Painting a rifle scope... tips?

REDLYNER

REDLYNER

Mall Crawling Race Rig
Joined
Oct 31, 2008
Location
Mountain Island
I’m fairly clueless on how to make this look good, but would like to color match my scope to my rifle. The 7mag came with a “flat stainless” coating barrel and rings.

I’m thinking if I screw it up too much, I could always get it cerakoted.


So far I’ve done some shopping around to find the closest paint style to the rings.

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Next up was a test run on an old Jeep steering part that was metal and black (closest simulation). After 2 coats and an hour of dry time, I did a quick pass with a wet 1000grit sandpaper.

It’s ok, not great.

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Are there any airbrush guys in here, or model hobbyists that have a skill set in this stuff?


I can paint skid plates just fine, but that about exhausts my talent level.
 
What you did looks just dandy. Don't worry about it too much, simple is best, it'll get worn off unless it's a safe queen anyways. And don't paint the glass. :)

There's also a LOT of good write ups out there at SnipersHide and such. Those guys get REALLY into it and make some works of arts of camo.

Personally, I've done it, but unless I was hunting human beings - I wouldn't bother.
 
Atla said:
What you did looks just dandy. Don't worry about it too much, simple is best, it'll get worn off unless it's a safe queen anyways. And don't paint the glass. :)

There's also a LOT of good write ups out there at SnipersHide and such. Those guys get REALLY into it and make some works of arts of camo.

Personally, I've done it, but unless I was hunting human beings - I wouldn't bother.
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I’ll check out Snipershide.

It’s mostly a safe queen, I have a .308 for South Eastern stuff. So aesthetics are important to me (shocker). I’d really like it to look sharp.
 
Hyrdo-dip would get you closest to matching (the stock). I think my buddy Harold still does that if you want his contact info. He's in Kernersville, NC
 
I’d lay that dark brown as a base coat and then find me some vegetation that was close to the rifle pattern. Lay it over it and dust it with the lighter tan color. I made an awesome looking tiger striped helmet that way with monkey grass leaves. Sometimes the edges don’t get crisp if there’s a gap if that bothers you. I painted all sorts of equipment this way. If you do it with the right netting you can make it look like carbon fiber.
 
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Taped up the scope, then covered up the glass. Not quite sure how I’m going to hang it to paint, but we’ll see I guess....
 
Used the fishing line suggestion. First layer went on perfect. Waited 40 min per the directions and hit it with a second layer.

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I’m hoping the sheen fades a little as it dries... but outside of that it’s reeeeally close. Here is a shot of the damp’ish 1st layer. I’ll let it dry for 24 hours and then do another 2 layers.

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Two coats and a couple hours of dry time. Can’t decide if I’ll paint on it more tomorrow or not...

I think it will have a little more sheen than what I had hoped, but we’ll see after mounting it up.

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jcramsey said:
Looks good. Maybe hit it with some rustoleum clear matte spray paint if you want to dull the finish?
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Hmmm.... I may look into that. I’m not unhappy with it so far. We’ll see how it dries over night.
 
Wow, that turned out nice! Nice choice of caliber too :rockon:
 
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