Can you please tell us about prepping surfaces and how many layers you did, drying times etc?
Is there a way to add a little bit of wood grain appearance by using a brush with maybe a little bit of black paint ?
Brownells has, or at least used to have, a couple of good videos on painting and prep. Was mainly geared to their Aluma Hyde II paints, but it applies to any of them really.
The main thing is to degrease everything well (I usually do it twice, with the second round just before I paint) and that includes your hands while youre painting and handling the gun.
Before you start, plan out how you will hang or allow it to dry, otherwise youll be looking silly standing there holding it while it drys.
I used to break things down into parts and paint, but thats really just a PITA and unnecessary, unless youre not going to paint all of it. For camo jobs, the whole gun gets painted, and I just tape off whatever I dont want painted, like the sights, glass, etc.
A hairdryer is a big help in "setting" the coats.
Your best bet is to paint the whole gun with a base color, which is usually the lightest and most prevalent in the pattern, and then go with the next darkest as you go down the line. I know its hard not to, but, dont get too carried away and "busy" with things, less is better and its easier to add later than it is to do it over.
If youre experimenting, trying something new, do it first on a piece of 2x3 or something similar and see how it goes. If youre looking for a wood grain look, Id check out some of the antique furniture restoration sites for hints. My grandmother used to do that sort of thing, and while it wasnt actual wood grain, it often had that look.
Ive been painting things since the late 60's, and we always painted our hunting guns, especially the bird guns. It just naturally carried over to other things as well.
This is a rough version of Multicam, which is one of the easier spray patterns to do.
Started doing it when I switched over to the pattern back in the late 90's.
This is the same gun (different light) about 10 years out now. If you look close, you can see where things wear, but considering how much use its gotten in that time, it holds up well.
Ive stripped the paint off of guns Id painted 25 years before, that were hard use guns and used heavily as hunting/truck guns, etc, and except for maybe one or two spots where the paint had worn completely off, and the finish was exposed, the original finish underneath was pristine, wood and metal. Paint is a great preservative in that respect. You just need to use paints that are completely removable if you plan on stripping them later.
Dont use Aluma Hyde II for that.
