth or a combination of sticky and smooth, etc.? I cannot stand the feel of certain spray paints with that grittiness.
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Quoted: Great thread, great thread!!!! So how does this particular paint setup? Is it sticky or rough or smooth or a combination of sticky and smooth, etc.? I cannot stand the feel of certain spray paints with that grittiness. View Quote Paint sets up pretty smooth. It will take a bit of time to cure. I tell people give it two weeks for full hardness, but you can often handle it a few hours after spraying it. I have had it come our rough using old cans of paint that weren't mixed well, and little left in the can. |
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Attached File
Hanging to dry so I rotated the image, I couldn't bring myself to paint the optic yet. I'm real happy with it. Thanks @guns762 for the inspiration and techniques! |
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Quoted: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/429493/20211117_140406_jpg-2171755.JPGHanging to dry so I rotated the image, I couldn't bring myself to paint the optic yet. I'm real happy with it. Thanks @guns762 for the inspiration and techniques! View Quote Excellent work! You have just the right balance of sponge marks and soft transitions from the spray nozzles. Seriously, great work! Now, GO PAINT THE DAMN OPTIC!!!! |
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Awesome thread! I haven't ever tried painting a rifle, but I can see it in my future.
What would you recommend to remove paint from optics, plastic, etc. if I try this and want to get rid of it? I would assume it's fairly easy to remove from steel and aluminum without damaging the original anodizing or nitride, but getting off of optics or plastic without damaging them seems like it might be a bit more difficult. |
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Quoted: Awesome thread! I haven't ever tried painting a rifle, but I can see it in my future. What would you recommend to remove paint from optics, plastic, etc. if I try this and want to get rid of it? I would assume it's fairly easy to remove from steel and aluminum without damaging the original anodizing or nitride, but getting off of optics or plastic without damaging them seems like it might be a bit more difficult. View Quote Alumahide isn't coming off easily. At least, I don't know of what would take it off. Krylon will come off with acetone. Alumahide is heat and chemical resistant. Maybe someone else has experience taking it off? I just paint over it. |
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Quoted: Alumahide isn't coming off easily. At least, I don't know of what would take it off. Krylon will come off with acetone. Alumahide is heat and chemical resistant. Maybe someone else has experience taking it off? I just paint over it. View Quote Thanks for the info. I'll probably start by practicing on something cheap like spare stocks, grips etc. before I attack a full gun or optics. I'm a pretty decent painter, but I won't claim to be artistic. |
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Quoted: Alumahide isn't coming off easily. At least, I don't know of what would take it off. Krylon will come off with acetone. Alumahide is heat and chemical resistant. Maybe someone else has experience taking it off? I just paint over it. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Awesome thread! I haven't ever tried painting a rifle, but I can see it in my future. What would you recommend to remove paint from optics, plastic, etc. if I try this and want to get rid of it? I would assume it's fairly easy to remove from steel and aluminum without damaging the original anodizing or nitride, but getting off of optics or plastic without damaging them seems like it might be a bit more difficult. Alumahide isn't coming off easily. At least, I don't know of what would take it off. Krylon will come off with acetone. Alumahide is heat and chemical resistant. Maybe someone else has experience taking it off? I just paint over it. Citri Strip and a lot of patience has got Aluma Hyde off for me, but I would just paint over it if it as adhering that well. |
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Awesome tutorial! Can't wait to give it a try, waiting for Brownells to get some paint back in stock...
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Quoted: Awesome thread! I haven't ever tried painting a rifle, but I can see it in my future. What would you recommend to remove paint from optics, plastic, etc. if I try this and want to get rid of it? I would assume it's fairly easy to remove from steel and aluminum without damaging the original anodizing or nitride, but getting off of optics or plastic without damaging them seems like it might be a bit more difficult. View Quote Frankly, if you use Alumahyde then I would recommend make sure you are okay with it before you do it. Aluma Hyde is very difficult to remove from any surface. Practice on stuff that isn’t your rifle or optic first. |
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