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Steps to painting a shotgun (dial up users beware)

616K views 381 replies 157 participants last post by  BusterAZ 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
** Sorry guys, I can not paint anyones gun as my real job requires me to be out of the country for 6 to 8 months a year **

Ok guys, after posting pics of the guns that I`ve painted, I`ve received a lot of requests on a step-by- step process. I have taken in a gun from Fowl Wishes here at DHC to see how someone other than me, family, and friends like it. He will post up when it`s returned and let you boys know what he thinks. Until then here is a detailed account of what I do.

First here is a before pic of the victim. She is a Remington SP 10 duck killing machine.





Pretty ain`t she 😉

1. The gun was completely disassembled and cleaned internally.



2. All wood was sanded to remove the clear coat and stain if any. If you're painting a composite stock and forearm, ruff it up with some 120 grit so that it holds paint. Any rust on the metal was sanded to prevent future rusting. This part is extremely important! Any areas not to be painted were taped off. Finally, the entire gun was wiped down with thinner to remove any dust or foreign particles. Also, make sure to wear thin rubber gloves when you're cleaning all of the parts. If not you run the chance of leaving oil from your hands on the parts and it WILL rust under the paint.





3. The paint used for the primer, base and overspray are
a. Rust-oleum gray auto primer
b. Krylon reed brown ultra flat
c. Krylon OD green ultra flat
d. Krylon black ultra flat ( also there is a dark brown that Krylon offers. You can use it instead of black. Personally, I think it looks better with the dark brown. I call it the chocolate pattern



4. I hung the gun parts using thin hemp purchased at Wally world in the craft department.



5. Next I sprayed 2 coats of primer and allowed it to dry between coats. Pay attention to all the nooks and crannies. Go light until you get the feel of it or you`ll end up with the runs :biggrin: Do not apply too much paint. If you apply too much it will crack due to build-up. Just enough to cover the parts completely. After this dries it may be necessary to run some 400 grit sandpaper over composite or wood pieces. Some of these products absorb the paint and swell causing the surface to be rough. After you re-sand them make sure to hit them with the primer again.





6. After the primer is dry, I apply 2 coats of the Krylon reed brown. Again take your time. ( Just enough to fully cover all parts )





7. After everything is good and dry, remove all of the pieces and place them on a flat area covered in newspaper. I went into my field and picked some dead weeds for the overspray. For the first color, OD green, I usually choose a thicker diameter weed such as Johnson grass. This way you will leave some of the reed brown showing thru. Grasp the reeds in one hand and hold them against the surface of the gun. Spray slowly over the weeds, make sure not to move or they will be fuzzy. Keep the spray can about 6" from the parts and lightly spray until you get the desired color. Then move to another area of the gun and repeat. Make sure to rotate the weeds to create varying patterns ( rotate left/right/up/down ) Remember this is the background. Do one side of one piece at a time. Let it COMPLETLY dry before turning it over to do the other side. One thing to always check is to make sure that you keep the darkness or lightness of each piece roughly the same. If not it will look like a calico cat when assembled.





8. After you have finished the OD green the black is next. Go and pick some more weeds. But this time they should be as thin as you can find. Do the same process as before but watch it with the black. Too much here and she will be too dark. Go light you're just adding a small amount of detail to the background to give it depth.





9. Now I bring the gun inside and assemble the barrel, receiver, trigger, and butt stock. This is done so that when you paint the reeds and allow them to transfer from piece to piece. Also, you need to make sure that the background is even throughout the entire gun.





10. Here is a list of paints that I use to do the reeds in the order that they are applied.
a. American accents taupe
b. American accents nutmeg
c. American accents hunters club green
d. Rust-oleum flat black



11. And here are the brushes that I used. They can be found at any art store.
a. 1/4" angled medium bristle
b. 3/8" angled medium bristle



12. To paint the reeds, place the brush on the surface so that the angle is against the gun with the long end of the angle farthest away from you. Try to start at an area of the gun that has an edge so that the reeds appear to be coming out of that spot. As you draw the brush away from the starting point decrease the amount of pressure that you are applying and try to flic your wrist slowly to create the thin tips of the reeds. Change the way the reeds flow to create a varying pattern. Move down the side of the gun and feel in the reeds as dense as you want. This first process is done with the color taupe only.









