Battle-Worn Picture Thread

[ardrummer292]

Yes, I know all about the whole excess piccy thread thing. I figure that our beat-to-hell kit deserves its own thread, just as painted weapons do. Making a gun look worn (either through use or artificially) is just as much of an art form as painting a gun properly. I just finished giving my G&P CQB/R a nice go-over with a wire brush and power drill, changing it from "hay boiz im new to the teams lawl" to "No Comment" in one short hour. I should have piccies up later, as it's 0330 and I'm beat.

 

Let's see your worn guns and gear. Feel free to post the methods for the look you achieved, as it's much more difficult to make a gun look old than it is to make it look cherry. Piccies up!

[Skarclaw]

Articifical wear looks ######s in the large majority of cases, I've never seen one that looked good.

[BaggyPants]

Having handled and fired literally hundreds of real weapons in the last 30 years or so, including some that are WWI era, very few ever get a completely shagged out look. Gun blue and park finishes are very hardy things, and tough to wear off. It's actually a chemical alteration of the surface of the steel. Deliberate oxidation. The finish might look shiny and smooth, but it actually microscopically roughens up the surface to allow oil to stay on it. When it does start to wear off, armourers get them refinished, or they go to ratshit and rust.

 

The best way to wear AEGs, is to use them

[Bangla_Black]

You might want to look at the ak picture thread. Almost every ak there has that worn look.

besides, we dont need a new pic thread

Edited October 24, 2007 by Bangla_Black

[ardrummer292]

Alright, this is my first time aging a gun, so try to take it easy on me. Here it comes, love it or hate it...

 

 

Personally, I love it. Almost gives Lord_Sex's SEAL blaster a run for its money, in my opinion.

[Silent_Assassin]

TBH it looks like you tied it to the bumper of you car and drove 50 miles down the highway. Still it looks great

Edited October 24, 2007 by Silent_Assassin

[Magsz]

From an artistic standpoint ill give you kudos.

 

From a practical standpoint...why dont you just use the damned gun?

[Subb0]

I think you over did it..

[Silentwarrior25065491]

 

Just a little bit on the barrel, muzzel and SUSAT .... Was thinking it needed a bit more on the TMH but i'm sure that will come with use

Edited October 24, 2007 by Silentwarrior25065491

[Guinness]

Articifical wear looks ######s in the large majority of cases, I've never seen one that looked good.

 

 

...Really?

 

hmmm maybe you haven't seen the right ones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having handled and fired literally hundreds of real weapons in the last 30 years or so, including some that are WWI era, very few ever get a completely shagged out look. Gun blue and park finishes are very hardy things, and tough to wear off. It's actually a chemical alteration of the surface of the steel. Deliberate oxidation. The finish might look shiny and smooth, but it actually microscopically roughens up the surface to allow oil to stay on it. When it does start to wear off, armourers get them refinished, or they go to ratshit and rust.

 

 

Well, these all sure looked 'Battle Worn' when I saw them and shot them.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And no slight meant to anyone with this post- clearly some people want the 'fresh-out-of-the-box' look- Maybe your afraid of 'ruining' it, or don't feel your creative or handy enough to pull it off- I don't know. Maybe you don't care to do the research required to see how real guns wear and look after years of use- again, I don't know...

 

But one thing I am pretty sure of, Ardrummers point here was to showcase his enjoyment of weathering and giving a realistic look to his weapons systems- So I for one applaud that!

Edited October 24, 2007 by Guinness

[Gigueand]

The problem is you can always tell if the gun has been artifically weathered. That quite quickly takes the realism out of it... which in itself is the reason to weather a gun.

[Downtown_two]

Artificial wear annoys the hell out of me, in the time you spend doing it you could've gone out and worn it in the right places, the right amount all while having fun not thinking about wear! My AEG and sniper rifle are looking spot on, mainly because I gave it a paint job then just used it. You will NEVER recreate wear to the same effect as ACTUAL wear.

 

Just my opinion though. no offence meant to anyone.

 

Laurie

[Silent_Assassin]

The best way to get realistic looking wear on you gun is to paint it with cheap, non-hardwaring spraypaint. Then after a few games the paint will start to wear off in the right places and you'll get a better finish.

[Fin]

Im getting my AKS74 to wear naturally, apart from the bolt which i did a little artificial wear on to make it look like its been fired a bit

 

I’m hoping to have my M14 very worn, anyone done theirs?

 

[The Crunchy Bunny]

Oh, I like this thread. I'll post some pics in a while.

[snorkelman]

depends on which countries weapons you're dealing with, not all rotate them for arsenal refurb as quickly as others. Even when they do rotate in a lot of cases they can just end up getting cosmolined stuck into storage and then sold on to a third party before they ever reach date where the scheduled refurb would have took place

 

 

 

 

add weapons bought by governements with conscript armies, held by insurgents or private individuals and you can end up with a hell of a lot of small arms in dire need of an overhaul. Needs will as needs must.

 

 

[Souske]

Artificial wear is fairly tricky that looks authentic is not as easy as many people think. In many ways, it requires a certain "balance." The most common problem I see people doing is 'over-wearing' some areas of the gun, while other parts of it still look very fresh new (the only exception is if they're making a worn gun with a new part attached to it. IE: a new CQBR upper dropped onto an old M4A1 lower receiver). Over sanding with high grit sandpaper also tends to be overdone. Instead of generally using sandpapers (still use it, but very conservatively), I use acetone isntead.

