Well it took buying a bright and shiny R-1 to make me sack up and paint my SBR. I was going to have to paint the R-1 anyway so I just said what the hell, why not do the whole thing. Below are the supplies and methods I used YMMV.
I didn’t get a chance to take a pre-first-coat-picture because the wife ran off with the camera and I could wait to get started
Below you can see the gear that I used to get the job done; Krylon Camouflage in Khaki, Brown and OD Green, Painters tape, surgical gloves, hairdryer, Knife, 400 grit sandpaper, ballpoint pen, white t-shirt.
Not pictured: Non-Chlorinated Break Cleaner, Quarter, Nickel, Coat Hanger, small piece rolled up cardboard, palm leaf, and laundry bag.
First I made sure that the rifle was unloaded, closed the dust cover, and inserted a magazine. I used the 400 grit sand paper and lightly sanded the R-1 just to roughen up the surface so that it would take paint better. I removed the buttpad from the stock and hung the rifle from the stock with a coat hanger. I then sprayed the gun down with non-chlorinated brake cleaner. After it had air dried, I wiped down the rifle with the t shirt making sure that it stayed white to ensure that the rifle was free of dirt and debris.
Next step was to cut my tape for the scope lenses. I stole this next step from another member on this forum. The front lens is the same size as a quarter and the rear is the same size as a nickel. I put a strip of tape on to a plastic card and traced around the coins with the pen. Then I cut out the tape with the knife and put the tape on the lenses, pushing the edges down into the crevices with the pen. I then taped off the other important parts of the rifle; the dial on the side of the sight, the rear and front sight post, and the lens of the flashlight. I rolled up a small piece of cardboard and stuck it into the muzzle brake so to not get any paint in the barrel. I then taped off the top and windows of the extra magazines and laid down some cardboard.
For the base coat I used the Khaki. I heated the rifle and mags with the hairdryer to promote bonding and went to town with the rattle can (remember to shake the can for a full 3 mins after you start to hear the ball moving, before you start spraying). I did two coats of the Khaki, heating the parts with the hairdryer between each coat. Remember to use long sweeping strokes so not to promote running. After I did two coats, I waited 15 mins and flipped everything. Do the same thing on this side and let sit for 15 mins. This is what you end up with.
For the next color I used the OD Green. Choose your favorite stencil for this coat. I used a palm leaf from my back yard. I did the same process of heating the parts before painting. I held the stencil (Palm leaf) against the rifle and made several light passes with the spray. Only one coat here and keep the spray light so as to not go too dark. However if you go too dark just do a light dust with the Khaki to soften it a little. After 15 mins, flip the gun, rinse wash repeat. Here is were we are now.
Ok, time for the final coat. Here is were the Brown comes in. I used a cut up laundry back for this step just to change up and keep the patterns random but you can also used the same stencil you used for the second color just hold it in different places so that all three colors are showing. If you use the laundry bag, be careful to be random, a little bit with this type of stencil goes a long way. Same process as on the second color, and remember that if you go to dark you can lighten it up with the Khaki. The picture of the rifle is before I lightened it back up with some Khaki. The mags have already been lightened up in the picture.
My final step was to take the Brown and lightly dust the top of the rifle from about a foot away. I then heated up everything with the hairdryer and waited for an hour. I then removed all the tape and hung the rifle up with the coat hanger. I plan on leaving it there for a week to cure up nicely as it is kinda chilly out. Here are some close ups.
Some things that I learned
- Tape and prep time takes the longest but pays off the most.
- The type of stencil is not near as important as being random (symmetry is not normal in nature)
- Lighter is better, at least in my AO and believe in many peoples.
Hope that this can help someone. Let me know if you have any questions and I will see if I can help. This is only my first camo job, I know that I have a lot to learn but I am pretty happy with how it turned out and I can’t wait to get out and beat her up a little in the next class.
Cheers,
TS
