Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats A Simple Pictorial of DIY Camo Stock Painting

Someone asked me in another thread to take some pictures of stencils that one uses for camo stock painting. It's really easy, takes little skill, and a bit of time and patience. I wish I had just photographed an entire stock paint, but instead, I ran through the process on a sheet of paper.

I prep everything by cleaning surfaces with alcohol, and taping everthing you don't want painted.

I take a wooden block and wrap waxed paper around it so that I have a surface to cut on. I then place strips of painters tape, just overlapping, onto that waxed paper to create my stencils. (There are some really good pre-cut vinyl kits that work fine. I've done many with those. But the homemade decals are a cinch and almost free.)



I free handed a pattern onto this one for illustration purposes. It's not necessary. Using an x-acto knife, cut the stencil. Note the waxed backing..it peels right off and none of the adhesion is lost.



Attach the stencil to the surface you will be painting. For this high-tech presentation, I've chosen a carbon-impregnated, UV neutral, water-proof, insulated piece of plain 8.5x11 typing paper.



Paint away. For this demonstration, I didn't paint the entire piece of paper, but logically, you would paint the entire gunstock (or anyhting else) this first color and every color after. Remember, under that decal it's white. Kinda gotta think in reverse. Let everything dry really well.



Next, just repeat the process. Note the new stencil over the painted stencil. Typically, I think overlapping the stencils is the coolest looking approach as it creates the greatest contrast of touching colors. You'll see what I mean in just a minute. Remember to let the top coat dry before placing any more decals on.



Repeat with your next color....


[img]http://i264.photobucket.com/al...5-00000905156206D1_zps8708ef4c.jpg[/img]

You'll repeat this as many times as desired to apply as many layers of color as you want. This is a simple 3-color camo pattern.

Finally, paint everything your final color. Take note the everything that is not stenciled after this step will be this top color. For my demonstration...black.

[img]http://i264.photobucket.com/al...5-000009052A5926C3_zps86285221.jpg[/img]