How to Spray Paint an Airsoft Pistol

Desire to requite your AEG or GBB a fresh coat of paint, just confused about where to start? Don't sweat! We'll walk you through the basics, prep, and some effectively points of breaking up your airsoft gun'south natural black silhouette.

LCT-AK74M with completed paintjob — LCT-AK74M with completed paint chore

Painting your gun for the start time can be a bit intimidating if you aren't quite sure how to go almost information technology –and there'due south definitely something slightly unnerving virtually taking those starting time steps in altering your gun's sleek, all-blackness appearance.

However, painting your gun is quite easy once you lot go the hang of it, and can add both a touch of personal flair and assist with concealment to kicking!

Choosing Your Paints

First things get-go–a give-and-take about paints! While many folks like to stick to the standard Krylon apartment camouflage line, I personally prefer flat model paints available from Tamiya, Model Masters, and Testors, which yous can generally discover at any model-oriented hobby store.

Not simply is the range of colors much more than varied (compared to Krlyon's typical khaki, dark-brown and olive drab), merely the paints tend to clothing much more speedily as well – which is awesome if you're later that iconic "battleworn" wait but want it to occur naturally!

Now that nosotros've got out of the way, let'due south get started!

What Yous'll Need

The airsoft gun you're going to paint (duh)
Your paint of choice (duh)
Some type of surface to pigment on, such as a flat cardboard box
A mesh laundry handbag if yous'd like to add a sort of 'snakeskin' pattern to your gun
Standard painter's tape if yous're concerned about roofing up any part of your gun – such equally the muzzle, whatsoever trademarks you don't want to paint over, the hop-upwards unit of measurement, etc.

Always start past giving your gun a adept wipedown of all exterior surfaces. We want to give the paint the cleanest surface possible to bond to, then make sure you lot don't have as well much built-upwardly grime or gunk anywhere on your receiver, rails, stock, etc.

LCT AK with Zenimei Zenit Parts, Prepaint

Try to go into your project knowing roughly what kind of blueprint you're aiming for. Personally, I tend to stick to alternating diagonal stripes, but information technology'south important to lay downward a base coat showtime.

More often than not, I like to go from the darkest color in my palette up to the lightest, so my base glaze hither is going to be comprised of Model Chief Light Earth.

Every bit you can meet, at that place are some parts I didn't hitting very hard, and that'due south intentional. The goal is to use short, brisk swiping motions to "dust" the gun to your desired level of color saturation from about ~one-two anxiety abroad from the receiver. Make sure you're not property downwardly the spray nozzle and creating pools of paint! A petty goes a long way.

Closeup of LCT AK-74M receiver with base coat applied — Closeup of LCT AK-74M receiver with base of operations coat applied

You'll also notice that I don't usually bother taping up my mag well or barrel, only I've got pretty good control with the tin can and am not super worried about it. If it'south your first time, you may want to consider taping these areas off just to give you lot some peace of listen!

Depending on the temperature of your environs, yous'll desire to give the paint ~3-5 minutes to dry before flipping just and so that yous don't smudge information technology.

Now that we've got our Light Earth base tone sprayed evenly on both sides, it'southward fourth dimension for some stripes! I chose to go with the next darkest tan in my palette–Model Master SAC Bomber Tan, as it creates a nice contrast between the Low-cal Globe base.

While contrast isn't generally something yous want in a paint task meant to alloy in, we're going to go back and smooth these lines out later, so don't worry.

LCT AK-74M with first coat of stripes applied. — LCT AK-74M with first glaze of stripes applied.

Don't get caught upward too much with the placement of the stripes or making sure that they're perfectly even–very rarely do you find perfectly geometric shapes within nature, and presumably, you'll be attempting to hibernate within a natural surroundings, so have fun with information technology!

I normally work from the rear towards the cage of the gun, using the same brisk swipes to create diagonal disruptive lines that too lean towards the muzzle. This is what I find works best for me, but again, experiment!

