Post by thelefthand on Jul 22, 2008 21:18:18 GMT -5
I hate to keep posting pictures of my rifle, but here's the tutorial that I put together while painting it this last time. I am copying everything from a word document. In the word document I refer the the pictures title them with figure numbers. Here I will simply post the pictures below the text. So here goes.
My favorite deer rifle is my Savage 10ML-II muzzleloader. I went the cheap route and got the synthetic stock with a stainless barrel. With all the articles and various camo patterns out there today, I often wondered if the deer could see the stainless barrel. Being a cheap skate, I didn’t want to put the money into some kind of fancy coating, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want a shiny barrel on my deer gun. I’m kind of a “do it yourself” person, so I figured I could probably paint with some kind of camo pattern. I did some research on the web, but I wasn’t able to come up with any good instructions, at least none that were free. I figured what the heck, so I decided to just wing it. The first results came out pretty good. So good, in fact, that I immediately painted the two guns that I coyote hunt with also. This past year, I replaced the synthetic stock with a "Tack Driver” stock from Richards Microfit Stocks, so there was a need to paint the gun again. In the meantime I had received a lot of comments and a few questions about my rifle, so I figured I would take some pictures and make a tutorial out of it. Hopefully it helps someone else along the way.
First of all, let me say that I started this tutorial a little late. I have already masked off the rifle with masking tape, and applied some of the paint. I had forgotten that I was going to make the tutorial. The good news is that several things went wrong, and I have to do this again, so it gives me the chance to take the pictures and type everything out. So that no one worries too much, the things that went wrong are: my stencil was from last summer, and the pine needles were falling off and sticking to the fresh paint; Since the stencil was falling apart, I couldn’t let it touch the rifle so I wasn’t getting a very good pattern out of it; The wind picked up real bad, and I ended up getting the paint on a little heavy in places. With all of that said, it worked out in my favor. The stock was bare wood when I got it, and I had not applied any kind of sealer or primer. I just hand sanded it down to about 220 grit. The fresh paint lifted the grain of the wood in some areas so I had to go back and hit it again with the 220grit. Now it is fine, and ready to actually paint.
Preliminary Preparation
Before you actually start spraying some paint, there are a few things that you should do in preparation. The first is to pick the type and colors of paint that you will use. I recommend using 2 base colors and a black for creating some shadows. The two base colors need to be very different from each other. Like a tan and OD Green. The more contrast there is between the two colors, the better your camo pattern will look IMHO. As far as the type of paint, I will be using Brownell’s Aluma Hyde II. I have found it is very durable. It needs to be warm when you use the paint. The paint flows best when it is around 90 degrees. The paint does like to clog up the nozzles pretty bad, so I buy an extra package of nozzles. If it’s cooler than 90 degrees, the paint will want to clog up even more which will make the process a real pain. Also, if you use Aluma-Hyde II, make sure that you shake the can at least a full minute before you start painting. The more you mix it, the better off you will be. Another thing to consider about the Aluma Hyde II is that it takes a full 24 hours to “dry to the touch” and weeks to fully cure. This is because it is a 2 part epoxy based paint. This is also what makes it so durable. I also avoid using any clear coat as I feel this just adds to the possibility of having a glare. Figure 1 shows all the colors that I used this time around.
From left to right the colors are: OD Green, Parkerizing Grey (pretty dark), Matte Black, Coyote (medium brown), and Desert Tan (very light brown).
If I had to recommend just two, I would go for OD green, and Coyote (medium brown).
You will also need to decide what kind of material you want to use for a stencil. I use twigs from our evergreen bushes. I cut them off about 10” long, and lay them on small a sheet of plywood. I lay 10 or 12 of them out, and then another sheet of plywood, and then set some weight (bricks, blocks, or what ever) on top of them for a few days to flatten them out. Your stencil needs to lay flat against the gun or you will loose a lot of the definition in the pattern. Thus the need to flatten out the twigs from my bushes. I also considered using some fern leaves, but they dried up so fast that I scrapped that idea. I tried some twigs off of our pine tree too, but that didn’t turn out as well as I had liked. In Figure 2 below, you can see the test pattern that I did.
The right side is from the pine tree twigs, and the left is from the bushes. The twigs from the bushes produce a lot more definition in the pattern which I think is a good thing. It doesn’t hurt to practice and/or try several different materials using a can of regular spray paint and some scrap cardboard.
Now for the actual tutorial.
