Painting a sniper rifle

[Predator]

I wish I had a M700... I could of have got one last weekend but...yeah... =(

Looks awesome, good job on the paint used. Damn, must have required a lot of patience.

[CDN_Stalker]

Nah, was in a hurry cuz it was a break in the rain. after the first coat is on and dried, you just take the different colours, take a cedar leaf or other, and hold it on the stock and a quick spray. Move it around, overlap different colours, then put the clear coat and let dry. Took me less than 20mins to go from the green base coat to the final finish. And that included taking the pics. Gonna touch it up maybe tonight or so, add more brown in places (stock) and fix up some of my screw ups. And work on both wraps a bit more, re-adjust the cadpat remnants.

[royal marine]

looks great! what size scope is that?

[CDN_Stalker]

3-9x40mm. Looks bigger cuz the flip cover only sits on 1/2" and sticks out in front more than it should. Makes it kinda like a sunshade I guess.

[BawBag]

Originally Posted by CDN_Stalker

Thanks Rob. Still have a G36 to do something one as well, don't I?

Frigging right you do. I'd be so happy even if it looked half as good as that man!

[royal marine]

cheers

I have a question about krylon. what's the difference between Krylon fusion and krylon camouflage?

v-dog

[Manboy]

Very nice. Looks great. If I had a sniper rfle...I would contemplate doing this aswell.

[Goldman]

Originally Posted by vlun

I have a question about krylon. what's the difference between Krylon fusion and krylon camouflage?

v-dog

IIRC Kyron Camo is all matt colours, and blends with most brands of OD, khaki brown etc... where fusion is glossy, and more of a unique colour

Originally Posted by Goldman

IIRC Kyron Camo is all matt colours, and blends with most brands of OD, khaki brown etc... where fusion is glossy, and more of a unique colour

ok, what about the texture, the feel of the krylon camouflage?

krylon fusion feels sticky on metal and plastic, not what I want on my m4 rifle.

[CDN_Stalker]

Krylon camo is just flat, dry spray paint, nothing special about it except what was posted above.

[lt_poncho]

Nice paint job on the stock - I find by using a base khaki brings out the greens, but you had a good light base with the green you used. I also use testors flat matte clear to protect the paint job and keep the wear to a minimum, as well dull out any non matte colors used in the process.

Another color that mixes well is a sand yellow - makes a very light green when painted over lightly. Not sure if Gump had pics of the one that I did for him recently but it worked out well mixing yellows as a base.

Why didn't you paint the whole rifle that way? Not that it matters much since it's mostly the stock.

[CDN_Stalker]

Originally Posted by lt_poncho

Nice paint job on the stock - I find by using a base khaki brings out the greens, but you had a good light base with the green you used. I also use testors flat matte clear to protect the paint job and keep the wear to a minimum, as well dull out any non matte colors used in the process.

Another color that mixes well is a sand yellow - makes a very light green when painted over lightly. Not sure if Gump had pics of the one that I did for him recently but it worked out well mixing yellows as a base.

Why didn't you paint the whole rifle that way? Not that it matters much since it's mostly the stock.

Thanks Wayne, I appreciate hearing that from you! Gave some good advice to boot. Only thing I can say, regarding not painting the entire thing, is that the M700 has extrememly nice metal and finish on the outer barrel, almost like a real steel gun, sweet deep blued finish that I didn't want to screw with. And the scope has a very nice matte finish to it that I didn't want to touch either. My M24 had a "blah" white metal outer barrel, and the Bushnell Sportsman scope had a typical gloss finish which I wanted to drown out, so I did. So far thsi yea, as far as playing goes, I've found that a sniper rifle doesn't necessarily have to be mated up with a ghillie suit, it can be carried along with the AEG (my case my MP5 that has had more face changes than Michael Jackson................... hehe, "Would THESE faces lie to you!?!??!") and is a great first engagement weapon in cases such as base assault, as you can scope out and recon to team members, and engage from 'out of AEG range'. Can wear your every day airsoft clothes and just go with the flow for most games. When the 'feces hit the air propulsion device', move over the the AEG when it's called for. The M700 is about 5lbs lighter than my M24, is only useful when the weather/temp allows, and I only trust it on duster at this point and temp, so I figured I'd lug it around and since my MP5 is completely black, a sniper rifle that is with me doesn't need to be full camo painted anyways. Besides, my M24 is worn out and awaiting ordered parts to make it more consistant, and heck, the M700 is a SWEET gun to play with!!!

BTW, would like to see some of your paintjobs, maybe painting ideas can be exchanged?

[lt_poncho]

Ah ok - yeah I understand about the nice metal finish - 95% of the guns i've painted have all been plastics and other wannabe metals. I've recently upgraded my old M16A3 to an all metal M16A4 and it's got a really nice metal matte finish that im having doubts about painting. Thing is it's a huge black gun...

Most painting techniques are usually 'whatever works' best, but for the most part I always try to do the following when painting;

1. Go from light to dark. Start off with applying a lot of khaki krylon (cheapest and best matte base) to wide sections of the gun, vertically (gun is held horizontally so pattern should go with the trees, grass, etc). Best thing to do is to paint the gun hanging sideways and stroke side to side. Don't cover the entire gun with base, just make 2 or 3 'columns'.
2. Apply second color, usually darker one - like OD or Brown depending on what terrain you are painting for. Experience with the Khrylon camo tones, especially the brown, is to use a 'misting' of khaki khrylon before putting down the brown. It seems the brown has a tendancy to go on really dark and gloss up on plastic/flat surfaces even tho it's a matte. Putting a really light misting of khaki fixes that problem.

Even if you just want to use khrylon OD and brown on your gun - use the khaki as a base. It brings out the color and texture with much better results.

Stenciling is really what you find out in your backyard. There are a lot of interesting patterns but just consider getting a lot of samples. Especially if they are leaves and not evergreen. The paint drys slower on the leaves and it blobs making your pattern look teh ghey.

Stenciling is effective if it's done at the edges of the 'color columns'. Use the opposite color paint one or two passes, then the same color as a shadowing technique to stenciling. A few tries and you'll get what I mean.

Another technique is tiger striping. Get a bunch of different sized twigs and sticks - the longer the better, and bunch them up into your hand. This works effectively when using a dark color, like brown or black - and it really breaks up the pattern.
Basically lay the bunch of twigs out in your hand so that they make a flat fan pattern, then press them up against a large section of the gun. Do one or two quick passes until you get the desired effect. C'est cool ca!

Some of my work;




If anyone else has something I painted - feel free to post it up.

[FOX_111]

The Urban pattern and the other under it are VERY nice!! Im impressed. If I had the BDU to go along the Urban one, I'd want that on my AEG.