I'll normally try to match up my stripes on the opposite side of the receiver, which makes calculation connective splashes of colour across the elevation plane of your rifle much easier than doing it in contrary, as seen below.

Matching the stripes on the top rail. — Matching the stripes on the peak rails.

At present that we've got our basic framework out of the way, it's fourth dimension to first working in our primary colors!

This gun was painted specifically to alloy into the environment of the Hill 559 airsoft field in Clovis, California for Milsim West's Route to Kharkiv event. As Hill 559 generally tends to exist quite greenish this time of yr, we're going to make this a primarily green rifle–merely in that location are obviously many other naturally occurring colors even in a light-green-dominated environment.

Nosotros offset with our 'earthy tones' offset and add greens on top, as it'south roughly similar to the mode these colors nowadays out in the wild.

Time for green! I'm using Model Master Olive Drab for this portion, as I quite similar that information technology'southward a lot closer to a vintage military green than your standard Krylon colors, which tend to exist a scrap too dark for my sense of taste.

This is also where we'll start using our mesh laundry bag to begin creating a "snakeskin" pattern on the burglarize. Make sure you've got your bag as flat as possible if y'all desire crisper lines, and farther away if you'd like them a bit fuzzy. Play effectually and run across what works for you!

LCT AK-74M with mesh laundry bag — LCT AK-74M with mesh laundry purse

I like to apply our olive drab to brainstorm "blending" the space between our light earth base coat and tan stripes. This reduces contrast overall and will help with breaking up the gun'due south shape.

Y'all can too then ditch the bag and add together some further greenish dusting along the edges of the snakeskin blueprint so that your green layer fades in and out of the pattern. This should aid ensure that no one item area is going to draw too much attention to the eye.

LCT AK-74M with Olive Drab Snakeskin Applied — LCT AK-74M with Olive Drab Snakeskin Practical

I so practical the aforementioned procedure to the other side of the receiver, getting a little flake more liberal with the awarding of the olive drab as the whole blueprint starting coming together. Again, there are no rigid rules hither, and experimentation is always going to yield the all-time results.

A close up of the snakeskin detailing — A close upwardly of the snakeskin detailing

You tin go as heavy or every bit light as y'all want in the awarding of the pattern! I personally tend to call back something a flake more subdued that sort of picks upward and disappears on elevation of our base of operations colors looks best.

Finally, we're going to add together 1 of my favorite colors to paint with overall–Model Master Afrika Mustard! While the sort of obnoxiously bright yellow doesn't blend into much on its own, information technology does a pretty great job of simulating the tone of dead underbrush when mixed into an existing palette, and that'southward exactly what we're going to do here.

LCT AK-74M with Model Master Afrika Mustard Stripes

Using the aforementioned idea as before, nosotros're going to "split the difference" and use the Afrika Mustard to begin blurring the lines betwixt our existing colors and then that they begin to menstruum pretty seamlessly into ane another. Compared to our previous striping layers, y'all'll likely desire to be a bit lighter hither – the goal is a nice, subtle "dusted" effect more than a bold, obvious line.

Keep blending!

By all means, don't feel limited to sticking with lines facing the same direction! Every bit I'm nearing the stop of the paint chore here, I began adding more splashes of color here and in that location just to break up any expanse that felt oversaturated with a dominant color, if that makes sense.

The snakeskin pattern up close. — The snakeskin blueprint up shut.

There really are no rights and wrongs here, and I can't emphasize that enough. Yous'll know your environment better than anyone, and what colour palette and pattern is going to work all-time within it. This wound up being my finished product after my final blending process. I'm pretty happy with it!

The indoor lighting also does a chip better of a job at capturing the paint job'south true color tone than our outdoor, dusk lighting–so maybe this gives you a better thought of what I was going for:

Obviously, you don't wanna paint your optic. — Manifestly, you don't wanna paint your optic.

And lastly, hither's a shot from the field and event this gun was painted for, just for good measure out!

Was this guide helpful? How did your pigment job come out? Let us know below! Getting ready for your showtime milsim event? Check out our milsim basics guide!