13. Now for the fun part. In the next process, you will use the nutmeg only. You're going to do this step the same as the last, but the twist is you will be going OVER the reeds you painted the first time. Don`t cover the whole reed only part of it. This is adding the detail of the varying colors of the reeds. This is where most people make mistakes. It is difficult to make the brush go over the same area you`ve already painted. Practice first.



14. Now you will use the green. Only place a few green reeds on the gun. If you add too many it will not blend in as well. The green gives it a realistic look. These are done separately from the other reeds.

15. The final color is black. You will use this to place a small amount to 85% of the total reeds including the green ones. This will really bring out the detail in your reeds and set them apart from the background. Remember only 85% of the reeds. That way it will appear as two different layers of reeds. Those close and those a little further away. One thing to remember about the black is to go small. Don`t cover your other colors. You're only adding fine detail.







16. Let the paint dry overnight in a warm place. The last process is the clear matte finish. This will help to protect the paint in inclement weather. I use a clear acrylic sealer personally but a clear in a matte finish will work (try Krylon matte finish as well).



17. Hang the gun back up and apply the sealer. I personally do three coats. If possible place the gun in the sun while drying. The sun's heat will practically bake the stuff on hard as a rock. Or you can buy a heat lamp bulb and place it in an aluminum drop light. Hang it near the parts in a barn or someplace to let it heat up and bake in.





Here is the finished project all assembled. I`ll let her dry for at least another 24 hours just to make sure it`s good to go.







This is a fun project for others to try. If you mess up, start over again. Take your time and have fun with it.

I would like to thank Fowl Wishes for trusting a stranger enough to send me his gun and letting me know what he thinks when it arrives back to him. And also ol`yeller who came up with the first post on painting a gun. Your info was invaluable.

STUMP😉
 
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#8 ·
Ohsay, follow the same steps for synthetic or plastic stocks. Make sure to rough it up as shown so the primer will stick.

STUMP
 
#11 ·
ok guys and girls, i got the shotgun in my hands today. let me just start by saying that i love it. i couldnt be more happy with it. i have no regrets getting it done by stump and would reccommend him to anyone that asks. but there is some info the you shoudl know before you send a gun off to stump.

I was apprehensive about sending a $1000 shotgun thru the mail to a person that i had never met. I corresponded with Stump through several PMs, and also went thru and checked up on a few posts he had made. Seems kind of shady now, but i wanted to get a feel for his character. I decided that my impression was the he was trustworthy. I was correct. Everythign that he told me, he did. Even when we had some troublw with the postal service he never complained about what seemed to be my constant nagging. Thanks Bro.

He gave me a time line, and stuck to it. He even went so far as to PM me between steps. AT last count i had sometwhere around 25 PMs total just from the date that i mailed the gun. That doesn not include the PMS that we shared makign arrangements for the gun to arrive. Stuff like that is appreciated when someone has your pride and joy spread out on their kitchen table. I can imagine that if he does begin taking customers he is the type to do one at the time so that he will pay as much attention to detail as he did with me.

Now that you know abou the man, lemme tell you about the gun. The gun is beautiful in my eyes. The camo pattern is expected towork very very well. The depth and detail is excellent. Far better than anything i could have done on my own. But in all fairness, it is not somethign for everyone. There are peopel taht will look at the fancy dipped guns and factory cammo guns and thinkt hat my gun is not up to par. There are brush strokes in the finish, one partial finger print, and the layer of the different reed colors gives the finish a texture. But guess waht folks, this is a HAND painted gun. I like knowing that. I will always take pride in knowing that this guns was custom painted. There is no other gun like mine.

The only spot that i see paint wear unavoidable is where the forend rubs onthe barrel. But this is goign to happen with any camo finish. There is no way that i can be avoided. Stump cant decided where the paint shoudl stop and the forend begins. But once the forend makes its own relief in the paint, the wear should plateau. And if my camo gets scratched or chipped in other places, i can touch mine up. how many dips can do that and still look good? :yes: It woudl also seem to me that the camo could be SOMEWHAT tailored to yrou surroundings.l I would not go as far to say that it could be custom cammo, but stump coudl easily change the overall darkness or color scheme byt changint eh ratio of background, reeds, colors, etc. if you wanted him to. he is more than capable.