Step 1: Using masking tape, mask off everything that you don’t want to get paint on. I removed the bolt and breach plug from my Savage ML10-II, and rolled up a piece of copy paper and slid it into the chamber. I taped off the chamber, both ends of my scope, the area on the scope where the magnification numbers are, the muzzle, and the sights. I also taped off the Sims recoil pad, and the red safety indicator.
Step 2: Build your stenciling tool. You don’t have to use twigs from an evergreen bush. Some people use leaves. Some tear up a piece of newspaper and use that. Some people buy fancy kits. I made my own stencil using a piece of 1"x2" furring strip, a few drywall screws, and twigs from our evergreen bushes. The twigs are around 10" long and do not have any forks or branches in them. They have been pressed flat as I described above. Figure 3 shows my finished stencil.
Actually, I made this the last time I painted a gun. I had to take it apart and throw away the old twigs and put new ones in. If you do what I have done, your stencil will last at least a few weeks. After that, I would rebuild it. If it falls apart and pieces stick to your gun during the painting process, you’ll have to stop, let the paint dry/cure, and start all over again. Very frustrating, trust me…..
Step 3 I wiped everything down with rubbing alcohol to get any oil off of it. If you have any really smooth/slick surfaces, you may want to consider roughing them up a little bit. I’ve painted matte finished barrels and scopes, synthetic stocks, parkerized metal, and somewhat polished stainless barrels. The only thing that came close to having a problem was the stainless barrel on my AR15. When we put it together, it had some tooling marks on the outer diameter so we stuck it in a lathe, and used some sand paper to polish it out and give it a uniform finish. The Aluma Hyde paint stuck to it, and it holds up to normal wear okay, but it’s a little more delicate than most of the other surfaces that I’ve painted.
Step 4: Find a place to paint the gun. I do this outside on the clothesline. Since Aluma Hyde II is an epoxy based paint, it doesn’t actually dry as much as it cures, and the fumes are pretty nasty. Using the paint outside is best. If you are using this paint choose a somewhat calm day around 90 degrees. The paint works best when it’s around 90. Much cooler than 85 degrees and the nozzles clog real easy. I purchase an extra bag of nozzles for this reason. I also tend to pull the nozzles off of all the cans, and just use one nozzle at a time. When it clogs, I pull it off and toss it. When I switch colors, I just yank the nozzle off, and pop it on the next can.
Step 5: Hang the gun. I have sling studs on my rifle, so I take the sling off and run a piece of wire through each stud and up over the clothes line. Wherever the wire or string is close to the rifle, you will have a line in your paint job, so the studs are a really good place to use.
Step 6: Paint the gun. This is where the pictures start coming in. Put some gloves on, and use a face mask to keep this stuff out of your nose and lungs.
A) Paint diagonal stripes about 2" ~ 3" wide on the gun alternating between your light and your dark base color. Make sure that your stripes go all the way around the gun. You can also paint the gun one solid color, and then come back and add stripes with the other color. Either way, the end result is the same. I paint a stripe on the Left side, then go to the Right side and try to paint a stripe in the same spot. Then I go to the top and bottom of the gun and connect the ends of the stripes. Use several light coats to avoid runs and make sure that you get everything covered. Using light coats also gives the paint job a very dull matte finish, which is very good. If you are like me and have a hard time knowing when to stop with spray paint, here’s my rule of thumb. Stop when you think you are half way done and move on to the next spot. By the time you get all the way around the gun, and are able to come back to the beginning, it will have dried enough to accept more paint. After making 3 or 4 laps around the gun, it will be done. Figure 4 shows my rifle at the end of this step.
My base colors are Parkerizing Grey, and Coyote. You could actually stop here as this would be a somewhat effective camo pattern depending on how wide your strips are and what colors you chose. But why do that? This is where the fun begins.
B) Once you have the gun painted with the diagonal stripes, get your stencil out. From here on out, you will NOT apply any paint directly to the gun. You will ALWAYS have the stencil sitting on the surface of the gun and apply paint to the stencil. Now apply the base colors in the opposite pattern. In other words, if you have a dark grey stripe, lay the stencil on it and spray a light tan stripe on it. Keep the stencil against the gun, and oriented so that it does NOT line up with the diagonal strips. I keep the twigs of my stencil perpendicular to the gun barrel. Figure 5 through Figure 8 shows the application of a Desert Tan stenciling over the Parkerizing Gray strips. I chose to use the Desert Tan because I thought the gun looked pretty dark over all and I wanted to brighten it up a little.
During this step hold the stencil still and make several sweeping passes with the spray paint.
Make sure that you cover all the way around the gun, moving the stencil as you go.
Figure 9 shows the rifle after the Desert Tan stenciling is finished.
