How to paint a gun?
 

Hey, I was looking at a review of one of G&G's clear lower reciver guns, and looking at the pictures, when it was clear, there were makings on the side like the safe semi auto selector etc. in white, then when he showed a picture of it after he had painted the clear lower reciver black the markings are still there. I feel kinda stupid asking, but how do you paint it so the symbols and stuff doesn't turn black and unnoticable?

Mitch

The safe, semi and auto markings are etched into the plastic. Only the trademarks are decals. What I did was spray a few thin layers of kyrlon while covering the trades, then I sprayed the inside of the receiver where the trades were so that they would still show. With flash photography, you can see that the area where the trades are is shiny, but otherwise you won't notice it.

Paint whatever you want in black, even paint over the markings, then go over the markings with a white crayon. The wax will fill the grooves and make it look like the trades are filled.

crayon?? wow, that's a AWESOME technique...never thought about that at all.

Crayon is awesome. I did the trades on several of my guns with it and it works great. I got that idea one day when I was cleaning up my son's stuff and came across a white crayon. I subsequently discovered that this was a pretty standard way of doing it...

But the thing is, G&G's clear lower receivers have decal trades - only the safe, semi and auto are etched in. You can't crayon in the trades coz they'll disappear once painted over.

Correct. If you have decals for trademarks, then you're fucked if you paint them over. Nothing you can do about that. The only trades you can save are the etched ones.

Crunch, does the wax smudge around the area that you've filled? Or does it come off easily?

Real guns don't have white trades so why put them on an airsoft gun?

When painting its good to wipe down the receiver with rubbing alcohol or something else like that to get rid of all the grease and such. The plastic WILL still be transparent after the first coat, unless you put on too much but then it might run or crack when it drys. The Krylon camo series in the Fusion line is the best as it bonds with plastic chemically. If you aren't disassembling the gun (which isn't required) remember to put something in the hopup mag well hole so no paint gets in the hopup or inner barrel. If painting the front end plug the inner barrel with some paper towel or something.

If you want to keep the little trades, then paint inside the lower reciever. Take apart everything, lol.

Powder coat or spray balm?
 

I might be picking up real steel carbine, but the finish isn't all that great. Should I just spray over it? Someone suggested powder coating but that requires some sort of heat treatment right? Would that harm the steel in any way?

Powder coating needs to be baked in an oven but the temperatures are FAR below anything that will alter the attributes of steel or aluminum. The problem with powder coating is its fairly thick so you will need to cut off the coating in areas that mate up to other components.

powder coat
 

also with the powder coat you have to take apart the whole gun only the metal parts can be coated. there is a web sight that gives alot of info on painting and the right type of pain to use

http://tacticalcamo.com/Paint-Stencils.html
and they have stencils to i found the sight here. now i paint wheels and i know what goes in to painting metal i have worked with a few different types of painting so if your gonna paint your gun and want it to last take your time and do things right and use the right paint or it will chip,run,wrinkle or just plain look shitty. so to all you guys who want to paint there metal or plastic guns use the right paint in a warm dust free place

YouTube - HOW TO PAINT CAMOUFLAGE

Thats a "OK" Tutorial.

What i do is first of all, Take the entire gun apart or at least the remove the parts to be painted. Before painting, i would wipe down the surfaces with alcohol pads to remove dirt, grease, oil, etc, that could fubar your project.
Paint, i would recommend the krylon camo paint from crappy tire (AKA Canadian tire).

For the trades i have come up with this solution but you need a pretty steady hand. Fist sand down the area on the magwell where the decal is. otherwise it will kinda show through the paint as a raised area and look shitty. Then you find a picture of the firearm with the trades you want and carefully Draw them onto your painted reciever with a white ( or other easy to see color) pencil crayon.

Once this looks to your satisfaction, very very carfully engrave the trades using a handheld DREMEL ROTARY TOOL. Don't fuck up cause if you do you just ruined a receiver.

p.s not sure but you could check to see if an engraving shop, like the ones you see in the mall will do plastic. Probably not tho

Good luck

personnaly I don't like Krylon.
I've used tons of different paints and Krylon aren't very good, they melt away like nothing and the color range sux.

Sweat will eat it away a bit especially on the stock since you hold your cheek to it But on the receiver this should not be a problem. Again it comes down to surface preparation, the cleaner the part the, the better the paint will bond, the better it will hold up. It is just paint after all, not a parkerized finish.
I think the color selection is good. Black, Brown, Tan, and OD green. What other colors do you need for airsoft?

Coyote Brown! Their brown is way too dark and the tan is too light to get away with it being a brown. Other than that I love Krylon Fusion Camo. As for sweat eating it, the only time I have seen worn paint in a stock is when its really old and naturally worn, when the surface wasn't prepared properly, or when it was used before the paint cured. I find Krylon can take up to a week to cure properly so it doesn't peel or anything. I painted my motorcycle with Krylon tan but it started to peel around the exhaust (on the plastic side panel covering the exhaust), I repainted it after a light sanding with Krylon Fusion and I hope it fares better...still too cold to ride.

I was sure I posted a full tutorial on this at some point...

If you just want the selector switch markings I found a picture of the ones I wanted on the internet and printed it Photo quality and took it to Sign O rama pretty much any sign making store should be able to do the same. I got them to print it off for me in vinyl stickers. The vinyl stickers I got were just the markings in colour not painted clear stickers. I just wiped down the area with alcohol pads applied the decal and then used a hairdryer on low to seperate the vinyl from the clear screen the decals came on. It was similar to but a lot easier then the stickers that come with a model building kit. It looks great very durable I haven't had any peeling or chips on the first one I did and its around 1 year old with lots of field time. Best part is my gun is a MP5 i got a 8 x 11 page for each side each with 8 decals and it only cost me about $30 and 20 min to apply

When i'm painting stuff (like anything) and it had a decal or a marking i don't want painted i tape over it. yup that's what masking tape is for.

i m feeling so regretful that i pained those clears .....otherwise i can show them off shooting in public....
so for me ,keep evything clear!!

Been having some trouble with my internet and thought I'd posted, but I guess it vanished into that singularity where my ISP sends non-spam emails.

Laser engraving has become very popular for trophy shops...
The only thing you would need to do is to provide some reasonable evidence that the gun had the trade on it already, and you're restoring it and not just ripping it off...

You could just take a digital pic of the trade, convert to black and white, clean it up and deskew it and scale it to the correct size.
A laser engraver shouldn't have any problem burning it into the surface for a nice embossed effect. It could be done before or after painting and on metal or plastic receivers.

I've used higher power lasers to burn part and serial numbers as well as branding parts with a logo. It does a really tidy job, very crisp. Plastic and paint don't require more than about a 25 watt laser though. Very common in trophy shops these days for engraving plastic and wood.

Hmmm, I didn't know you could laser engrave plastic but that makes sense. It's a pretty good idea, maybe ill try it next time.