New AR, first Duracoat project.

Caught some sales.
Bear Creek Arsenal upper. Palmetto State Armory build kit. Aero Precision lower (not on sale).
Swapped the build kit pistol grip for a Magpul K2. Seriously, I love these grips. Built for me.
The initial test fit:


Then decided I wanted something so it wasn't Just Another Black Rifle, but didn't want the local Bubba spray-can camo job or Realtree, and didn't want the effort of multi-color jobs.
Turns out 'Magpul Foliage Green' is right smack between 'palmetto bush' and 'cement', and would work well against wood ground litter or sandy soil. It's the exact gray-green of the lichen on tree bark or dry spanish moss.
Also I wanted an excuse to finally use my airbrush.
So, a bottle of Duracoat and an Amazon adhesive stencil later, I got this:


Yeah, I'm happy with that.
The stencil was 9x14, including a border. Not long enough either direction and the longer had the pattern horizontal. So I cut it in half and cobbled it together the other direction. It still wasn't quite long enough, which led me to that pattern--a vague gray-black-gray fade along the rifle.
I think I did okay.
I'm not going to say that masking and cutting out painter's tape for the hexmag was the best decision I've made for my time, but it worked well.

And, set up the most comfortable way to actually use it:


Going to slap a Romeo 5 on top and call it a day.

And yes, I did all the details.

Subtle but present.

trackskippy said:

Looks good!

You realize that youre about to be doomed, right? Once you start painting stuff, everything you have is fair game.

The only thing that might be worse, is stippling.

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Kinda, and there's a lot of Duracoat left. And I love using the airbrush.
I do not love cleaning the airbrush. Duracoat is not a 'spray thinner through it and you're done' thing.

BigBlue 94 said:

What thinner are you using?

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Lacquer thinner for the bulk cleaning, reducer to finish.
In my case, it's that the duracoat collected on the needle guard and one or two of the parts inside. Probably as much from the airbrush design as the Duracoat itself.

BigBlue 94 said:

Ive found that the 1 part reducer helps reduce buildup on the needle guard. I keep an eye on it and use a twisted up paper towel to keep it mostly free of build up.

Are you using a cheap air brush or something a bit more "professional"? Siphon or gravity feed?

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I didn't use the reducer because it sprays well enough without it One less thing to do math on between batches.
It's just a cheap Master branded airbrush and compressor kit. Gravity feed. Didn't expect much, but it's working better than any name-brand siphon-fed one I've tried. Just don't expect it to last long.
If I keep on with airbrush projects, I'll upgrade to Paasche or Iwata.