Figure 10 through Figure 13 shows the gun as the Parkerizing Gray stenciling is being applied over the Coyote stripes.
C) When you are finished look the gun over from a bit of a distance. If there are areas that seem a little lighter than you like, take your stencil and the dark base color and hit that area lightly again. Same for areas that look a little dark. After this you have a complete 2 tone camo pattern.
D) I like to add “shadows” to my camo pattern. To do this, take some black paint and your stencil and hit a few areas on the gun. This is very much a personal taste thing, and you probably don’t want to hit too many areas. I generally tilt my stencil a little bit when I do this. I also only make one pass with the spray paint when I do this as opposed to making several passes like I did in step 6B. I also took some OD green and did the same thing just to see what it would look like. Figure 14 and 15 shows me adding some of these highlights.
(Figure 15 did not download correctly, so I've had to remove it until I can get it fixed)
If you look closely, you can see a few spots where I’ve applied the OD Green. I hadn’t applied any of the black at this point.
Now your painting is done. Figure 16 shows how my rifle looks at this point.
Cleanup: I have found that a mixture of gasoline or mineral spirits and some waterless hand cleaner (the kind that you get at the hardware store or auto shop) do a good job of taking fresh Aluma Hyde paint off your hands if you chose not to wear the gloves, or if you got a little messy. As for your nose and lungs, well it’s too late for that now. Should have used a face mask.
Step 7: Let the paint cure. For Aluma Hyde II, I hang the gun in an (out building should be OUT-BUILDING) for a day or two, then bring it into our mud room and let it sit there for a few weeks. The first few days the paint is giving off a LOT of fumes as it cures. After that, the fumes decrease quite a bit, but it still makes the mud room smell pretty bad that first few days. I don’t shoot the gun again for at least 2 weeks, preferably a month. But that’s just me.
Step 8: Remove the masking tape. I generally do this 3 or 4 days after I paint the gun. By this time the Aluma Hyde II has set up well, and I can handle it with out messing it up. Figure 17 shows the finished rifle, and Figure 18 shoes the rifle leaning against a tree for comparison.
I think next time I will use OD Green and Coyote as my base colors, and then add some highlights with Desert Tan and Black. Figure 19 shows my finished AR15 flat top. The AR used OD green and Desert Tan as base colors, and some black highlights were added.
The Desert Tan is a little too light for my taste, but over all I was very satisfied with it.
That’s all folks!
Thanks,
Mark
My favorite deer rifle is my Savage 10ML-II muzzleloader. I went the cheap route and got the synthetic stock with a stainless barrel. With all the articles and various camo patterns out there today, I often wondered if the deer could see the stainless barrel. Being a cheap skate, I didn’t want to put the money into some kind of fancy coating, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want a shiny barrel on my deer gun. I’m kind of a “do it yourself” person, so I figured I could probably paint with some kind of camo pattern. I did some research on the web, but I wasn’t able to come up with any good instructions, at least none that were free. I figured what the heck, so I decided to just wing it. The first results came out pretty good. So good, in fact, that I immediately painted the two guns that I coyote hunt with also. This past year, I replaced the synthetic stock with a "Tack Driver” stock from Richards Microfit Stocks, so there was a need to paint the gun again. In the meantime I had received a lot of comments and a few questions about my rifle, so I figured I would take some pictures and make a tutorial out of it. Hopefully it helps someone else along the way.
First of all, let me say that I started this tutorial a little late. I have already masked off the rifle with masking tape, and applied some of the paint. I had forgotten that I was going to make the tutorial. The good news is that several things went wrong, and I have to do this again, so it gives me the chance to take the pictures and type everything out. So that no one worries too much, the things that went wrong are: my stencil was from last summer, and the pine needles were falling off and sticking to the fresh paint; Since the stencil was falling apart, I couldn’t let it touch the rifle so I wasn’t getting a very good pattern out of it; The wind picked up real bad, and I ended up getting the paint on a little heavy in places. With all of that said, it worked out in my favor. The stock was bare wood when I got it, and I had not applied any kind of sealer or primer. I just hand sanded it down to about 220 grit. The fresh paint lifted the grain of the wood in some areas so I had to go back and hit it again with the 220grit. Now it is fine, and ready to actually paint.
