Camo Dipping your Own Gun

bluet · Rookie Member Joined: Nov 18, 2010 Posts: 2

I recently saw this camo dip kit that you can dip your own guns or hunting gear and make it camo:

www.camodipkit.com

Has anyone tried this. I am interested and the website video makes it look real easy. Just wanted to get some feedback first...

chambered221 · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 2:42 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

Welcome to Hunting Nut !!!

Yes they do make it look easy. I wonder how long that guy has been doing it to make it look that easy.
Please let us know how it works out if you do it.

This is the company I check into a while back when I was thinking about a dip. Hydro Dip Be sure to check out their gallery for some cool ideas.

Elvis · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:15 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

I can see the use of a camo gun when out goose shooting in a field but and other time I will stick to good ol wood n blue thankyou.

PaulS · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:05 am Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

Chambered - it looks like a big snake ate your gun....

I like the wood too!

gelandangan · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:13 am Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

Mate, thats awesome method of painting!

I wonder if the images is dimensionally stable, or would they stretches to fit a curved surface.

slimjim · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 7:49 am Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

Impressive, the piece you get is 8 feet long so there is enough to practice. Hmmm, I was going to camo paint my slug gun. Maybe I should try this. The kit is worth more than the old gun is, however.

Suzanne · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 9:37 am Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

I would be a little skeptical about durability. They say you put a clear protective coating over it and so it may be easy to scratch off. I dunno, just sayin. This excerpt is from their web site;

Durability is achieved by the top coat that is applied to your product. It’s the same exact product you find on your car and with care could last a life time if not more. You choose the sheen you would like. Generally the camo guys like a matte finish and the fancy stuff gets semi-gloss or high gloss finishes. We cut and buff our high gloss finishes which is a bit more expensive than the others. It’s simply about the time required to make it really shine.

After seeing their slide show of cammo pictures, I think I want them to do my truck and maybe my house, fingernails, guns, shoes, a hairless dog would be way cool, or even a cat, various parts of my body (snake skin), NOT the cell phone or car keys tho.

Suz

gelandangan · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:50 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

Suzanne wrote:

various parts of my body (snake skin)

Post the pictures when ya done Suz! Shocked

bluet · Rookie Member Joined: Nov 18, 2010 Posts: 2

I ordred up a camo dip kit. will keep you posted...

slimjim · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 7:13 am Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

bluet, I'll be very interested in your results. Keep us posted.

slimjim · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:09 am Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

Well we didn't hear back from bluet. Has anyone else used a camo dip provider or do it yourself kit? Were you satisfied with the results?

inthedark · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:39 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

bluet wrote:

I recently saw this camo dip kit that you can dip your own guns or hunting gear and make it camo:

www.camodipkit.com

Has anyone tried this. I am interested and the website video makes it look real easy. Just wanted to get some feedback first...

I have been to the APA factory and was given a tour of the facility last summer by the owner of the company. His wesite is: www.apaarchery.com/cus...pping.html
APA does their own dipping of their archery products. I just got off the phone with him and he has said that there are several steps in camo dipping and if you do not get all of the steps done correctly and completely that you will not be happy with the result or the duriblity. He strongly advises that you do no do it yourself and to have it done professionally. I would concur with him on this point. The other option that you may want to explore is to get an airbrush and learn how to appy camo patterns yourself to your equipment. I have done this and it is an enjoyable pasttime and I have managed to be able to learn how to fade into existing painted areas around the house for touch-ups. My wife is overjoyed! Good luck and welcome to the forum. Grab a beer and a shot of whiskey and set awhile.

slimjim · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:09 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

inthedark wrote:

The other option that you may want to explore is to get an airbrush and learn how to appy camo patterns yourself

I think you have good advice, ITD. Most of the DIY kits are $99. To get my AR components professionaly dipped is around $225. It wouldn't take to many mistakes on my part to make it worth it to have the pro do it. Your proposal for an airbrush camo treatment is intriquing. Do you have any links on how to do this? I'd like to learn.

Fireman_DJ · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:04 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

I airbrushed my GPS (from bright yellow) and UHF radio (plain black) to a basic woodland style camo (Also my entrenching tool and compass, but they don't have intricate details like the electronics do).

I also didn't use any stencils on it, I just "guessed" the pattern and it worked out ok.

Here's one site. airbrushingschool.com/

When it comes down to doing camo however, you really have to work it out on your own.
The best things you can learn are how to make sure the paints are compatible with each other. How hold the stencils if you're using any etc.

Some general rules. Use the same brand of paint if you can, from the primer (if you need one, I always do just for extra sticking force), to the colours to the clear coat.
A stencil touching the product will give sharp lines of paint, holding the stencil just away and angle the airbrush slightly towards the stencil (to the spray goes under the stencil) will give a nice soft blended edge.
Lots of thin coats work better then thick coats.
You don't need many coats of the colours, just get the coverage you want. The clear coat will do all the protecting.

You don't need to be perfect, good enough is great for camo work.

Some people recommend water based paints for camo only due to the smell of oil based. I can't see the problem once they air out, the plastic the radio and GPS is made out of started life as oil too, so why doesn't it smell and scare away all the wildlife?

Also, some people use leaves as stencils. Just pick some up, hold them over the rifle and spray away, move the leaves and change colours.

Oh, one last thing, double action vs single action airbrushes.
Go for double action, you control the airflow separately from the paint flow. So you can keep the air flow going without the paint.

inthedark · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:39 pm Post subject: Re: Camo Dipping your Own Gun

To answer your question Slim, I bought a Paasche VL set, (the VLS has a swivel on the paint pot) double action airbrush along with a Paasche air compressor. I use water based acrylics when possible DecoArt crafters acrylic in 2 or 4 US oz bottles. Most of these paints are of a dull sheen which is what I want usually. I am not worried about durability so much as I can repaint at will the pattern if needed. The whole idea of camoflague being that it is random and has similair colours as are found in nature at the time of the year that you are operating in. Case in point: I was a member of the Rapid Deployment Force in Fort Stewart Georgia, a desert warfare division. Our camo was desert. In a Georgia swamp. Guess what! It was a hell of a lot harder to see our armour than it was to see our Georgia National Guard partners in their woodland camo on theri armour. I have learned by playing with the set and the beauty of acrylic is soap and water clean-up, no fumes and usually no stains. You can use stensils, leaves etc but you will find that unless you are painting to please your eye, that the techniques of looking at a sample of a tree stump to learn how to duplicate the nature pattern and experimenting will get you further and with more enjoyment. I AM NO EXPERT by any means. I have found that you will want to use air force blue, bright yellow, reds purples all of the colours that you can think of and sometimes spray them on your project from two feet away or more to really blurr the lines. Fireman DJ has good advice also. PM me if you would like me to send you all of the websites that I read on painting and techniques. Thanks DJ for the other website also. Best of luck, I hope that I was helpful. Chimo ITD