Thanks, Paul! I sometimes get carried away on projects like these. The original rifle paint job took about a week of on-and-off work. Eventually I figured out the method you saw in the video, and things went more quickly. Can't argue with the results, though!
WeirdSymptoms Thanks, Symptoms! I recently applied the same camouflage to a bolt-action rifle if you'd like to check that out: ruclips.net/video/NJplWQSRjb0/видео.html
Thanks for the comments, Ryan! As long as you can guess the right colors on the Lauer site, you can make camouflage to suit individual environments. I got lucky in my case; this rifle blends in very well in every season here.
im usualy a hater and a troll. But you did a great job. hell! it looks better than the LCW Catalog guns. I like the way you didn't press the templates completely down. I think the fuzzy look adds more to the camo effect. the fact I even commented, in a positive light tells you what a good job you did!!!
+Ed Otis To process your comment, I am combining Poe's Law with Schroedinger's Cat. I am in a state of quantum indeterminacy with one state crushed by sarcasm and another elated by your compliments. Either way, thanks Ed! You should see how it worked out on my bolt-action varminter: ruclips.net/video/NJplWQSRjb0/видео.html
Sometime I'll do a test of its effectiveness against a few backdrops. I'm curious to see if it will perform better or worse in this environment than the actual MARPAT colors.
You're quite right. The material I was using was contact paper, and when I first starting airbrushing I actually adhered the stencils and got sharp edges. The problem was time. Adhering each stencil to the complex surfaces of the receivers took a very long time, and getting shapes to touch was awful. Floating the stencils made the edges a tiny bit fuzzier in places, but doing so reduced the project time by perhaps 80%.
Thanks, Jeffrey! Sometime I'll have to show how the Duracoat is wearing. You'd be amazed. There are almost no scratches or scuffs. This stuff is unbelievably tough.
+plow21 Go for it! There are a ton of great patterns and colors out there. If you're going for pure functionality, be sure to take stock of your local environment and adjust accordingly.
Do you use the rifle for hunting? If so I think regardless of the comparison between the actual USMC MARPAT and your paint Job it looks awesome and would definitely get the job done of concealing your weapon and breaking up the pattern. Good Job man, good video, very instructional. Thumbs Up.
+Danny Gomez Thanks, Danny! I have indeed taken it out varminting. Prairie dogs have excellent visual acuity, so I like to camouflage everything on me. The pattern works extremely well. So well, in fact, that I make sure not to lay my gear down.
Great vid except for the cleaner. The lacquer thinner won't work as well because Duracoat is not actually paint. They do sell a product on their website for cleaning that may work a little better to keep your tools clean. Thanks for the upload!
You're quite right. Since this stuff is essentially an epoxy, I have noticed a little difficulty removing the hardener from my measuring spoons. It usually takes two passes with the lacquer thinner. I have the Duracoat solvent, but I think I'll save it for stripping the gun later (if I ever decide to do that). The lacquer thinner does a darn fine job on my less expensive tools and measuring spoons, etc.
Great Job! Looks like a ton of work, but a fun project with awesome results. I think the term is just "Aliasing" though....anti-aliasing would be making smooth lines from what would have been pixelly stuff. (game nerd)
Thanks for the comments, Thomas! It was indeed a big project, but as you were saying, the results are quite nice. I still can't believe how tough the Duracoat is. It doesn't chip or fade; it just slowly wears in a few small areas that are frequently abraded. I keep forgetting that I need to make a follow-up video. The gun looks almost exactly the same as when I sprayed it.
+plow21 So far I have encountered no failures or alterations due to lubricants or cleaning solvents. The only deterioration I've noticed is chipping in a few spots where I didn't clean or abrade the original surface well enough, and some scrapes from hard use. I would estimate that the paint job is still in 98% of its original condition.
Question. What PSI did you use and what do you recommend to keep as matte as possible other than thin coats. And last question the base coat you mixed what 2 colors
In this case, the rifle and accessories were unpainted. All I did was remove any oil and dirt with brake cleaner or engine degreaser. However, if I wanted to put another paint job on it, I would strip it first.
Thanks, Donny! It's a fun project, isn't it? Here's a possibility that I've been kicking around - try taking pictures of the terrain where you live or hunt. Then try to replicate the prevalent colors and textures. Might be cool.
BennyBoombatz - I have had no problems so far. The Duracoated silencer you see in this video gets extremely hot, and there has been no degradation of the finish.
I started out by sticking the stencils, but after the laying down the second color, I realized the project was taking much too long and the results weren't as complex as I would like. Once I started simply hovering the stencils over the rifle, everything got quicker. It was also much easier to add small-scale complexity. True, there are a handful of blurry edges, but I got those with the adhering method, too.
Ah; my dirty secret. Don't tell anyone, but it's a UTG free-float quad rail. It's big and chunky like the old-school Daniel Defense rails, but it seems to be well built.
