I just painted my first rifle

[osprey]

Years ago I rattle canned a shotgun for duck hunting that has held up well and still looks great after almost 40 years. With that in mind, I prepped a magazine and practiced on it first and then got serious on my coleman water bottle. Satisfied the gun wouldn't turn out like azz, I did a thorough degrease and taped up some of the areas I did not want paint on. A base coat of hunter green with some dark brown slashes followed by a light sage green sprayed over cedar boughs from the yard, gave me the NW forest look I was after. I will be painting more after this experience.

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[Andy54Hawken]

What rifle....I can't see it....
Just kidding....looks good.
Andy

 

[Knobgoblin]

Where's the Rhodesian yellow??

 

[Member 53328]

Nicely done.

 

[Member 53328]

This reminds me that I gotta rattle can the Sig Cross I just picked up.

 

[osprey]

This is an inch pattern frakenfal I have had for years that has turned out to be very accurate and reliable, but was not much to look at finish wise. Maybe if I ever get a Rhodesian build fal, I will do a nw rhode poop paint job using a real rhododendron for a stencil.

 

[Member 34319]

Looks great. One of these days I'll rattle can an AR. I've always wanted to.

 

[OH6-Andy]

Very nice job there. Looks great!! Any chance you have pics of the steps to get the final product?

 

[osprey]

Very nice job there. Looks great!! Any chance you have pics of the steps to get the final product?

No, but it was literally as easy as it sounded. I will be painting more soon so I can document with pics next time.

 

[OH6-Andy]

so guessing the base was the dark green, correct? then layered lighter colors over. but how did you get the foliage edges so crisp?

 

[Hueco]

Damn. This sort of post is risky.

Gives me hope I could pull off a good paint job.

Nicely done!

 

[Member 53328]

so guessing the base was the dark green, correct? then layered lighter colors over. but how did you get the foliage edges so crisp?

Go pull some ferns/fir tree branches/grass/maple leafs/arborvitae/other plants and lay them directly on the firearm. Spray directly above them and not from the side.

 

[osprey]

Look guys, if a knuckledragger like me can pull this off, you are all pretty much capable of doing it. Yes hunter green base coat first and lay the cedar boughs tight to the rifle and spray locally and lightly. If you F it up you can respray so don't stress. Practice on something you really don't care to much about is recommended though.

 

[Member 53328]

Start with your darkest color as the base and work to the lightest color.

Example

1. Brown
2. OD Green
3. Tan

I always spray the first coat with a dark primer and then start with my colors.

Like @osprey said. If you mess up you can just spray again. And as the paint wears you can just continue to touch up spots as you wish.

Personally I like the look and craft of spray paint over cerakote. And it costs way less.

 

[osprey]

Also wear gloves if you don't want to sport camo hand paint on your stencil holding hand for a few days. I omitted this step. Here is my duck gun I painted almost 40 years ago. I have done zero touchup on it since and it has had some rough treatment.

 

[Unicykle]

My 2 cents is warm your gun up and the rattle cans on a heater vent and get them warm but not hot. I've never bothered to degrease mine just kind of give them a good once over with a clean rag on the sweet spots. There are a ton of YouTube videos on it. Be creative in your stencils, things like stickers to remove after paint like a punisher skull and such. Dollar store and Kraft and fabric and thrift stores have interesting things that can be used as stencils from fake vegetation and flowers to old football jerseys and fish net laundry bags. primary arms sells some cool real deal stencils specifically for this I've wanted for awhile.

 

[monks]

If you don't like it you can always use a little fingernail polish remover aka acetone to take it right off. It's super easy to do, I've done them for other people and they always turn out great, especially on plain jane black rifles!

 

[osprey]

My 2 cents is warm your gun up and the rattle cans on a heater vent and get them warm but not hot. I've never bothered to degrease mine just kind of give them a good once over with a clean rag on the sweet spots. There are a ton of YouTube videos on it. Be creative in your stencils, things like stickers to remove after paint like a punisher skull and such. Dollar store and Kraft and fabric and thrift stores have interesting things that can be used as stencils from fake vegetation and flowers to old football jerseys and fish net laundry bags. primary arms sells some cool real deal stencils specifically for this I've wanted for awhile.

Good input Uni! I would however advocate for degreasing and possibly roughing up any slick surfaces for max adhesion. My old scattergun got both and the paint has held up remarkably.

 

[Member 34319]

F it I'm doing it. Thread is plenty motivation and I've always said I'd do it. Mostly as I figured I'd buy enough paint to do a few that can be stored for later if needed. IE it's probably a good idea to have some camo spray paint laying around.

 

[TTSX]

Looks like a christmas decoration