Preliminary Preparation
Before you actually start spraying some paint, there are a few things that you should do in preparation. The first is to pick the type and colors of paint that you will use. I recommend using 2 base colors and a black for creating some shadows. The two base colors need to be very different from each other. Like a tan and OD Green. The more contrast there is between the two colors, the better your camo pattern will look IMHO. As far as the type of paint, I will be using Brownell’s Aluma Hyde II. I have found it is very durable. It needs to be warm when you use the paint. The paint flows best when it is around 90 degrees. The paint does like to clog up the nozzles pretty bad, so I buy an extra package of nozzles. If it’s cooler than 90 degrees, the paint will want to clog up even more which will make the process a real pain. Also, if you use Aluma-Hyde II, make sure that you shake the can at least a full minute before you start painting. The more you mix it, the better off you will be. Another thing to consider about the Aluma Hyde II is that it takes a full 24 hours to “dry to the touch” and weeks to fully cure. This is because it is a 2 part epoxy based paint. This is also what makes it so durable. I also avoid using any clear coat as I feel this just adds to the possibility of having a glare. Figure 1 shows all the colors that I used this time around.
From left to right the colors are: OD Green, Parkerizing Grey (pretty dark), Matte Black, Coyote (medium brown), and Desert Tan (very light brown).
If I had to recommend just two, I would go for OD green, and Coyote (medium brown).
You will also need to decide what kind of material you want to use for a stencil. I use twigs from our evergreen bushes. I cut them off about 10” long, and lay them on small a sheet of plywood. I lay 10 or 12 of them out, and then another sheet of plywood, and then set some weight (bricks, blocks, or what ever) on top of them for a few days to flatten them out. Your stencil needs to lay flat against the gun or you will loose a lot of the definition in the pattern. Thus the need to flatten out the twigs from my bushes. I also considered using some fern leaves, but they dried up so fast that I scrapped that idea. I tried some twigs off of our pine tree too, but that didn’t turn out as well as I had liked. In Figure 2 below, you can see the test pattern that I did.
The right side is from the pine tree twigs, and the left is from the bushes. The twigs from the bushes produce a lot more definition in the pattern which I think is a good thing. It doesn’t hurt to practice and/or try several different materials using a can of regular spray paint and some scrap cardboard.
Now for the actual tutorial.
Step 1: Using masking tape, mask off everything that you don’t want to get paint on. I removed the bolt and breach plug from my Savage ML10-II, and rolled up a piece of copy paper and slid it into the chamber. I taped off the chamber, both ends of my scope, the area on the scope where the magnification numbers are, the muzzle, and the sights. I also taped off the Sims recoil pad, and the red safety indicator.
Step 2: Build your stenciling tool. You don’t have to use twigs from an evergreen bush. Some people use leaves. Some tear up a piece of newspaper and use that. Some people buy fancy kits. I made my own stencil using a piece of 1"x2" furring strip, a few drywall screws, and twigs from our evergreen bushes. The twigs are around 10" long and do not have any forks or branches in them. They have been pressed flat as I described above. Figure 3 shows my finished stencil.
Actually, I made this the last time I painted a gun. I had to take it apart and throw away the old twigs and put new ones in. If you do what I have done, your stencil will last at least a few weeks. After that, I would rebuild it. If it falls apart and pieces stick to your gun during the painting process, you’ll have to stop, let the paint dry/cure, and start all over again. Very frustrating, trust me…..
Step 3 I wiped everything down with rubbing alcohol to get any oil off of it. If you have any really smooth/slick surfaces, you may want to consider roughing them up a little bit. I’ve painted matte finished barrels and scopes, synthetic stocks, parkerized metal, and somewhat polished stainless barrels. The only thing that came close to having a problem was the stainless barrel on my AR15. When we put it together, it had some tooling marks on the outer diameter so we stuck it in a lathe, and used some sand paper to polish it out and give it a uniform finish. The Aluma Hyde paint stuck to it, and it holds up to normal wear okay, but it’s a little more delicate than most of the other surfaces that I’ve painted.
Step 4: Find a place to paint the gun. I do this outside on the clothesline. Since Aluma Hyde II is an epoxy based paint, it doesn’t actually dry as much as it cures, and the fumes are pretty nasty. Using the paint outside is best. If you are using this paint choose a somewhat calm day around 90 degrees. The paint works best when it’s around 90. Much cooler than 85 degrees and the nozzles clog real easy. I purchase an extra bag of nozzles for this reason. I also tend to pull the nozzles off of all the cans, and just use one nozzle at a time. When it clogs, I pull it off and toss it. When I switch colors, I just yank the nozzle off, and pop it on the next can.
Step 5: Hang the gun. I have sling studs on my rifle, so I take the sling off and run a piece of wire through each stud and up over the clothes line. Wherever the wire or string is close to the rifle, you will have a line in your paint job, so the studs are a really good place to use.
