My How to Paint Your Rifle Digital Camouflage post has generated the most reader questions over the years. Questions vary, but most of them boil down to two.
One – How did you make the digital camo stencils?
I bought a few sheets of acetate, then I just started cutting into it with an exacto-knife. I didn’t have much trouble cutting a pattern, but some people get frustrated getting it right (there is no right way). Don’t look at painting it as an exact science. Take your time, do it over days, ponder your next step, work it like art, work it like camo.
For those that want a little stencil help, I made a download-able pdf pattern. Print it on 8.5×11 paper and lay it across your sheets of acetate. Use it as a cutting guide.
Download SHTF Blog’s Digital Camouflage Pattern
Two – How is the paint job holding up?
After four years you can see scuffs under the barrel and a little on the stock.
There are similar marks around the scope and trigger guard. They don’t bother me. I didn’t paint it to make it pretty.
3 comments
Didn’t you do a camo gun thingy a couple of years ago? Regardless, its always good to refresh. (I look back at old blog posts on here often. Especially the gun list.) As for the hate mail, don’t worry about it. If they have enough time to send you hate mail and spend hours blasting you on another blog, they probably aren’t working all that much and either are wealthy, or on welfare. Those of use who have to manage our online time because we have real jobs don’t have time to worry about what others think. I know that I’ll probably get flamed on the other blog for saying all of this, but I don’t really care. I’m probably not needing too worry too much about the golden horde, those living south of Portland, on the other hand, need to worry….alot.
“The County” is great SHTF retreat territory. If you look at the ’80s era nuclear fallout maps, that area doesn’t fair so well in fallout, but we’re not in the 80s anymore. You can get cheap farmland up there. Long winters, but that would help keep the urban cockroach invaders out.
Cheap is relative. There’s one guys selling active potato fields as a “development.” At over 16k for a 1.5 acre lot. It’s been for sale for 15 years. Only 1, maybe 2 out of the 10 lots have been sold. That was about 2 years ago, and that house was up for sale within 9 months. Then again there are wooded, or mostly wooded lots available too. 50 acres for 35k. That’s more like it. I’d prefer to have that kinda deal. So what if I have to clear it. That just means firewood, lumber, and/or income (loggers, if the market is ok). Heck. If there’s enough trees, I could clear it amd make rail fences. Maybe put a concrete and stone block every 50 feet along it and mount a small cannon. Definitely cheaper than 16 for 1 acre in an open field. Best yet, its on a side road that’s off a secondary route. Not on a Rand McNally atlas, but it is in the DeLorme.