Those of us who are building up copies of the early AR15/M16 types usually want the pieces to have the original color; Sandstrom 9A.  It's fairly expensive, and from what I read on their web site, a bit of a hassle to set up for.

While putting together an Air Force M16 copy, I found myself with a slip ring, lower reciever extension, and trigger guard that were all too dark for the receiver color, and started playing around with commercial market paints to see if I could match them up to the Sandstrom.

What I finally came up with is a mix of two Rustoleum enamels;  #7754 Anodized Bronze, and #V7776, Flat Black.  Both are available, in spray cans, at your local WalMart or Home Depot. The Rustoleum web site shows them available in 1/2 pint cans, but neither of the two sources I have near me carry them in anything but aerosols, so it's spray some into a small container, and mix.

I start w/the Bronze, then add Black until it gets to the shade I want. Since the Bronze is a semi gloss, you'll probably have to add some talcum powder to the mix to get it flat enough not to clash w/your other parts.

On small pieces, I use a Testors model paint brush, and it dries with zero brush marks.  Let it dry at least 24-36 hours, or until the paint smell  is gone when you sniff it, before mounting.

Since I have no experience w/the long term durability of this stuff, I won't recommend that anyone try to do a complete upper or lower w/this mix. I'm considering stripping off the witches brew of other type paint I currently have on my M16A1 profiled Rock River lower, which isn't a really good color match for the milsurp upper, and trying to spray on a coat of the Rustoleum.  If I do, I'll post a report of how it turns out, and how well it wears after use.

In the meantime, I've got a buffer tube, slip ring, and trigger guard for my M16 clone, that matches the Air Force surp upper, and after 20 years of looking at the black delta ring of my XM177E2 clone, it finally matches the color of the Colt recievers

Cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

The slip ring on my Air Force upper was a semi-gloss black. So that's how I left it. The ejection door was a light grey. Left it that way too. I do believe my kit was brand-spanking-new-never-been-fired.

But the charging handle, lower receiver and trigger guard all got coated with Norrell's Moly Resin. The dark gray is a perfect match too.