Camo Painting My 450 Bushmaster

[Cliff R]

I've decided to camo my 450 Bushmaster.  It will never be sold as I absolutely love everything about it.  Out of the box with factory ammo it's one of the most accurate platforms I've ever seen.  If all the bullets aren't basically going into the same hole at 100 yards you just didn't do your part.  The performance of the cartridge is also amazing.  I shot a HUGE buck with it two years ago at 200 yards and planted him right where he was standing.  The round went thru both shoulders and was just under the skin on the far side with near perfect expansion even at that distance.  Last year I shot a big fat doe with it about half that distance and same result.  It's very quickly became my "go-to" rifle for deer hunting here in Ohio. 

I decided recently to camo paint it and picked up the needed paint and supplies.  I alsoI watched a few Youtube videos and dug up a few threads on here.

There seems to be several good methods to accomplish a nice professional look.  Just looking for some solid advice and a few pics of how they turned out.

Some start with a light base coat then go darker, others start dark and go lighter.   It also seems pretty common to break up the pattern with burlap, laundry/fruit bags, netting, etc, where others use stencils or local foliage.

Just wanted some good solid advice before I take the plunge, thanks in advance........Cliff

 

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Cliff R

[Radioactive]

I’m happy with how mine turned out. Hasn’t seen much use since the paint job cause I’m saving my ammo( hard to replace right now). Couple of stripes and some sea sponge dots. I started with light and then dark. I painted the red dot and light on the gun.

 

[sagebrush]

nice job, i like

[shooterrex]

Here is my Grendel. I just taped off what I didn't want paint on. Hung it up and started painting.

[Cliff R]

Cool, tks for the pics. 

 

Trying to find some spare time right now to get started on mine.  Just wasn't sure if I wanted to start light and go dark, or dark then go lighter.  Seems to several different opinions or methods used on that deal, and some use stencils where others use local foliage, then others are using laundry bags, netting, burlap etc to help break up the patterns a bit......and also the sponge dapping as seen above......looks great to me!......

[Radioactive]

My thoughts are if you start dark it may take more light coats to cover it but if start light the a single dark coat should do the trick. But I’m no professional that’s for sure.

[unforgiven]

I likey 🍺

[Cliff R]

Well, finally found some time after a long work day to spend a few minutes on the new camo paint job.  Here ya go:

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Cliff R

[Radioactive]

looks good.

[shooterrex]

Looks good to me.

[Armed Eye Doc]

Great job Cliff.

[Cliff R]

Thanks.  It's probably better suited for jungle warfare than hunting in these parts in the Winter months but I liked it so much when I finished up the dark green I didn't add any brown.  Instead I went back and blended more green to break up the transitions and shade some of the lighter areas.  I'll put the scope covers and bipod back on it tomorrow, didn't paint those, the butt-plate or the storage cover for the grip.......

[Cunuckgaucho]

I like it 👍

[Cliff R]

It's actually the first AR that I've camo-painted.  I've done some equipment before, deer stands, climbers, my home made climbing sticks, etc, but never any weapons.

Relatively easy, the prep takes 3 times as long as the painting.  total time for the entire project about 2 hours. 

I taped off the trigger, scope and butt plate.  It was pretty cool in the shop yesterday so also pre-heated with one of Deb's discarded hair driers I use for a heat gun.  I also warmed the paint between coatings to help it dry faster and not run.  Most of the final detailed work was done with an old 30 round mag clamped in the shop vise to hold the weapon while I stretched the fruit bag over some areas and "dusted" them for a snake-skin appearance. 

I walked out back of the shop and obtain a fern for the foliage part of the break-up patterns.  I quickly found that keeping things tight and light spraying staying back about 10" or so produces the most pronounced patterns.  After all the break-up was finished I used the dark green to blend into and "soften" lighter areas.  A little goes a long ways there for sure. 

This project was a warm-up for my 308-AR, it's next on the list........

If anyone is interested in the method that I used it's really simple. 

1.  Completely degrease with brake-clean, dry with compressed air.

2.  Tape off or remove parts you don't want painted.  I like some "transition" and didn't want my flip-up scope plastic scope caps painted so removed them.

3.  After prep give it a very light base coat with Khaki, sand or tan would be equally as good. 

4.  Come back and apply a nice even coat with Khaki until you get full coverage.  Make sure to MOVE the safety/selector or you'll have a dark patch under it after all the work is done.

5.  Next diagonal stripes with light Army green connecting them top and bottom.

6.  Dark green is next thru the fruit bag  right over the light green diagonal stripes holding the bag tight and connecting the pattern top and bottom.  It's OK to drift over into the Khaki but pretty much follow the light green diagonal stripes, it's really not fussy.

7.  More dark green on the exposed Khaki using the fern.  This is the tricky part and you need to hold it close and very light pattern without much movement with the can or it doesn't pattern well.  Also watch for build-up of wet paint on the fern so you don't get some drops onto the rifle.  Best to obtain a new piece instead of risking dropping wet paint onto your work.

After all that is good and dry (I was cutting grass between coats so minimum 30 minutes each) I came back and "dusted" any light areas and also did some "blending" from the lighter areas to the darker ones.  Staying back and very light bursts work best here.  I got two close a couple of times out on the barrel but you can't see that in the pics but it pretty much wiped out the snake-skin and fern patterns in a couple of spots.

The best part of the whole deal is that there are no rules, and the only person you have to please is yourself.  Even better you can "touch-up" any mistakes after it's dries for a while.  For the most part I'm pretty detail oriented and like my stuff to not only work well it needs to look good too.  That especially goes for the woman in my life!....LOL......Cliff

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by Cliff R

[shrade]

What type of paint are you using? 

