Quick & Dirty MultiCam Paint Job

Since I'm rocking a multicam setup now I decided it was time I painted my primary AEG to match. I had a 90 minute window to paint today and while I've seen some people spend weeks on a project like this I decided that would be my time limit. It helps to have some experience handling a rattle can and painting other types of camo patterns, but this one isn't half as hard as it was made out to be.

We'll start with the following cheap rattle cans that you can grab at your local Ace, Home Depot, etc. The first six colors are from the "Krylon Camouflage" line. The "Satin Espresso" or similar is used to get a darker brown for the final stages of the pattern. The Fusion line which encompasses all of these bonds to plastics and dries very quickly making it ideal for this job. Needless to say you can substitute colors to your liking to customize the pattern.

First, you need to prepare your subject. In my case the gearbox, motor, charging handle, fire selector, bolt release, pistol grip, sling plate, buffer tube, flash hider and iron sights all needed to be removed first. I had already removed the previous paint job the night before. Then I reassembled the remaining body pieces and masked off the outer barrel, all of the holes in the receiver and the forward assist with tape.

Once this is done, throw it down on your surface of choice and grab the Khaki and Brown cans. Start with a coat of khaki, then paint three simple stripes of brown. Come back and blend the edges with khaki if there is too much contrast. Let it dry, then do the other side.

Next you're going to cut some stencils for the green shapes. Be creative and random! Apply these so that they are overlapping with both khaki and brown area, but make sure to leave plenty of khaki showing as it's quite prevalent in this design. Use both of your greens at this stage, and apply random gradients and fades for the proper look. Let it dry, then do the other side.

The next step will involve some smaller stencils which will be used for the darker brown color (Espresso) and the light khaki (Sand). You can make unique stencils for each color if you want, but I just used the same ones for both to save time. Before you start, take one last look at the pattern and remind yourself how much less these two colors are used. First apply the dark brown, use it sparingly to break up areas where there's too much of one color dominating the pattern. Then apply the sand in close proximity to the brown, even more sparingly. The pattern should be coming to life before your eyes at this point. As usual, let it dry and repeat on the opposite side.

Your subject should be looking pretty sharp at this point, but give plenty of time to dry before you put your greedy little mitts all over it. If you want to preserve your work, add a layer or two of your choice of clear coat sealant at this time. Otherwise, put it back together and you're good to go. Toss it on your fatigues and make sure it's a good match!