Step 6: Paint the gun. This is where the pictures start coming in. Put some gloves on, and use a face mask to keep this stuff out of your nose and lungs.
A) Paint diagonal stripes about 2" ~ 3" wide on the gun alternating between your light and your dark base color. Make sure that your stripes go all the way around the gun. You can also paint the gun one solid color, and then come back and add stripes with the other color. Either way, the end result is the same. I paint a stripe on the Left side, then go to the Right side and try to paint a stripe in the same spot. Then I go to the top and bottom of the gun and connect the ends of the stripes. Use several light coats to avoid runs and make sure that you get everything covered. Using light coats also gives the paint job a very dull matte finish, which is very good. If you are like me and have a hard time knowing when to stop with spray paint, here’s my rule of thumb. Stop when you think you are half way done and move on to the next spot. By the time you get all the way around the gun, and are able to come back to the beginning, it will have dried enough to accept more paint. After making 3 or 4 laps around the gun, it will be done. Figure 4 shows my rifle at the end of this step.
My base colors are Parkerizing Grey, and Coyote. You could actually stop here as this would be a somewhat effective camo pattern depending on how wide your strips are and what colors you chose. But why do that? This is where the fun begins.
B) Once you have the gun painted with the diagonal stripes, get your stencil out. From here on out, you will NOT apply any paint directly to the gun. You will ALWAYS have the stencil sitting on the surface of the gun and apply paint to the stencil. Now apply the base colors in the opposite pattern. In other words, if you have a dark grey stripe, lay the stencil on it and spray a light tan stripe on it. Keep the stencil against the gun, and oriented so that it does NOT line up with the diagonal strips. I keep the twigs of my stencil perpendicular to the gun barrel. Figure 5 through Figure 8 shows the application of a Desert Tan stenciling over the Parkerizing Gray strips. I chose to use the Desert Tan because I thought the gun looked pretty dark over all and I wanted to brighten it up a little.
During this step hold the stencil still and make several sweeping passes with the spray paint.
Make sure that you cover all the way around the gun, moving the stencil as you go.
Figure 9 shows the rifle after the Desert Tan stenciling is finished.
Figure 10 through Figure 13 shows the gun as the Parkerizing Gray stenciling is being applied over the Coyote stripes.
C) When you are finished look the gun over from a bit of a distance. If there are areas that seem a little lighter than you like, take your stencil and the dark base color and hit that area lightly again. Same for areas that look a little dark. After this you have a complete 2 tone camo pattern.
D) I like to add “shadows” to my camo pattern. To do this, take some black paint and your stencil and hit a few areas on the gun. This is very much a personal taste thing, and you probably don’t want to hit too many areas. I generally tilt my stencil a little bit when I do this. I also only make one pass with the spray paint when I do this as opposed to making several passes like I did in step 6B. I also took some OD green and did the same thing just to see what it would look like. Figure 14 and 15 shows me adding some of these highlights.
(Figure 15 did not download correctly, so I've had to remove it until I can get it fixed)
If you look closely, you can see a few spots where I’ve applied the OD Green. I hadn’t applied any of the black at this point.
Now your painting is done. Figure 16 shows how my rifle looks at this point.
Cleanup: I have found that a mixture of gasoline or mineral spirits and some waterless hand cleaner (the kind that you get at the hardware store or auto shop) do a good job of taking fresh Aluma Hyde paint off your hands if you chose not to wear the gloves, or if you got a little messy. As for your nose and lungs, well it’s too late for that now. Should have used a face mask.
Step 7: Let the paint cure. For Aluma Hyde II, I hang the gun in an (out building should be OUT-BUILDING) for a day or two, then bring it into our mud room and let it sit there for a few weeks. The first few days the paint is giving off a LOT of fumes as it cures. After that, the fumes decrease quite a bit, but it still makes the mud room smell pretty bad that first few days. I don’t shoot the gun again for at least 2 weeks, preferably a month. But that’s just me.
Step 8: Remove the masking tape. I generally do this 3 or 4 days after I paint the gun. By this time the Aluma Hyde II has set up well, and I can handle it with out messing it up. Figure 17 shows the finished rifle, and Figure 18 shoes the rifle leaning against a tree for comparison.
I think next time I will use OD Green and Coyote as my base colors, and then add some highlights with Desert Tan and Black. Figure 19 shows my finished AR15 flat top. The AR used OD green and Desert Tan as base colors, and some black highlights were added.
The Desert Tan is a little too light for my taste, but over all I was very satisfied with it.
That’s all folks!
Thanks,
Mark