Painting Camouflage

[simon275]

After doing a forum search and looking around on the net I have found little about any techniques to paint camouflage rather then just doing it by eye. I was thinking of maybe using a template of some sought which has stripes.

So base coat of camo green

Then brown, black, yellowish stripes over the top of it.

Kinda like this

http://www.ethixsupply.com/images/woodland_camo.JPG

If I can't find a viable solution I may just cheat and use this

http://www.pccasegear.com/prod837.htm

But it wouldn't be best as I have lots of tricky areas on the front panel to cover.

-Cheers

[Commando]

Easy,

If your going for the for the old school camo look just follow these steps.

All you have to do is make 3 stencils. Cut out random patterns. 1 stencil with big patterns, 1 stencil with medium patterns, and 1 stencil a little bit smaller than medium patterns.


Prime and paint a base coat of Green.
Then use the biggest stencil to paint brown.
Then use the next stencil to paint tan.
Then use the smallest stencil for black. You don't want a lot of black.


Use this same tutorial I did for digital camo but just use cardboard instead of the checker pattern stuff. Here is the digi camo tutorial I did. (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7530)

You don't have to have any special equipment for a regular camo effect. It's just one basic pattern laid on top of another.

You can also find camouflage colored paints at most outdoor or hunting stores. They sell those exact colors of tan, brown, and green.

I hope this helps. I'll keep my eyes open for a better how to for this.

[MaxOC]

lol commando i think theyre challenging you "Look out airbrushers! A new kid has moved in town!" - Overclockers Club Canada

[simon275]

Thanks commando I will rustle up some paints and cardboard.

The thing is though we don't really have hunting shops here. As we have tight gun control and there is nothing within at least two days drive worth hunting. Even then you don't need camo to hunt kangaroo's they are stupid :p

So hopefully I can find the equivalent paints.


+rep

[Bucko]

Simon, there is a couple of other options for paint.
First off, it you aren't painting too big an area, go to a hobby shjop and buy some Tamiya spray paint. There will be a good selection of colours there.

Next up, try Bunnings. I have got some paint there before that was close. Also for the flat green, try the chalkboard paint. That stuff comes out well and sticks to anything. Here's how I did one of my bikes:

STEP 1

Take one perfectly serviceable TDM and wash it on the way back from Bunnings.
Yes you read correctly, I actually washed the TDM!
Here it is pre paint job:

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8193/tdm19yk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


STEP 2

Remove the lower parts of the fairing that you've never really liked any way, paint the engine while it's nice and clean, and start to sand the paint back.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/5936/tdm22kz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


STEP 3

Mask up the bits you don't want painted and then apply base colour to the bike.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4186/tdm31ma.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/859/tdm46ge.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


STEP 4

Once the base coat has dried, get out the other colour that you want applied. I chose flat black.
Here you can see the results and how the bike looks now!

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/9263/tdm63ah.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7781/tdm79sw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/5794/tdm94bq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/6939/tdm100vi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/594/tdm119iw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


I know you are wondering just how much this paint job cost and how I could possibly afford it. Well here's the paint I used. A total cost of $27 including sandpaper and $2 at the car wash on the way home.

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/8274/paint9lk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yes that's right, the green is chalk board paint! :lol:
I finished work at 3pm yesterday and I had the bike looking like this by 5.30pm. Two and a half hours including going to buy the paint, washing the bike, pulling it apart, sanding, masking, painting and reassembly.
After I had taken the pictures I realised I had forgotten to do the front guard. So I took it off and painted it afterwards. If I had remembered it to begin with, the whole job probably would have been done in two hours!

[Commando]

Bucko,

That bike is so wicked. That looks like a pro job. I think simple looks so cool.

That reminds of the old Tiger Stripe Camo

http://www.nexternal.com/armynavy/images/1-stripetiger1.gif