Aug 7, 2012

Snow camo: done!

I scrubbed the whole thing with green Scotchbrite, then hit it with Brakleen (including the wood) and laid down a base coat: 6cc of white with a few drops of tactical grey to take the edge off. Once that had dried for a day I sprayed on the "brush" using the grey; just barely opened the needle on the brush and nearly 30psi working pressure.

Initially I was going to cut stencils for the camo, but decided that'd be WAY too much cutting and detail work, so I tried freehanding it. It's not real pretty - definitely a learning curve to that - but I think it'll work fine. I do wish I had a bit of dark green and even some red or orange, but the rabbits don't care.

You can see the vague guidelines I was using for pattern in the background here. I took a picture I had of some berry bushes under the snow and highlighted the branches and printed that out to get the basic shapes. A few evergreen branches to add some depth, and most of the white areas got a very thin overspray of gray.


 Assembled final product. I intentionally didn't coat the hinge and buttplate; no particular reason beyond "I didn't want to".


I can absolutely understand why pros go to double-action airbrushes now. The level of control that allows is needed for the detail work.

3 comments:

Bubblehead Les. said...

Nice! BTW, I'm bringing some 20 gauge shells this weekend. Since I no longer own a Shotgun, they need to find a Good Home. ; )

NotClauswitz said...

Way to go! If I dropped that in the snow-bush I'd have a hard time finding it, especially with these glasses!

Andi said...

As good as it looks here, it is even more sweet in person--nicely done!