I thought that's what it was, not the easiest rail to come across anymore, but a hell of a lot easier to find then the surefire m73 Picatinny. thank you for the reply sir.
Yeah; this one was an error on my part. There seems to be quite a bit of controversy about using black in camouflage patterns, and this question didn't seem to be resolved in my research on MARPAT. I analyzed my own Woodland Digital equipment and determined that it was a very dark brown, not a black, which according to the rules of color perception would look like black at higher frequencies. I had a choice; select the Lauer black, or select a dark brown. I went with the dark brown, which turned out to be not nearly dark enough. I should have gone with black and mixed in a little brown. It still works well; it just doesn't seem to have internal shadows.
How long does that duracoat last...I know it depends on if you prep it right like any other paint job...but how well would it hold up to a rifle that is shot frequently
Duracoat is extremely tough. It doesn't chip or flake; it just wears slowly in high-stress areas. I've had this paint job on the rifle for a couple of years now, and so far I only see worn spots on the buttock toe, the rear flip sight, and on the picatinny rail where the QR rings attach. I take this rifle out at least once a month.
Nope! I only sanded one part on the whole rifle - the legs on the bipod. The Duracoat stuck perfectly well to the native parkerizing on the receivers, the plastics on the stock and grip, the anodized aluminum of the magazines, the stainless steel barrel and the titanium silencer. I used brake cleaner and/or engine degreaser to remove all oils, and that was it!
+bryan jones Sure! The base layer is a 50/50 mix of Tactical Woodland Brown and Tactical Coyote Brown. The dark layer is Tactical Woodland Brown. Next is Tactical Woodland Green, and on top is a smattering of Tactical Coyote Brown (which I sometimes mix with a little Desert Beige for a stronger contrast). I'm glad you like the look! If you do one of these camo jobs, try using the local colors around you. Mine was designed to work well in all of the seasons in my environment. If I lived in a desert, I would make some changes.
In other words, Great Job! Keep up the good work. And No I'm not being sarcastic. But try not to talk through your respirator, but if you have to, try and talk more like Darth Vader. LoL Seriously
+Ed Otis That's why Vader had to keep killing officers. No one could understand his orders. "Apply Woodland Green at roughly 33% coverage as we enter the Hoth system a little too close to the rebel base? Aye, aye, Vader!"
Ya,,, I still do it myself. I've stepped out of the paint booth at work and start rambling on, and the kids these days just look at me with a confused stare. :-)
Hahahahaha! 'Tis a family blessing/curse. We have more movement in our joints than is strictly necessary. Great for escaping straightjackets; terrible for pointing at bottles.
I was going to say the green was spot on I dont think that 1 needs adjustment but MARPAT has a really amazing effect in heavy woodland area it really breaks up and disappears
Thanks, Paul! I sometimes get carried away on projects like these. The original rifle paint job took about a week of on-and-off work. Eventually I figured out the method you saw in the video, and things went more quickly. Can't argue with the results, though!
I can say this is the one of the best camo ive ever seen youre talented bro
Thanks a bunch for kind comments! You should see how the Duracoat is holding up: ruclips.net/video/85S8XHC6PUM/видео.html
This is pure AWESOME!
Thanks, Kevin!
I heartily recommend it. Duracoat is amazingly tough stuff. I'm really curious to see how well it adheres to my Khukuri after a backpacking trip.
Well... How did it hold up?
Nice work on the paint job. Well done vid. Concise; explained well; shot nicely. Everything I needed to know! Thanks.
WeirdSymptoms Thanks, Symptoms! I recently applied the same camouflage to a bolt-action rifle if you'd like to check that out: ruclips.net/video/NJplWQSRjb0/видео.html
Good deal. This has given me several ideas. Good work. Cheers.....
Thanks for the comments, Ryan! As long as you can guess the right colors on the Lauer site, you can make camouflage to suit individual environments. I got lucky in my case; this rifle blends in very well in every season here.
Excellent work
+Eric Pabon Well, thanks, Eric! It's slow going, but the results are effective.
Great video. I might have to try duracoating some of my weapons now
im usualy a hater and a troll. But you did a great job. hell! it looks better than the LCW Catalog guns. I like the way you didn't press the templates completely down. I think the fuzzy look adds more to the camo effect. the fact I even commented, in a positive light tells you what a good job you did!!!
+Ed Otis To process your comment, I am combining Poe's Law with Schroedinger's Cat. I am in a state of quantum indeterminacy with one state crushed by sarcasm and another elated by your compliments. Either way, thanks Ed! You should see how it worked out on my bolt-action varminter: ruclips.net/video/NJplWQSRjb0/видео.html
You must do that all the time because Damn....... that looks like you've been doing it 30 years!