The gun also came to be packaged better than when i sent it to stump. my sp10 was also totally cleaned and lubed. I have no problem with sticking it directly int eh gun safe until season opener. That is a nice step.

As for pricing, I am going to give him my opinion on the subject, but it seems that he would want any opinion he could get. So feel free to ante' up.

Thanks a lot Stump. Ya did a great job! :thumbsup:

PS. I know that there are way too many typos in this post, But quite frankly i am too tired to fix them all. I will edeit them later to make it easier to read.
 
#13 ·
Sticky Pleaz. Great Job. I just may have to try that on my friends Wally World Rem 870 . I dont think he will be able to stop me from doing this project on his gun.
 
#14 ·
Fowl, let me thank you for your honesty first and foremost! :thumbsup: The most important thing to me is that you are happy with the job. I pride myself on honesty and integraty above all else. My word is my bond. And also let me appoligize for the mistake with the postal company. That was my fault. No excuse.

As for the paint job it`s self. You stated some obvious things that others need to know before they attempt the job themselves. Fist is, the reeds are brush painted and because of this there will be brush strokes and you WILL feel the paint as it sitts on top of the sprayed colors. Try to keep the paint as thin as possible when you do this part. You can help it but not eliminate it. Second, is as Fowl mentioned. The foreend of the gun does make contact with the barrel when in place and when you assemble the gun it slides across this area. Therfore there is going to be some wear there. I did try to sand te edges on the foreend to help minimize this but is you sand to much the foreend will be loose on the barrel. Just break the sharp edge. Third, the one mistake that I made was the partial index finger print. It happened on the last coat of Acrylic coating. I swear I thought it was dry. Good eyes there Fowl :thumbsup: Now don`t go postal on anyone with that puppy. Once they find my partial print CSI is going to come looking for the Stumpster :eek: Play nice.

And just to let everyone know, Fowl is a good ole feller. I`d share my blind with you anyday brother.

STUMP
 
#19 ·
just a little heads up, using an acrylic latex paint such as satin on top of an oil based paint will not adhere very well. Hopefully the reed detail will not chip away from the spray paint base coats.
 
#20 ·
Mossy, That is a MAJOR NEGATIVE! :no: Boat and all are done the same way. Boat has been good to go for two seasons now. I`ll give you the address, come look for yourself.

STUMP
 
#22 ·
Fowl, You don`t know it yet, but she came with a warranty :thumbsup: My word! If you have problems, just let me know brother. I`ll pay for the dipping. But have know fear I`ve been doing paintings/drawings for awhile now. I`ve just resently found something I DO enjoy painting finally. CAMO

A sticky :eek: Thanks guys, that made my day! :thumbsup:

STUMP
 
#23 ·
Hey stump,
I wasn't questioning your work, I was just going off my choices of paint when it came to my gun. My wife has been canvas painting for years and she told me that acrylics won't bond real well with oil based so that's what I wanted to get out there. I'm sure your guns will hold up for a very long time. So once again, I wasn't taking a shot at your work. After all, your work is the reason I decided to give my gun a try. It's almost done, only have the detail work left. I couldn't find the american accent paints so I'm going to mix some leftover decoy paint for the detail reeds.
 
#24 ·
Mossy, SORRY if that came accross wrong there, or took your post out of context. No hard feelings!

I`m glad to see you are painting your gun. That`s what the post was intented for. If you find a better application process by all means let others know.
I was at the store the other day looking for the American Accent paints as well. But they have changed the colors that they carry there. I`m looking for the web site to locate some. If not I`ll look around and find the colors needed but in a different brand.
Post up the pics of that gun when your done. I`d love to see it.

STUMP
 
#26 ·
RI, none of the guns have been used during duck season so far. But my daughters gun gets used on the skeet team and it has been through one turkey hunt so far. The only place where there is any wear to speak of is where the foreend slides over the barrel where she takes it apart to clean. The outter coat has some scratches on it, but it hasn`t worn thru or chipped away. I can`t tell you how many times she has cleaned it so far. At least 20 times.
The boat has been thru an extensive hunting season. We hunt rough back waters hince the screen name Stumpjumper. There are a FEW scratches here and there, but nothing major. The only place there is wear is the rear bench seat where I sit. The waders rubbing on it has worn thru the paint on the edges. But I believe that is because I didn`t primer the boat. I painted over the original OD green color.

STUMP
 
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