Sponge Camo by JRN156

[Spock]

I have posted this here with permission from the original author JRN156 I did NOT write this tutorial.

I wanted to share my experience trying out Sponge Camo and found only a few references on some other forums so I thought I would post a how to.

Materials-
Khaki, OD, and Oregano Rustoleum or Krylon
Sponge-Walmart craft section buy the one that look like natural sponges.
Gloves
A likely victim

I started by painting an old stock with a base coat of khaki.



I then painted random but fairly evenly spaced stripes of OD over the khaki base coat.



The next step was to spray some of the khaki onto a paper plate, then dip the sponge into the paint and dab the khaki paint onto the OD stripes. Dont go to heavy.



The next step is to take the sponge then dip it in OD paint then dab the OD paint on the kahki. Again don't go to heavy.



This is what you should have so far- not half bad but we're not done. The next step is to put some Oregano color over the whole thing again using the paper plate and the sponge.



After the Oregano.

http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu198/jrn156/Spongecamo016.jpg

I should have left well enough alone at this point but thought it needed some brown or dark tan so I started with a liitle Rustoleum Nutmeg and although its kind of close to the dark tan background in woodland Marpat I thought it was to light. I then followed up with some Rustoleum Chestnut-still to light. So––- I went with Rustoleum Flat Brown. It finished up a little busy but blends in well.





Not bad for a first attempt.

I liked the overall effect and thought that for a rattle can job it looks outstanding.

For my next attempt I decided to try an urban type camo consisting of Rustoleum light gray, medium and dark gray primer. The victim is my son's old airsoft gun.




Here is the finished product. It seems that using three colors keeps the pattern a little more open and defined.




I was wondering if it would be possible to use this technique with Duracoat. I've painted with stencils and will continue to do so but this seems like alot of fun and it's not permanent.

The next victim will be one of the ARs.

[Spock]

part 2: analog marpat

The next project is my Bushmaster A2 upper carbine. I wanted to try a pattern that would look like woodland Marpat. This pattern works really well here in North Florida plus I like the way it looks.

Rifle de-greased with brake cleaner. Parts that I wanted to stay black are masked off with blue painters tape.



Base coat of Rustoleum Nutmeg and OD.



Base coats done, ready for the sponge.




Tan sponge coat done.




OD sponge coat done.



Black sponge coat done.

http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu198/jrn156/Gunpicture-1301.jpg

Khaki sponge coat done. Finish with 2-3 coats of matte clear.



Against Marpat.

[Spock]

written by SGL21-61

I found this guys tutorial in of all places AR15.com. However upon looking at his pics I noticed the pattern for marpat was good the colors were wrong. In the time preceding up to this I had been collecting paints suitable for camoflage from various sources. for my marpat wannabe this is what i used:

Rustoleum Satin Nutmeg- i'd love to find this in flat but all i could was Satin. you might find this color in flat from an online source i got mine at Home Depot.

Krylon Satin Hunter Green(wal mart or home depot)- i had bought seriously EIGHT cans of green in various shades and brands. Rustolems deep forest green flat camo paint work for this application with a bit of flat white mixed to lighten it up.

for the portion that JRN156 used tan, I used the nutmeg again. I did one mag up and used Kyrlon Camo ultra flat SAND color and it was way too freaking light the nut meg worked.

Instead of using the OD green he used I again used the Hunter Green.

I used Krylon ultra flat Black from their Camoflauge line I got it at Wal mart

and finally Krylon Ultra Flat Khaki cammoflauge from Walmart.

the author used clear matte but i used Krylon Clear FLAT from K-mart.




my green could be a bit lighter and next time i won't use as much khaki.

[Hawkeye]

Good stuff! Here are a couple of links for some paint that I've heard is good stuff. I've been a long tim Krylon Camo line user, but I plan to try this out in the very near future.

Kits for $27 - http://www.aervoe.com/paints_coating...amo-Paint.html
Individual cans for $4 - http://www.aervoe.com/paints_coating...aint-1074.html

Have to call to order though, as the website cart does everything by the case.

[Diz]

Very good work. Simple and effective, in a home workshop setting. Good job.

