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AR15 Variants and Derivitives Picture Thread


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SLR 8" SBR build done. Just waiting for a few accessories (sling end plate, AAC Blast Shield, Cloud Defensive LCS, and an actual working ScoutLight head) and repairing my BTC Spectre, but otherwise al

Hey all! I kind of stumbled upon this thread by accident while searching for M16A2 receiver markings on google and saw one of Catgut's amazing VT's. Which brought me here I have been working on

One of my latest build, a real Colt M16A1 converted for GBBR on the WA system. Stripped upper, barrel and BCG was changed to Viper Tech du to my local laws. Also a video of how it was made:

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Although I'm not a "certified Cerakote applicator", still here is my home cerakoted mk18 upper. I tried to do this as much by the book as it's possible in improvised way and it seems to be working ;). The color is patriot brown, and I love it. My next replica will be in burnt bronze for sure :).

Lighting is bit of on those pics, but the color itself changes due to the light conditions and even angle. Quite interesting, because it's not metallic one...

 

DSC_0118.jpg

DSC_0120.jpg

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That's awesome. I've got a PredatAR that I've been toying with the idea of painting Patriot Brown because it seemed to me most like the color I did to my Mk18 looking gun a few years back. But I was hesitant due to the paint looking like poo in some lighting conditions. But that upper looks fantastic!

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That's awesome. I've got a PredatAR that I've been toying with the idea of painting Patriot Brown because it seemed to me most like the color I did to my Mk18 looking gun a few years back. But I was hesitant due to the paint looking like poo in some lighting conditions. But that upper looks fantastic!

 

Well, actually when I painted this part, and took a first look after baking, I was a little surprised (but not disappointed) about its real look. Perhaps it's because of deep matt finish (24:1 paint to hardener ratio), and from my scale modeling experience I know, that any color looks different in all three types of finish - glose, satin and matt, and the last one is less saturated and faded.

 

BTW - I'm glad You like it. I like it either ;).

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MRF how hard was it to do? I've been wanting to do it to an entire sr635 I have and eventually my lm4 just never knew the process.

 

Cerakote is really great paint to use and as people from company told me, which is not clearly said in instruction, and may be disturbing for someone who has some scale modeling experience, there is no place and need for thinning the paint in order to process.

So basicaly what You need is:

 

1. Descent airbrush and compressor (and steady hands ;) ) - manufacturer recommends use of an airbrush with 0,8 mm nozzle, but in fact I've read on AR15.com that 0,35 and 0,5 mm nozzles work well too.

I own only precision 0,2 mm nozzle airbrush made by Mr.Hobby (it's the same level as Iwata or Pasche) and also basically I had no problems. Only after some time, at the end of painting, my to tight nozzle started to produce little, about 1 mm wide drops, because the paint starting to dry slightly inside, but somehow I avoided bigger mistakes - nothing aesthetically intolerable. As I look at this first painting now, I think I could easily handle this by filling airbrush cup with smaller portions and cleaning airbrush with acethone in the meantime

 

2. Right - speaking of Acethone. A lot of acethone... ;). For degreasing parts and cleaning all tools. I bought 5L can.

 

3. Paint mask and protective gogles/glasses - NECESSARILY !! Mostly because of acethone - believe me, You wouldn't want to breath its fumes for an hour or so...

 

4. Some metal parts for creating some work stand for receiver parts. Frankly I decided to do it different than in training videos, and I gave up any rods and wires in order to mount parts for painting and baking, and I did this:

 

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a7/Konjoo/Mk%2018/DSC_0105.jpg

 

It's very stable, and what's more important, I can use this stand for all stages - degreasing/cleaning, painting, baking - without removal.

 

5. And some electric kitchen oven ;). It would be nice if it has some air circulation, and heaters at the bottom and top. I bought some new, but damaged one for ~30$ (with broken hatch, which I repaired in about 5 minutes, saving aprox. ~100$ ;) ). Of course its chamber has to be wide enough to accomodate parts without any risk of touching with any of oven parts.

IMPORTANT - somehow I strongly recommend NOT TO USE oven You and Your families use for preparing food. Although there is no specially intense smell during baking process, but still it seems to risky to me anyway. That's why I bought one strictly for Cerakote applying.

 

6. Proceeding nicely by the book. Actually I skipped one of parts preparing stages - sandblasting. But I had no choice - my goal was to do whole thing on budget, and paying for this service could be a bit painful. But I've read it happens more often and reall steel users don't report any issues connected with skipping sandblasting stage.

 

7. Proceeding with no hurry ;).

 

And I think that would be all. I think there's no need to write here about details covered in instruction added to paint itself. Generally it could be done if one has some basic equipement.

 

Now, to conclude - the costs and paint covering evectiveness.

My costs (if course some may vary depends on where You live, and what You have in your toolbox):

 

1. Cerakote tester with hardener - 51,95$ incl. shipping - I guess this one doesn't change ;).

2. Acethone - 15$

3. Oven - 30$

4. Metal bits for stand - 2$ ;)

 

How many parts I can paint from single tester ?

For painting upper receiver I used reaaaaally great amount which is... 4,5 ml (incl. hardener) Yes, it's not a mistake. 4,5 ml. Lower shouldn't take no more than 10 ml (of course if You wish, I can confirm that after painting mine), so we can assume, that You need 15 ml of paint to make Your wonderful aluminum/zinc alloy airsoft receiver more wonderful ;). Tester holds 120 ml, so it should be enough for 8 increasingly wonderful metal bodies.

Expect to use bigger amounts for painting rails, due to their more complex structure.

 

Oh my, one of the longest posts I've ever written in English... I'm... tired... :D

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Thanks Guys.

Lower is done and as I expected, I needed 10 ml of paint to do it. It looks even better because of improved finish, but I think that 0,2 nozzle in my airbrush is indeed a little to tight. 0,5 mm airbrush would be great, but it's out of my wallet reach now.

Pics tomorrow, because it's already dark in here and I don't have tripod.

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Whooops. I forgot my wife took our camera to countryside, so because I promised I made some pic with my cr...py cellphone at least - surprisingly, despite some snow (poor lighting / higher ISO), it has quite accurate white balance.

I am really happy about how my blaster turned out after cerakote treating.

Normal ;) pics after weekend.

 

DSC_00091.jpg

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Man ... it really changes in different lighting conditions.

 

Indeed.

When I look at it "live" it confirms what I've been suspecting - never trust what You see on all those beautiful internet pics. Specially those made by Stickman ;).

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I bought it from shootercbgear.com. ~61$ with shipping. It's very comfortable in use, although mine has quite strong ghosting. I don't if this is common about this particular model of XPS clone. In fact I got used to it fast.

Nice to know You like my replica but... Come on Guys, it's just another block II clone ;):D.

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Katatoka - actually after all I regret a little that I haven't bought burnt bronze... But hey, it's just time for another aeg to build ;).

Receivers and ris covered with titanium and BK/DE furniture look great too. Isaac Marchiona has some VTAC based gun done like this somewhere in his album.

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Hey MRF few more things to ask before I really think about getting my hands on them...

 

1. NIC seems don't sell Cerakote outside US directly, and one "major" shooting stuff online store starts with "B" doesn't carry burnt bronze for now, where did / would you get yours?

 

2. This might sounds silly, is it required to remove original finish ( e.g. matte black on a G&P AEG receiver, or an anodized SCAR upper ), showing raw metal for the Cerakote to stick on the surface?

 

 

 

 

 

oh BTW, might also make some kydex holster / pouch as well, if I get a dedicated little oven for some non-food objects :D

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