gunrunner32

Well for a tutorial, I didn't take any during pictures. For the pattern itself, it was created by using a couple images I found on the internet. The "veining" was found by searching for an irregular pattern, I can't find the original image again, but there are several that would work. Next for the splotches I dumbed down the ATACS pattern to 5 colors in a program called VectorMagic. I measured the parts for the veining to be coated and cut the vinyl to wrap the pieces. The splotches were just cut out of full sheets of vinyl to make sure I had enough pattern for coverage.   With the vinyl cut, I did a base of Magpul FDE faded with Desert Sand, then overlayed the veining with transfer tape as well as taping off the rails to keep them a single layer fade.. Next layer was Patriot Brown faded with Coyote Tan, I wanted a good contrast between the colors of each layer. I then flashed the cerakote, pulled all the veining and layed the slotchy pattern. I took OD Green, Forest Green and Desert Verde and faded them together. All this work is done with a HVLP spray gun.   From start to finish it took 2 hours for disassembly and prep work, 14 hours of spraying, vinyl laying/removal, baking and another 20 minutes to reassemble. All prep work was done on a Saturday, spraying was done all in 1 day (Sunday) and reassembly happened after work on a Monday. Sunday was a very long, cold and tiring day.   Now I'm taking on the fun task of load development, with a shortage of powders and primers out there, this probably won't be shooting good for another month or so.         -- BrokeEnthusiast-- This rifle used to have a Nikon P223 on it, the Magpul BUIS worked just fine under it, I went to the Bushnell since I was getting a good deal on it. The Bushnell TRS-25 is on a Daniel Defense offset rail. **For the Nikon scope that used to be on this rifle I had it in the Burris PEPR mount, now it sits on my 300BLK Handi Rifle in a set of Burris high mounts.

This is correct, although I have a Thunderbeast P30-1 direct thread suppressor on order. I'll hopefully get the paperwork in the next couple weeks. Decided to go direct thread because I can have most of my rifles threaded for a 5/8x24, if not I'll swap the barrel for one I can, that and AAC loves their stuff so much they price it so only the crazys will buy one of their products...like me.

All my other sunshades are for 40mm scopes...if I get another 44mm one I'll screw it into this one.   The scope will be changing color after I get some coyote hunting in. I'd like something other than my 300BLK Handi Rifle...that and it's boring old black.

I've been putting this AR together over the last few months...well before the Obama scare so I payed retail or below for everything, just been lazy about assembling it in it's current configuration. Some may have seen it when it was for sale with an LMT upper and lower, it's changed a bit since then. Here is what's in/on it: Sun Devil Lower DPMS parts kit MOE Riflestock Magpul trigger guard Rifle buffer Noveske VLTOR MUR-1A upper BCM medium charging handle WMD Nickel Boron BCG Troy 15" alpha rail CMMG 16" barrel AAC Brake Out Magpul AFG Magpul flip-up sights Magpul MOE+ grip Daniel Defense off-set rail Bushnell TRS-25 Burris PEPR QD rings Bushnell Legend Ultra-HD 4.5-14x44 scope I went a little nuts with my vinyl cutter and cerakote. I did an "irregular grid" pattern with some ATACS inspired blobs to achieve this mess. Let me know what you think, enjoy.

Here is the completed rifle from the camo one above. This one was a time consuming one, but I enjoyed doing this project especially with these results. Let me know what you think.

I think one big thing about pictures is where they are taken. I commented on another thread, and the best pictures are taken outside on sunny days. Most of the pictures you see above were taken inside under fluorescent lighting or in my living room with incandescent lights through a frosted cover. I know you weren't taking anything away from things being painted. There is a big difference between rattle can and Cerakote though. Some of the chemicals used in plating will outright kill you, if you ingest it. Next time I get a metallic gun ill be sure to take some pictures in better light so it'll show up better. Best way to tell metal type would be by weight or the materials should be listed on the manufacturers website.

I carried one in Afghanistan my last trip, I wasn't sure about it at first, but wanted something in .308 so it had some a$$ behind it at distance. I found it to be a lot easier to shoot standing out to 700m than my M24 (Remington 700) or my Barrett M107. Going to a prone situation I'd take the other 2 in a heartbeat, not that it's bad but have you ever tried to shoot a Barrett standing? If I could stomach the cost I'd get one, but it comes with more sticker shock than my wife will allow.

