Guinness's DIY Weathering and Aging Technique How-to

Guinness · 2007-10-05T04:05:40Z

Right then, I don't know if anyone had a chance to see this over at Arnies or the ww2aa boards, but I thought I would whore it ou....er um..share it with you all here. I have been threatening to write this up for a while now and weekend after weekend comes and goes and I seem to find something else more exciting to do than sit down and write a 'How-To weather your rifle' article. Its my own fault of course, if I didn't have this selfish obsession with photographing my guns and plastering them all over the interwebs, no one would ask how to do it...... Oh well I dont see myself stopping the photography anytime soon, so I'd better get this article behind me. We're here today to talk about how to turn this: and this: ...Into this: For this tutorial I will be adding on to to articles already written here: and here: Basically this process involves a bit of sanding, a bit of painting, a bit of abuse, and a fair bit of imagination. You have to be able to step out of the "I just spent how much on this beautiful wooden rifle and your seriously suggesting I take a hammer and the handel of a screwdriver to it??...are you mad??" mindset of the weapons owner, and imagine your that battle-weary soldier in the Hurtgen Forest in 1944 and as your ammo runs out, you may just have to use this Garand as a club to survive.... Thats the use and abuse that real weapons of war see, so why not bring that level of immersion and 'milsim' to your Airosoft impression and give your gun the battle-hardened appearance of a real veteran? Don't worry, it's easy to do, and this guide will show you how. Preparation -Materials: Here is a list of items to pick up form yoru local arts & crafts store (Michaels, Hobby Lobby) and your local hardware store. Arts & Crafts Store: Acrylic Paints- Generally around $2 bucks a bottle. Good because they are water-soluble, mistakes can be easily fixed. -Black For getting a rich, dark effect on any color wood -White For rack number stencils or to mix with other colors -Off-White or Tan For aged stencil painting -Assorted Browns, Nutmeg, Dark Brown, Coffee For darkening or changing the wood color of gun stock Hardware Store: Sanding Block Foam sanding blocks make sanding the stock a little easier on the hands. Usually around $3.50 Get one medium grit and one fine grit. Steel Wool Comes in bags with a bunch of steel wool pads, I think thats like $5 bucks. This is for fine sanding and buffing of metal edges to show wear. Works great on M16's or metal magazines. Linseed Oil For any wood furniture gun you are working on, after you complete the sanding, distressing and final application of the acrylic paints and wipe-off, it is important to apply linseed oil to protect the wood as well as give the gun that authentic luster that a real steel weapon would have. Get the smallest container they have, about $4 dollars. Foam corner brushes The black foam brushes for painting corners, get a few 1" inch, and 2" inch brushes, shouldn't be more than .50 cents each. Optional Stuff: Stencils Can be found in hardware store or Arts & Crafts, I found better ones at the crafts store, but if you have maybe an M1 Carbine or M2 or even an M16 or M14, you could add a rack number to the stock. Tools Needed: Hammer Big, Plastic handled Screwdriver Standard weapon disassembly tools, screwdrivers, allen wrences, etc. Cloth Hand Towels or Shop Rags Step One- Work area Prep Clear off a large area of a desk, or better yet, one car bay in the garage. You are going to be dealing with sanding dust, paints, water, linseed oil, all kinds of things that generally aren't 'inside project friendly' so the best place to do this is in the garage. As with any project of this type, lay down plenty of newspaper as a blotter for the paint and to protect the pieces to be worked on as well. If possible I like to be close to the ground, not standing at a workbench, that way parts have less distance to fall and get buggered up I think, but to each his own. I just use a cooler as a table and another cooler to sit on. As shown in the Garand article, it is always best to field strip the weapon down to its three groups to perform this work. regardless of with the the Iraquis Step Two- Sanding Here is where you will thank me for the foam sanding block suggestion. On any Airsoft replica that has wood furniture, there is a clearcoat layer that is the outermost layer of the finish, this gives the wood a shiny luster. This must be sanded down first of all to allow the acrylic paint to get into the grain of the wood and work, and to allow you to remove the original dark brown or maybe red color that was origianlly applied to the stock. CAW wood kit original finish and color This is a time consuming, manual process and the sanding blocks simply make it easier to get ino the nooks and crannies that conventional sand paper will not. Plus they generally fit your hand better so you avoid strain or cramps. CAW Wood kit for TM Thompson after fi...

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WW2 Airsoft Weapons

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Guinness

(@guinness)

Posts: 61

Trusted Member

Topic starter

Dayyyyymmmmmmmm!

Very impressive and bee-u-teeful!

Lead, Follow, or get the %$@#!! outta the way!!

Posted : 18/04/2008 12:36 pm

biguk

(@biguk)

Posts: 1916

Noble Member

Just got my Garand in the post today...and i must say its really nice.nice one warren.

I was wondering, it seems to have been sprayed dark brown i was just wondering if thats an after thought from the guy i bought it from. or they all come like that?

Its 2nd hand but the best sort of second hand having never been skirmished, or taken outside.

I was hoping to weather the stock but im not sure i can now. Any ideas, as its lost its wood graining on the stock and is just flat brown?

Posted : 09/07/2008 10:36 am

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