I think it took about that long to make one. 🤣
Sometime I'll do a test of its effectiveness against a few backdrops. I'm curious to see if it will perform better or worse in this environment than the actual MARPAT colors.
Not bad, with the stencils you have you get a soft edge. You should use airbrush frisket film to get perfect sharp edges.
You're quite right. The material I was using was contact paper, and when I first starting airbrushing I actually adhered the stencils and got sharp edges. The problem was time. Adhering each stencil to the complex surfaces of the receivers took a very long time, and getting shapes to touch was awful. Floating the stencils made the edges a tiny bit fuzzier in places, but doing so reduced the project time by perhaps 80%.
Wow very nice!!
God that is gorgeous.
Thanks, Jeffrey! Sometime I'll have to show how the Duracoat is wearing. You'd be amazed. There are almost no scratches or scuffs. This stuff is unbelievably tough.
That looks amazing.
Thanks! If you want to try it on your own firearm, it's not all that difficult. Time consuming, mostly.
Great video,I'm about to paint my canik tp9sf like this.
well great job looks good on my end I may try painting a few of mine
+plow21 Go for it! There are a ton of great patterns and colors out there. If you're going for pure functionality, be sure to take stock of your local environment and adjust accordingly.
Do you use the rifle for hunting? If so I think regardless of the comparison between the actual USMC MARPAT and your paint Job it looks awesome and would definitely get the job done of concealing your weapon and breaking up the pattern. Good Job man, good video, very instructional. Thumbs Up.
+Danny Gomez Thanks, Danny! I have indeed taken it out varminting. Prairie dogs have excellent visual acuity, so I like to camouflage everything on me. The pattern works extremely well. So well, in fact, that I make sure not to lay my gear down.
diggin' it! very nice work!
Wtf.... It's beautiful!!!!
Well I'm blushing. Thanks, man! Someday I'll make a video illustrating how well the rifle disappears in my local terrain. The camo works really well.
The Social Regressive awesome Looking forward to spamming the like button in that video.
Great vid except for the cleaner. The lacquer thinner won't work as well because Duracoat is not actually paint. They do sell a product on their website for cleaning that may work a little better to keep your tools clean. Thanks for the upload!
You're quite right. Since this stuff is essentially an epoxy, I have noticed a little difficulty removing the hardener from my measuring spoons. It usually takes two passes with the lacquer thinner. I have the Duracoat solvent, but I think I'll save it for stripping the gun later (if I ever decide to do that). The lacquer thinner does a darn fine job on my less expensive tools and measuring spoons, etc.
Great Job! Looks like a ton of work, but a fun project with awesome results. I think the term is just "Aliasing" though....anti-aliasing would be making smooth lines from what would have been pixelly stuff. (game nerd)
Thanks for the comments, Thomas! It was indeed a big project, but as you were saying, the results are quite nice. I still can't believe how tough the Duracoat is. It doesn't chip or fade; it just slowly wears in a few small areas that are frequently abraded. I keep forgetting that I need to make a follow-up video. The gun looks almost exactly the same as when I sprayed it.
Very nice!
It's holding up well, too. The video I'm going to release this Friday features this rifle, and the finish still looks great.
great job how does the paint hold up to cleaning solvents and lubricants?
+plow21 So far I have encountered no failures or alterations due to lubricants or cleaning solvents. The only deterioration I've noticed is chipping in a few spots where I didn't clean or abrade the original surface well enough, and some scrapes from hard use. I would estimate that the paint job is still in 98% of its original condition.
Question. What PSI did you use and what do you recommend to keep as matte as possible other than thin coats. And last question the base coat you mixed what 2 colors
Great job. If you could upload again those Digital patterns, the link is broken. Thank you
Thanks for letting me know, Mayra! I have updated the links.
Very nice, do you strip the older paint on the AR or just paint over?
In this case, the rifle and accessories were unpainted. All I did was remove any oil and dirt with brake cleaner or engine degreaser. However, if I wanted to put another paint job on it, I would strip it first.
that turned out awesome! I just have one color of duracoat down I would like to do different colors on top its hard to decide what looks good
Thanks, Donny! It's a fun project, isn't it? Here's a possibility that I've been kicking around - try taking pictures of the terrain where you live or hunt. Then try to replicate the prevalent colors and textures. Might be cool.
The Social Regressive good idea I may try that out I do want it to blend in and disappear
In my opinion this looks like a mix of Army silver and USMC Woodlands MARPAT
+thesweatleaf I can see that. The Duracoat colors are somewhat desaturated compared to the official MARPAT colors. They sure do work, though!
Ok, good work though. Would you do another?
thesweatleaf
Already done! ruclips.net/video/NJplWQSRjb0/видео.html
nice job
Thanks, All Ways Right!
Your rifle looks awesome man wish you could do mine! But I'm in east Tennessee
SUPAKRUNCH! I gotta remember that I have ammo for you. And thanks!