[Cliff R]

Rustoleum, Khaki, Army green (light), Deep Forest green (dark).  I have black and a dark brown but didn't use them on this one.

Final product:

 

[unforgiven]

3 hours ago, Cliff R said:

It's actually the first AR that I've camo-painted.  I've done some equipment before, deer stands, climbers, my home made climbing sticks, etc, but never any weapons.

Relatively easy, the prep takes 3 times as long as the painting.  total time for the entire project about 2 hours. 

I taped off the trigger, scope and butt plate.  It was pretty cool in the shop yesterday so also pre-heated with one of Deb's discarded hair driers I use for a heat gun.  I also warmed the paint between coatings to help it dry faster and not run.  Most of the final detailed work was done with an old 30 round mag clamped in the shop vise to hold the weapon while I stretched the fruit bag over some areas and "dusted" them for a snake-skip appearance. 

I walked out back of the shop and obtain a fern for the foliage part of the break-up patterns.  I quickly found that keeping things tight and light spraying staying back about 10" or so produces the most pronounced patterns.  After all the break-up was finished I used the dark green to blend into and "soften" lighter areas.  A little goes a long ways there for sure. 

This project was a warm-up for my 308-AR, it's next on the list........

If anyone is interested in the method that I used it's really simple. 

1.  Completely degrease with brake-clean, dry with compressed air.

2.  Tape off or remove parts you don't want painted.  I like some "transition" and didn't want my flip-up scope plastic scope caps painted so removed them.

3.  After prep give it a very light base coat with Khaki, sand or tan would be equally as good. 

4.  Come back and apply a nice even coat with Khaki until you get full coverage.  Make sure to MOVE the safety/selector or you'll have a dark patch under it after all the work is done.

5.  Next diagonal stripes with light Army green connecting them top and bottom.

6.  Dark green is next thru the fruit bag  right over the light green diagonal stripes holding the bag tight and connecting the pattern top and bottom.  It's OK to drift over into the Khaki but pretty much follow the light green diagonal stripes, it's really not fussy.

7.  More dark green on the exposed Khaki using the fern.  This is the tricky part and you need to hold it close and very light pattern without much movement with the can or it doesn't pattern well.  Also watch for build-up of wet paint on the fern so you don't get some drops onto the rifle.  Best to obtain a new piece instead of risking dropping wet paint onto your work.

After all that is good and dry (I was cutting grass between coats so minimum 30 minutes each) I came back and "dusted" any light areas and also did some "blending" from the lighter areas to the darker ones.  Staying back and very light bursts work best here.  I got two close a couple of times out on the barrel but you can't see that in the pics but it pretty much wiped out the snake-skin and fern patterns in a couple of spots.

The best part of the whole deal is that there are no rules, and the only person you have to please is yourself.  Even better you can "touch-up" any mistakes after it's dries for a while.  For the most part I'm pretty detail oriented and like my stuff to not only work well it needs to look good too.  That especially goes for the woman in my life!....LOL......Cliff

 

Great pic brother 👍

[Cliff R]

Thanks. Deb's been around forty something years now.  Couple of years ago she was having one of those "wine tasting" parties with a group of her friends.  I came in for a minute and had to walk thru the living room to get to my "man cave".  One of her friends (about 10 wines into the tasting) spouted out something about us being married for 40 years, and asked how do you do stay married that long, blah, blah, blah.

I quickly looked at Deb and said:  "you quit getting naked and see how long we stay married".......Her friends were literally rolling on the floor laughing!......LOL

Anyhow, back to work, I put the 450 in the sun to "cook" the paint on all morning.........

 

[RedRiverII]

Wow,  very cool.  " Clap on,  Clap off."  Don't forget where you laid that rifle down you may have a difficult time finding it.

[dpete]

1 hour ago, Cliff R said:

 

That looks much better in nature than on the bench!  Great job.   I didn't have access to my pictures before you got it done but here is what I've done with two of mine and my son's.

 

Upper one is my 6.5 Grendel SBR.  Lower one is my suppressed 300 BLK pistol.   Both were done with rattle cans and dabbing with a sea sponge.

 

 

My son's 300 BLK pistol as an Imperial blaster.  Turns out the white/black makes for great snow camo for deer season up here.

 

[98Z5V]

Great job, Cliff - you did well on that, man. 

[Cliff R]

Thanks!  I wanted to get some practice before painting my 308-AR.  I'll be starting on it shortly and will put up some pics when it's finished.....

[Magwa]

looks great i have a bunch to do as well need to get them done.....

[Cliff R]

I found it to be pretty easy, but there is some prep time involved.  If you need more details PM me, I put the "short" version above but left out some specifics to keep the response shorter......

[Cliff R]

On ‎9‎/‎20‎/‎2020 at 2:02 PM, dpete said:

That looks much better in nature than on the bench!  Great job.   I didn't have access to my pictures before you got it done but here is what I've done with two of mine and my son's.

 

Upper one is my 6.5 Grendel SBR.  Lower one is my suppressed 300 BLK pistol.   Both were done with rattle cans and dabbing with a sea sponge.

 

 

My son's 300 BLK pistol as an Imperial blaster.  Turns out the white/black makes for great snow camo for deer season up here.

 

Nice work and I like the attention to detail, removing or taping off some of the parts so the entire rifle doesn't get painted.  I personally think a little transition is good leaving some of the component in black and why I did mine that way.

The sponge painting method yields good results as well and probably easier than using stencils or local foliage.

The white and black is cool, at least if you drop it in a snow drift you'll be able to see some of the parts!......

Edited September 22, 2020 by Cliff R