Below are the weathering projects I have done on the past with some of my guns.

 

AK47 (not heavily weathered)

 

M4A1 with CQBR barrel in 'Middle Eastern operations' look

 

 

 

 

"New" CQBR upper receiver dropped onto "older M4A1"

 

USAF "GAU-5" carbine outfitted with M4A1 upper. GAU-5s are built from old CAR15 receivers. Many of them are mixed and matched with newer parts. I made the lower receiver look as if it was from the early 80s where most of the original finish was worn off (similar to old Israeli CAR15s).

 

My cheap UTG MP5 that I drybrushed. I may have added a little too much wear, but the wear is fairly 'even' and not extremely random.

 

An example of what you might not want to do (not mine):

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4027/wornaktj2.jpg

There was a lot of sanding done, but too many of it seemed random and incomplete.

 

Of course, the easiest way (though slowest), is to just use the gun.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Souske

[ianhaz]

Im very sorry, but i dont agree with all the people who say artificial wear is pointless, and that the best way to get authentic wear on an AEG is to use it. People are far too careful with their toys to ever get the amount of wear you would see on a real rifle, so to some extent artificial wear is needed if you want an authentic worn look. When done in the right places, artificial wear can look very real (take Guiness' M1 Garand, MP40 and Thompson), however i will agree that overdoing it does make it clear that the wear is artificial.

 

Souske- Is that still the Boyi springer M203 on your CQBR? Cos if it is....DAYUM it looks good

Edited October 25, 2007 by ianhaz

[Agent Hunk]

Less bashing more pictures.

 

[Guinness]

I started the whole weathering thing because I don't have skills to make custom WWII guns like my buddies over on the WW2AA boards do- VSR's into real steal KAR98, Springfield 1903 stocks, .50 cal ANM2's, 60MM mortars, etc.-

 

I started with staining the stock on my Marushin M1 Garand, but ended up with too light a color. That kind of discouraged me for about a year. When the bug finally got the best of me again I turned my attention to my AGM MP40 because it was all metal, and mostly, because it was C-H-E-A-P so if I knackered it up, I knew I wouldn't be too upset. Well that turned out so damned well and I received so many "Hey..how did you do that??" requests that I kept going, and even ended up creating the 'bolt mod' for it to move the bolt to the safe position and all. That lead to a few more guns until I had pretty much done my whole arsenal! It really has become an addiction because it was so fun and each time I got better and better and the results improved.

 

Also, regardless of how many pictures I post here of my 'work', I really am doing it to please myself first and foremost and not for anyone else's approval- what I mean is when you take one of these projects on, don't worry about the naysayers and haters- (They're just jealous anyway ) Thinking that way takes a good deal of the 'pressure' to get it exactly right away and allows you to focus on being creative rather than the negative "ZOMG! what will they say if I do this...?" thoughts that generally cause bad decisions. I would however still advise 'learning' the craft using clones or used or simply cheaper guns- even if you don't care what others might think (and you shouldn't) if you trash your $600 VFC AK your gonna be pretty upset with yourself which will lead you down the slippery slope of depression, disinterest in the sport, eating disorders, alcohol and drug dependence......oh wait...maybe thats me

 

Anyway, I now have weapons ranging from the WWII era all the way up to modern that when used with my uniform impressions set me apart from many on the field in terms of 'authenticity'. Many players turn out to games, and let me add that there is nothing wrong with this, but you see players that have obviously 'invested' a great deal of time, energy and obviously expense on their clothing and gear- Expensive rigs, bags, and all that stuff down to carrying zip ties handcuffs to use on their 'detainees' (Do these ever get used?) and they take pride in getting their BDU's dirty and 'worn'....and then carry nice, spotless, brand-new weapons.

 

 

 

...More pics the man said

 

great thread idea BTW Ardrummer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2007 by Guinness

[Whitedingo]

Im getting my AKS74 to wear naturally, apart from the bolt which i did a little artificial wear on to make it look like its been fired a bit

 

I’m hoping to have my M14 very worn, anyone done theirs?

 

My M14. All stock Marui, except for the heatshield, which is real steel.

 

 

Not overly worn, but hey, I like it!

 

[ardrummer292]

TBH it looks like you tied it to the bumper of you car and drove 50 miles down the highway. Still it looks great

 

Exactly the effect I was going for.

 

I'm well aware that the best way to wear a gun is to use it. Alas, I don't have the opportunity to skirmish every weekend and it would take far too long to get the desired effect that way.

 

Oh, and I hate new-looking guns. Hate 'em.

[Agent Hunk]

Old gun. I over did it a bit.

 

[Souske]

Souske- Is that still the Boyi springer M203 on your CQBR? Cos if it is....DAYUM it looks good

 

Haha, no, not as of now. I can easily rig it back on though. Takes less than 3 minutes to do so...if I find the parts, lol.

[TheKurodaVagrant]

If by "over did it" you were referring to the broken PEQ-2 mount, then I have to agree.