I'm not sure how duracoat would work using your techniques, but my gut feeling is you could do it. The upside is you get every camo color you could ever want, and by custom mixing them get exactly what you want. The downside is you need an airbrush, but the good news is that an inexpensive rig will do just fine. As an alternative, I think one of the smaller, touch-up sprayguns, like you see at Lowes would work great in this application as well.

I like duracoat for a lot of reasons but you have to keep in mind it's a 2-part enamel, so you have to mix it right, and remember it does have a pot life. I would suggest an overall base coat layer and then add additional colors. Duracoat likes to be applied a little thicker than other coatings for maximum effectiveness.

Another nice thing is since it's in bottles instead of spraycans, it should be easier to set up your sponge-on operation.

And lastly, if you can keep from handling it for a couple of weeks minimum, 30 days optimum, you will get a much more durable finish.

[Spock]

as written originally by JRN156:

Well I tried the sponge camo technique with Duracoat and it works!

I started with a AR mag that I had previously coated Duracoat Magpul FDE, that had seen some hard use.



The next step ws to spray the next color on the mag. In this case I used HK black because that's what I was spraying for another project and didn't want to mix up another batch of paint for just an experiment.



The next step was to pour some of the black from the mixing jar onto a paper plate and the get a small piece of sponge dip it in the paint and wearing gloves dab the paint on your work piece the same way you would do it with Krylon. In this case putting the black on the FDE.







The next step is to mix a small amount of your first color, in this case Magpul FDE, in the mixing jar and pour some onto the plate. Using the sponge put the FDE on the black.

[Spock]

Al's army navy in Sanford, Casselberry and Orlando sell those paints.

I bought the Green and Foliage green colors they were $4.99 each.

only issue I had is drying time. the Aervoe paints took an hour in the garage to dry.

honestly of all the paints I bought I perfered the Krylon. Krylons paint dries so fast you actually have to work quickly with the sponge or else it dries on you. Also the nozzles when you clear them waste the least amount of product and propellent gas. Also I have found diffrent wal marts may have diffrent colors in stock. I bought 2 cans of Sand at the walmart in Cape Coral FL a few weeks ago. all i can get here is khaki, black, OD and super dark brown.

[Hawkeye]

Wow, the Duracoat look spretty good.

Hmm...I did not know the Aervoe paints were slow to dry. Thats one thing I have always liked about the Krylon camo line paint, it dry's REALLY fast. May just end up having to stick with it.

[Diz]

Another thing I forgot to mention is that pre-heating the parts, around 250 deg, and then spraying makes a big difference with duracoat, KG, and Brownells gunkote. I then bake for about 45 min at the same temp to accelerate the cure. Use a light pair of gloves (like Mechanix) for transfers.

Also, do your chemical de-grease before pre-baking. Any oils left will seep out and can be easily removed before coating.

Make wire hangers that will work with your oven racks. It's gonna stink a little. Best done when wife is not around!

For really big parts, coat one side at a time, bake, then coat remaining side. Coat racks with tin foil (!) so possible grease does not transfer to parts.

Gotta say it again, duracoat likes a thicker coat than other stuff, so I would give a complete base coat of one color before adding camo. Bake it to accelerate cure, then add other colors.

Good technique for marpat. Much better than all that masking I was taught. I'm gonna try it.

[pitbulld45]

Glad I came across this. I cant believe how much it looks like the digital.

[Spock]

i know right? i mean those mags blend right into genuine marpat.

[DIM TIM]

Thought that I'd check out this post, and boy am I so glad I did. This is hands down, the best technique I have seen yet for DIY's. By the way, I have done some model painting in the past, and often could not find a certain color in a flat finish.......no problem, paint with a semi-gloss or glosss and then use a dull coat finish like the one made by TESTORS. Gives a flat finish to even to gloss paint. :cool:

[john1929]

I need to give this a try.

[Firestorm]

MUILT CAM ANYONE

Need to work out the base color, but I would think if one used the 7 colors used in MUILT CAM our toys just might fanish from site. any thoughts?

I am going to try it out this weekend. Hope it works. ( sponges! Daaaaa / Cooool)

[kihnspiracy]

That looks pretty good. I may have to try that with my LMT. I think I will use Krylon.