Sponge painting stocks?

[Lrreloader]

May not be gunsmithing related but thought I would try to ask this question here, who has tried a homemadeanners type camo on a cheaper synthetic stock using sponges? Tips or tricks? And photos would be helpful

Thanks

 

[DJ Fergus]

May not be gunsmithing related but thought I would try to ask this question here, who has tried a homemadeanners type camo on a cheaper synthetic stock using sponges? Tips or tricks? And photos would be helpful

Thanks

I have done a little bit of sponge painting. I'm sure someone else will come along with more advice but here goes: first suggestion for painting cheap synthetic stocks is use a camo krylon fusion for a base paint. It sticks better than anything I've tried. I also mostly use one or two of the other fusion camo colors for sponging.
Next suggestion is to try your pattern out and practice on something else before painting the stock.
Watch a YouTube video of someone doing it.
Last suggestion is that you want to pay attention to how tacky the paint gets on the sponge. I think it looks better if you let the paint on the sponge get a little tacky before applying the sponge to the base coat. That's just my preference. To get the paint on the sponge a little tacky, I will saturate the sponge with spray paint and then dab the sponge on some card board or paper plate, wait a little while then get some more paint on the sponge and dab it on cardboard some more to see if it's looking like the pattern that I want and if it's tacky enough. Repeat and/or wait a little longer for painting on sponge to dry some if needed.

There was alot of trial and error learning for me. But I done the trial and error on something else besides the stock first so I didn't mess the stock up and have to strip it back down.

 

[lancetkenyon]

I have done a few. Not hard at all. I use model paint (like for model tanks/planes).
Manners Tac Moola (green) w. 3 color tan to fill in between. Had too much black in between.
Before:

After

 

[Winkfish]

Here are two that I attempted. It is really a personal preference thing on colors and application level. Just make sure you use a good degreaser and remove all the oils that may be present on the stock prior to starting out. Do some testing on plastic to see how the paint applies and what patterns you like before trying it on your stock. This process is very straight forward and easy to overthink. Good luck.

 

[Lrreloader]

They all look awesome, I think your right might just be over thinking this whole thing!

Thanks

 

[xsn10s]

I have done a few. Not hard at all. I use model paint (like for model tanks/planes).
Manners Tac Moola (green) w. 3 color tan to fill in between. Had too much black in between.
Before:
View attachment 280590
View attachment 280591
After
View attachment 280587

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Hey Lance what's the set up for your tripod rear rest? The stocks look great btw. TIA.

 

[Browninglover1]

I've done quite a few. I use a spray paint base, then use craft paint for the sponge applications, and clear coat everything a few days later. Less is usually more with the sponging, it's easy to overdo it and it generally looks better with less color than you think you'll need. My impatience has caused a few stocks to get terrible paint cracking if I apply the clearcoat too soon before the base paint has fully dried. I now allow at least 2-3 days for the stock to dry before I seal it up with clearcoat.

Also, have fun! It's easy to redo if you screw it up but chances are you'll be very happy with the final result and it'll be a nice aesthetic upgrade from your plain stock.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I did the texture paint. It's so simple and looks awesome.

 

[Dosh]

I've done quite a few. I use a spray paint base, then use craft paint for the sponge applications, and clear coat everything a few days later. Less is usually more with the sponging, it's easy to overdo it and it generally looks better with less color than you think you'll need. My impatience has caused a few stocks to get terrible paint cracking if I apply the clearcoat too soon before the base paint has fully dried. I now allow at least 2-3 days for the stock to dry before I seal it up with clearcoat.

Also, have fun! It's easy to redo if you screw it up but chances are you'll be very happy with the final result and it'll be a nice aesthetic upgrade from your plain stock.

The clear coat sure helps with dings and scratches. Krylon makes a flat crystal clear that looks great with no reflective glare.

 

[cohunt]

Air dry cerakote using sea sponge from lowes over sprayed cerakote. Clear flat over all of it to even out the differences in sheen

 

[lancetkenyon]

Hey Lance what's the set up for your tripod rear rest? The stocks look great btw. TIA.

That set up is a Harris bipod front, Primos tripod rear. Works amazingly well for a sitting/kneeling position. I also use the Primos tripod and a BogPod bipod for the rear at times. Or Harris bipod front, Bogpod rear....

 

[kevin0270]

I used exterior house paint on a B&C stock and it turned out pretty good to me.I ordered the sponge from amazon.I did wet the sponge first and used very light hand pressure putting it on the stock.I also touched the sponge on cardboard before the stock.It takes very little paint.One quart of paint will do about a million stocks!!! LoL Good luck.

 

[Lrreloader]

Thanks everyone gonna try it out on a tan ruger american stock

 

[Lrreloader]