Rather just rattle can. Easy to fix and does the job well.
I've done the rattle cans, too. The results are very good, if a bit thick.
Nice
Will duracoat last on an ar15 barrel or does it get to hot?
BennyBoombatz - I have had no problems so far. The Duracoated silencer you see in this video gets extremely hot, and there has been no degradation of the finish.
Did you do the entire rifle with sticking the stencils to it?
I started out by sticking the stencils, but after the laying down the second color, I realized the project was taking much too long and the results weren't as complex as I would like. Once I started simply hovering the stencils over the rifle, everything got quicker. It was also much easier to add small-scale complexity. True, there are a handful of blurry edges, but I got those with the adhering method, too.
if you don't kind me asking, what rail is that? I love it
Ah; my dirty secret. Don't tell anyone, but it's a UTG free-float quad rail. It's big and chunky like the old-school Daniel Defense rails, but it seems to be well built.
I thought that's what it was, not the easiest rail to come across anymore, but a hell of a lot easier to find then the surefire m73 Picatinny. thank you for the reply sir.
One color you did not use was black. Just FYI
The marine digital has it
Yeah; this one was an error on my part. There seems to be quite a bit of controversy about using black in camouflage patterns, and this question didn't seem to be resolved in my research on MARPAT. I analyzed my own Woodland Digital equipment and determined that it was a very dark brown, not a black, which according to the rules of color perception would look like black at higher frequencies. I had a choice; select the Lauer black, or select a dark brown. I went with the dark brown, which turned out to be not nearly dark enough. I should have gone with black and mixed in a little brown. It still works well; it just doesn't seem to have internal shadows.
How long does that duracoat last...I know it depends on if you prep it right like any other paint job...but how well would it hold up to a rifle that is shot frequently
Duracoat is extremely tough. It doesn't chip or flake; it just wears slowly in high-stress areas. I've had this paint job on the rifle for a couple of years now, and so far I only see worn spots on the buttock toe, the rear flip sight, and on the picatinny rail where the QR rings attach. I take this rifle out at least once a month.
Awesome thanks man...also if my gun is already parkerized to I have to sand and scuff the parkerized part
Nope! I only sanded one part on the whole rifle - the legs on the bipod. The Duracoat stuck perfectly well to the native parkerizing on the receivers, the plastics on the stock and grip, the anodized aluminum of the magazines, the stainless steel barrel and the titanium silencer. I used brake cleaner and/or engine degreaser to remove all oils, and that was it!
Give your blouse a little time and it'll be the same color. They fade pretty quick
Ha! Good point!
Can you list the color you used. It looks AMAZING!
+bryan jones Sure! The base layer is a 50/50 mix of Tactical Woodland Brown and Tactical Coyote Brown. The dark layer is Tactical Woodland Brown. Next is Tactical Woodland Green, and on top is a smattering of Tactical Coyote Brown (which I sometimes mix with a little Desert Beige for a stronger contrast). I'm glad you like the look! If you do one of these camo jobs, try using the local colors around you. Mine was designed to work well in all of the seasons in my environment. If I lived in a desert, I would make some changes.
Thank you again for responding. I'll share results with you when I'm done.
bryan jones You're welcome! You should post your pics on the Facebook page. I'd love to show off some projects. facebook.com/TheSocialRegressive
I liked your page and sent you photo of the pattern I want on my rifle. Are you a Marine?
bryan jones
Nope! I just dig the camo pattern. It works perfectly here in Eastern Oklahoma. I'll check out that photo!
Should've used dark coyote as base coat
In other words, Great Job! Keep up the good work. And No I'm not being sarcastic. But try not to talk through your respirator, but if you have to, try and talk more like Darth Vader. LoL Seriously
+Ed Otis That's why Vader had to keep killing officers. No one could understand his orders. "Apply Woodland Green at roughly 33% coverage as we enter the Hoth system a little too close to the rebel base? Aye, aye, Vader!"
Ya,,, I still do it myself. I've stepped out of the paint booth at work and start rambling on, and the kids these days just look at me with a confused stare. :-)
Steve said the sages look like marpat.. Just call lcw
Will do. Thanks!
1:10 OH MY FUCKING LORD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FINGER! NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!
Hahahahaha! 'Tis a family blessing/curse. We have more movement in our joints than is strictly necessary. Great for escaping straightjackets; terrible for pointing at bottles.
Burnt bronze for your tan dark earth brown idk for the green man..
I think the green was the only one I got right. Between us that may be the formula.
I was going to say the green was spot on I dont think that 1 needs adjustment but MARPAT has a really amazing effect in heavy woodland area it really breaks up and disappears
dude email me I'll hook you up with actual marpat. that proper top looks very uncomfortable
Not an actual USMC blouse.
True. I forgot this is a replica.