DIY How to help on Weapon Painting (diamond camo)

[Guest Desiel]

I'm sure I have seen a how to on how to DIY weapon painting but have no idea where it was. Anyone have a link or insight to help me out?

I'm gonna do my AR in a diamond camo and maybe the glock.

[Westwindmike]

I think I saw that pattern one time. They used a netting to get the diamond effect.

[Dolomite_supafly]

This is the Stevens 200 in 223 that I had a barrel cut back to 18" and tensioned. It sits in a Stockade PDS/T stock. This gun has shot sub 1/2 MOA reliably with my handloads and under MOA with factory ammo it likes. It has a SSS competition trigger and a Stockade bolt lift kit. It also has a 5/8" bolt handle from Stockade also. The scope is in a Leupold base and rings.

It will consistently shoot 1/2 MOA with my handloads and shoot MOA with factory ammo it likes. It is a 9 twist barrel and shoots 69 SMK's well.

Here are some pictures of when I camoed it. I started out by painting the entire gun a light sand color. I painted the stock and the action seperately to make sure every part was covered by the base color.

Next I covered the entire gun with a laundry bag from WM. I used clothes pins to hold it in place. I cut all excess bag material off to help the clothes pins stay in place.

After it was covered with the bag I used some brown, tan and green color and painted some strips through the bag.

Here is a pic after the bag was removed.

Next I cut out some leaf templates to use for added depth.

After adding some depth using the templates and brown, tan and greens. Here is how it turned out.

You can use a bag with larger netting to get larger "scales".

Dolomite

[Grunt67]

Man, that's a really neat job, especially considering the materials & technique you used. Good old

American ingenuity.

[Jonnin]

That is very well done. Do/did you have any trouble with moving parts after the paint, like the safety, bolt, optics adjustment caps, etc. being clogged up or frozen with paint? Or did you protect those things somehow?

[Dolomite_supafly]

I used painter's tape to cover up the turrets and AO on the scope. Other than that there is enough clearance so the paint didn't cause any problems.

Dolomite

[Caster]

Fishnet stockings work great too.

[Guest Desiel]

Ahhh fishnets didn't think of that good idea!

Nice work Dolomite_supafly, I'm thinking I'm gonna do a grass kind of pattern

[durtyzulu]

If you mean diamond, like diamond plate metal, Lauer sells that template. I've never used fishnet stockings, for paint. But I'm sure the would work well. I like decoy bags too. You can cut them long enough to cover a rifle and have a uniform pattern. Good luck with your project! I look forward to seeing photos!

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I like to see fishnets on women. Much sexier:D

Awesome paint job, Dolomite!

[Guest Desiel]

Here's a few examples of the look I'll be trying to achieve....

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This one is pretty dang sweet!

[durtyzulu]

Decoy bag :-)

If you do go that route, grab a couple cans of cheap spray paint, and go over your templates a couple times and let it dry. It will keep your paint from going thru both the fabric and the holes.

Edited August 3, 2011 by durtyzulu

[Guest Desiel]

ah nice idea cuz I have noticed that some of them did bleed through. If the temp will ever get below 90f I'm gonna give this a shot on my paintball gun first lol

[Guest bkelm18]

Decoy bag :-)

Or a laundry bag. Same pattern.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Decoy bag :-)

If you do go that route, grab a couple cans of cheap spray paint, and go over your templates a couple times and let it dry. It will keep your paint from going thru both the fabric and the holes.

Or grab a cheap airsoft. They are making about every model now and would be easier to throw away than clean your paintball gun.

I always use Krylon or other spray can rather than a more permanent paint like Duracoat. The reason is it is easier to touch up. And believe it or not but Krylon actually becomes very durable and sovent resistant as time goes on. My wife's 9mm AR was painted at least 6 years ago using Krylon and it is very durable. Even the paint on the flash hider is still there although a little dark. And when I went to remove the paint from the sights recently I had to soak them overnight in solvent because nothing I had on hand (acetone, brake cleaner and a few others) would work instantly.

I will say that using the textured paints as a base seems to help a lot with the durability of the paint as well. Her AR used a textured base while the picutures above didn't. The rifle above had chips and scratches almost immediately. I normally start with a textured sandstone then add the darker colors in a few layers.