Looks good to me, good fades with a rattle can. As for pictures, I'm bad about doing them inside since its easier, but sunlight really helps the picture. I take a lot with my iPhone and most are inside, but the ones taken outside with my iPhone always turn out better and show off the true colors more.

Lester, I agree it does say paint, but as far as durability goes, it's right up there. If it wasn't, there wouldn't be numerous companies using it on their production models. One thing for comparison of "rounding" soft edges is the thickness of the material being applied. Powder coating goes on between .002-.005", Cerakote (when done right) is .001" and your electroless plating and anodizing is around .0005". While plating and anodizing are durable, they are extremely thin by comparison making the edges a more defined. The biggest thing about mixing metallic and non metallic colors is that it takes away from the metallic flake and some of the shadowing effects it gives, I probably could have achieved the same effect by mixing aluminum (bright silver metallic) and stainless (darker grey metallic), and this would have kept those shadowing properties of the metallic finishes. Also pictures can do a lot to play tricks on he mind, the "bronze" finished 1911 looks like a dirty gold in the picture, but in daylight in your hands it looks very close to a bronze and in certain angles it still has a hint of the effects of the shimmer gold. The 2 colors I used for it were shimmer gold and burnt bronze. Tus shimmer gold looks like those chameleon paints, it's gold in some angles but also looks kind of silver in others. The burnt bronze reminds me of something if get if I mixed FDE with Patriot Brown and threw in some orange and metallic flake. The metallic colors do a good job of giving that shadow on the edges. For someone to come back in to define the edges with an airbrush would not only cost more, but I don't think at certain angles would look right and would scream faux finish more so than just the base finish coat. As for durability of electroless nickel, I'm not sure. There have been guys that did it to 1911s and have had great results for a while now. My stuff has only been out there for a couple of months, but is still holding up fine. Electroless nickel is there for guys needing a DIY project. A small kit is around 150$ or so for electroless, where an electroplating kit of the same size is more than double that. A good anodizing set up can run a couple thousand. With the nickel and chrome plating you either need to be a chemist or really good at math and keeping time, because it involved a few smelly and sometimes hazardous chemicals and a lot of math to maintain ratios.

[quote name="Lester Weevils" post="857235" timestamp="1355070540"]Gunrunner32, those are handsome. Takes skill to make such fine finishes, and an artistic eye as well. Has anyone ever asked you to try to duplicate the surface appearance of Beretta Inox? I know nothing of paint. Dunno if a fella could "nail" inox with just paint. Maybe. I read one time that a few inox 92fs sneaked out of the factory with painted frames, which looked like any other inox til the finish started wrinkling. Maybe my inox 92's have some kind of paint but it sure looks anodized as best I can tell. Or would an inox color be closer approximated on steel by a "frosted" bead blasting covered by some kind of semi-gloss tough clear coat? Just curious. Inox Cheetahs are rare as hens teeth. In fact, maybe the few shiny ones were nickel rather than inox. But inox is so purty, if'n was eventually able to find a decent price on one of the older single-stack non-decock blue cheetahs, hadn't thought about it til right now, but maybe it could be "turned into" inox with some kind of paint or surface treatment?[/quote] The only thing I could think of after finally looking up an inox would be something that I've done for some friends who wanted their Sig SRT kits to match he original finish of their Equinox's, I did a bead blast with electroless nickel plate with a light bead blast again after a soak. It gave them a "frosted" nickel look, also just a blasted surface with electroless over top is kind of like what's on the inox. I got the kit from Caswell and was too easy to use.

If JMB had been around during the time of the Romans, it would have been more interesting and his creations might have looked something like this: Supposed to look bronze, stupid lighting made it look all silvery.

Ive got the same revolver. Its a blast to pull out at the range, especially indoor ones. Gotta start reloading. I've been reloading mine with 250gr lead and it's not bad to shoot and doesn't hurt the wallet any.

This post was only to show off some of the more unique things I've done. There is no advertising or services being offered by me, I know people are curious and it had not been addressed. Again this is me showing off hence why it's in the show and tell section. And David...you've got mail.

Thank y'all for your comments. I really enjoy doing this stuff, I like the camo patterns more than anything. I never know how it's going to look until it's all completely done. I just started doing the flutes so that's something new that adds a nice touch I think. I'll keep them up and fill everyone in as they get done. This somehow made it to just after my first post...should have been down a ways....

