It’s supposed to be 80 degrees on Friday so it’s time to get out the rattle cans and paint my DDM4. A few weeks ago I played around with some Krylon on my son’s toy MP5, overall the results were good. I wasn’t crazy about the khaki color they offer in their camo line as I think it’s too light. I picked up some Aluma-Hyde and tried it on one of my PMAGs yesterday. I like the color but the paint is much thicker, it takes one week to cure, and it appears the finish will be a little more shiny and slick.
For those of you who have painted your blasters, which paint do you prefer and why? The Krylon is much cheaper but I wonder how durable it will be. I also like the fact that it dries much quicker. I’m sure I can find a british khaki or similar color in Krylon. I do like the supposed durability of the Aluma-Hyde.
Also, when painting, what have you removed or taped in prepping? I plan to tape my front and rear sights, cover the end of the barrel and plug the QD sling mount attachments. Other than closing the dust cover, am I missing anything? Should I separate the upper and lower or just paint it all in one shot?
Sorry for the ramble, I did a search but didn’t see exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks for the suggestions.
i havent used aluma-hyde, but i’ve used kyrlon and rustoleum. the complaints you have about alumahyde are the same i have about rustoleum- it’s more of an enamel than a paint, if that makes sense… takes WEEKS to fully cure, and does end up with a little bit of a sheen to it. it also holds up better, once fully cured, however.
so it’ll probably be about the same offset for you… you just need to weigh the cure time, your desire for a durable finish, and color options, and make a decision. i will still use rustoleum for certain projects, but nothing i cant stand to wait forever for. i did use rustoleum textured brown paint for my glock grip, and heated it with a heat-lamp in my shop- it was cured enough to use in about a day… but the vast majority of my painting is krylon. i’m not concerned about “finish” much, so i’m not bothered that it rubs/chips off pretty easily.
i strip the weapon with brake cleaner, wipe down, and blast the thing fully assembled. i tape the lenses of optics, but nothing else. when doing mags, i’ve started taping off the tops, because of magwell issues, but thats it.
hope that helps
Krylon will be much easier to remove.
When he said “WEEKS,” he wasn’t exaggerating. I used Alumahyde-II or two rifles, and would never use it again. The nozzles clog often, and its a little difficult to spray. It takes at least of drying before you can really handle the gun at all, and curing will be done sometime in the next fiscal year :eek:
Now, I just use Krylon with a matte clear coat or adhesion promoter.
I’ve painted G.I. magazines that I rebuilt with Krylon froim Wal-Mart. It has held up remarkably well. For my rifle I used Duracoat for two reasons; one, I had never painted a rifle before, and two, I used duracoat because I was using my airbrush and wanted as durable a finish as I could get.
I’ve done a couple rifles in Alumahyde II and like it quite a bit.
Here’s one:
Shooter521, how has that rifle been running? It was the model for my Recce build after I found your page during a Google search.