Dolomite

[Guest Desiel]

Hmm texture paint nice idea Krylon texture paint?

[Dolomite_supafly]

Hmm texture paint nice idea Krylon texture paint?

Yes

Dolomite

[Mr. Brooks]

I just did my helmet using this pattern. Here is a short crappy how-to.

Start with base color, for me tan;

Then take netting and wrap it around whatever you want to paint;

Apply secondary colors, in this case green and brown;

Let dry, then remove net;

If you don't like the way it looks, start over.

This helmet is too light for our environment, I will be using it in Afghanistan so I made it lighter with that in mind. It actually came out darker then I wanted when I removed the net so I gave it a light dusting of tan to make it lighter.

[Dolomite_supafly]

This helmet is too light for our environment, I will be using it in Afghanistan so I made it lighter with that in mind.

You riding bikes in Afghanistan?

J/K

Dololmite

[Mr. Brooks]

Nope, skateboard.

[redstategunnut]

First, I didn't invent anything. I just followed directions given to me, which I shall now pass on to this forum.

Materials:

1. some kind of degreaser (I used non-chlorinated brake cleaner)

2. spray paint (I used and recommend Aervoe in Sand, Highland Brown, Marine Corps Green and Olive Drab. I got mine from dsgarms.com)

3. some method to hold your rifle while you work. This was my setup:

That's a simple sawhorse, c-clamp and scrap of wood that fit the magazine well.

4. something to use as a stencil/pattern. I used scraps of non-skid carpet pad, leaves and a laundry bag.

5. masking tape

Prep the gun by totally removing any lubricant or grease from the outside, dry thoroughly. It helps if you can do this in direct sunlight and get the gun and the paint warm.

Tape what you don't want painted, perhaps stick something in the muzzle. I taped off my iron sights, optics and light lens. Everything else got painted.

Lay down a light coat of tan base, end to end. Do not overpaint. Drips and blobs are bad. It is not imperative that total coverage be had, but you do want to cover as much black as possible. A couple of coats if you like.

You do not need to let the gun dry between coats. If you do it right, it will be tacky quickly. Aervoe instructions say another coat within an hour is appropriate, after that you have to wait three days. I did my coats back to back to back to back in a few minutes.

Next layer is the highland brown. This is where the stencils come in. I cut the carpet pad into random shapes. Avoid straight lines and hard edges. You could use straw, pine needles, camo netting, a laundry bag, sheets cut into ribbons, whatever. The point is to cover some of the tan undercoat from being covered by the next layer. Spray the highland brown on, but DO NOT spray it end to end. Avoid regular striping or other patterns; make the highland brown cover spotty and random.

Next layer is Marine Corps Green. Same rules as for highland brown, but in my case I used oak leaves to impart a pattern.

Next layer is OD green. I slid a laundry bag on the rifle at this point. The OD green is used to blend the other paints, so end to end in a light, even coat.

Same process for magazines. I had no problem painting Pmags, Circle 10 mags, and metal mags.

The soft rubber on base plates and bikini covers on optics will not dry quickly; consider skipping them.

Allow to dry, untape, shoot.

I did four rifles and several dozen magazines with two cans of tan and one can of MC Green, Highland Brown, OD green and I have some left.

I've seen guys get real creative with stencils, using paper plates, manila folders, cereal boxes, etc. for the template. The important thing is to remember that we are trying to break up the outline of a rifle and make it difficult to pick up in your area of operation. Avoid regular and repeating patterns. Know that the distance at which we are trying to be concealed is not ten feet, its more than 50', so what doesn't necessarily look good at 5' might be perfect at 75', and vice versa. Very small patterns without much color variation will turn your black rifle with a distinct outline into a brown rifle with a distinct edge.

Go paint your guns. If you make a mess, brake cleaner and a brush will refresh your palate, so don't worry too much about your first effort.

Good luck.

[redstategunnut]

[Guest Desiel]

Thanks red....

[durtyzulu]

One im working on with Duracoat and a decoy bag to make some snake skin looking camo. I will post more pics when I get the paint done and gun put back together...

It looks a little muddled, but I have 2 more rounds of paint to go before it will look normal.

Edited August 30, 2011 by durtyzulu