Here are some of the projects that I've remembered to take pictures of over the last few months. Benelli Nova in a Multicam pattern: Pair of Colts, a 1908 and a 1911, done in a mix of grey and aluminum: S&W 442 after a pink and black zebra mated with it: An AR15 in something I like to call "Scortched Earth", everything started in Magpul FDE, then I altered the baking process a little to get this effect on the metal: A little freehand on an AR15 in 300BLK: Showcasing the 300BLK on the right that was done in a finish called Micro Slick: Another AR15 done in Coyote tan I think...might be FDE, I forgot: A 700 in 300BLK done in grey, black and red: This one shows the process, started out a black stock, first set of pictures are of the first 2 layers that were done, last pictures show the stock completed, bottom metal came in late, but will get done tomorrow in FDE like the rest of the rifle: And I know John already showed this one off, but this was my favorite picture of his rifle (**Won Picture Of The Week From Cerakote/NIC Industries): I'm always up for some constructive criticism. Enjoy

I had never seen these until now and I want to thank you...I was up until 1 am last night watching these.

One thing to keep in mind with the Howa is the barrel is threaded with metric threads, I'm sure you are capable of doing that though. I enjoy shooting the 300 BO, I'm thinking of putting an AR upper together chambered in it, unless I find another revolver that I like.

The bottom metal of the 300 BO is from AI. As far as ejecting and chambering, it took some work on getting the bottom metal to meet up with the action as well as some work on the magazine lockup to make the magazine sit at the right height. The Howa we based this off of was the 1500 and the bolt has the M4 styled extractor, and there was no issues with ejecting factory 300 BO and factory 300 Whisper ammo. The M4 extractor on bolt actions is an awesome mod/factory add on.

DMark, Here are the pictures of the B.A.T. that you requested. I didn't end up getting a picture of the muzzle, it was done on an 11 degree crown from the barrel to the thread protector.

It has been completed, here is the link to the thread with pictures: http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/49529-some-bolt-action-projects/

Some of you may have remembered a thread started by GunTroll (Brandon @ Middle Tennessee Gunsmithing) about a B.A.T. Machine .308. Here is the link: http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/41249-it-has-begun/page__p__671703__hl__guntroll#entry671703 . It has a Lilja barrel, Manners stock, Nightforce scope, Cerakoted in a Satin Graphite Black and threaded to run suppressed. With some basic loads trying to get some data for the owner it was holding a .5" group at 100 yards but still has the potential to be better once the right load is found. Here are some pictures: Next up, owned by the same individual now, is a Howa 1500 in 300 Blackout. I don't remember the barrel manufacturer (I'll edit once I figure that out), muzzle break to run suppressed, Manners stock, Leupold scope and Cerakoted in a Multi-cam pattern. This was holding .5" group at 100 yards with factory 300 whisper ammo and a YHM suppressor. Here are some pictures: I hope you enjoyed them, I know I enjoyed my trip to Memphis to shoot these. My first shot out of the B.A.T. was at an 800 yard AR500 steel target, it connected and I couldn't have been happier. The Howa was dead on at 100 yards in any shooting position that I tried.

I took my daughter out to Home Depot and Lowes today, she helped me pick out some tile tools. I got a few knotched trowels, grout float, jam saw, tile nippers and to top it all off she let me get a nice wet saw. I also cheated a bit and I got the mail the other day and there was a package from Sinclair International, I don't know the caliber but it felt like a shellholder...no dies, but I can only assume she phoned in the order to Midsouth shooter supply being as it it's only 5 minutes from the house.

Party Dips Quick Chili Dip Campbell's Firehouse Chili 2x cans (or favorite canned chili for speed or if you have time make your own chili) 16oz of Phili Creamcheese 1lb medium shred cheddar cheese (or favorite cheese) Spread all cream cheese evenly across bottom of 13"x9" pyrex glass pan Put cans of chili in microwave safe bowl and nuke until hot Pour chili over cream cheese Pile on the shredded cheddar Put in oven at 350 degrees until cheese is melted Grab bag of Fritos scoops or tortilla chips and enjoy Bagel Dip Jar of Old English Cheese 8oz Cream Cheese Garlic Powder Onion Salt Mix all ingredients in a bowl add onion salt and garlic powder to taste Cut up bagels of choice (I like plain or everything bagels) Dip bagels in and enjoy Both dips are favorites at parties and gatherings.

I use them for 45lc, 357 and 45acp. I have bought the 9mm but i realize that just about everywhere is between 10-12$ a box, everything else is a good deal.

Well since I don't make it to Lebanon too often, it looks like I'll have to hit up Guns & Ammo when I get down to Memphis next weekend. I really need to start reloading....