Applying Custom Camouflage Finishes with Dura Coat

The Dura Coat system is a sprayon/bake-on finish that’s getting high praise from law-enforcement agencies and military units for its resistance to lubricants, cutting oils, bore solvents, impacts, marring, abrasion, moisture, and chemicals. A product of Lauer Custom Weaponry www.lauerweapon ry. com), Dura Coat is ideal for use on all parts of a firearm and—here’s where the camouflage comes in—it’s available in 50 stock colors, making possible an infinite number of color/ camo combinations.

The neat part is you can invent your own designs using 3M blue masking tape and 3 or 4 Dura Coat colors, or you can go all the way with a Camo Pak kit, allowing you to deliver the latest thing in camouflage: Mirage Flage. Have you seen this stuff? The U. S. military’s newest fatigues are imprinted with a variety of Mirage Flage patterns. There’s a design to hide the troops in every type of battlefield. On one segment of the TV show Mail Call on The History Channel, the subject was camouflage.

They "showed" GIs planted here and there in a lightly wooded area wearing one kind of pattern or another. No kidding, the men and women wearing Mirage Flage were virtually invisible from as close as 15 feet from the camera! And so were their weapons. From now on, the ever-wary wild Included are all the colors needed to complete the chosen design, plus a can of Tru Strip degreaser, hardener, and a roll of male and female stencils.

Dura Coat reducer is usually sold separately. gobbler or trophy buck will have to be much more wary of the hunter wearing and bearing Wilderness Mirage Flage. Just take a look at the photos on the opposite page. Although the photos are in black and white, they’ll still give you a monochromatic idea of what you’ll be able to offer your customers—and these are just a small sampling of the Camo Pak kits available. Preparation for Finishing A total takedown of the firearm is required.

Pins and other small parts left behind will bleed oil and can cause chipping in the final finish. Even since the banishment of trichlo roethylene, I’ve looked around for a substitute and may well have found its equal with Tru Strip. This product

is applied to degrease and remove dust from all surfaces after they’ve been blasted with 120-grit aluminum oxide at 60 psi. A clean surface is as critical for the application of Dura Coat, just as it is for bluing. Next, plug or mask off any areas you don’t want to coat. These would include scope lenses, the engagement surfaces between sears/hammers, strikers/triggers, and other places where tolerances are tight.

Once all prep is complete, thoroughly mix your chosen base color by shaking the container for 3 to 4 minutes after hearing its enclosed ball rattling. Now you add the hardener. Adding more than specified here will result in a glossier finish. The best way to combine color and hardener is with kitchen measuring spoons at a ratio of 1 part hardener to 12 parts color. For example, 4 tablespoons of color and 1 teaspoon of hardener mixed together will result in about 4.5 ounces of coating.

This is enough for two or three shoulder arms. Three tablespoons of color and a half teaspoon of hardener would easily coat one rifle or shotgun. The mixture can be applied by airbrush, automotive spray gun, a high-volume-low pressure system, or an airless paint sprayer—as long as the larger spray gun’s nozzle patterns can be adjusted down to airbrush proportions. Test on apiece of scrap metal or plastic.

If it fails to spray the coating evenly, add Dura Coat reducer a little at time to thin out the color mix, increase the pressure, or do both. Depending on the Camo Pak pattern chosen, you’ll receive a kit with all the necessary colors along with a mailing tube containing the stencils needed to create it. There are two types of these stencils. (Let’s see if I can be politically correct here.) Some are male, die-cut, and are found at one end of the roll of stencils.

Others are female, die-cut, and come in diecut squares at the opposite end of the roll. After lifting off a male stencil, you can also use the opening left in the stencil roll as a female stencil. Or vice versa. This is even more feasible when creating an original pattern and not following the predetermined design of a Camo Pak. Note: Under high-humidity conditions, I advise you to blot the stencil on a clean, dry towel before applying it to the gun.

Finish Application Here, I’ll be explaining the working up of a Wilderness Mirage Flage pattern, using the required male/female stencils as provided in the Camo Pak. Okay, let’s do it step by step. First, spray the entire gun—at least the barrel, receiver, stock, and detached scope—with the base color. Use smooth, even passes and a firm wrist 2 to 6 inches from the workpiece.

Optimum overall thickness is 1 mil, but the coating can and should be laid on thicker than that in highwear areas like handgrips, corners, and safety switches. To speed up drying, place the

Carefully cutting out the blank area remaining on the roll will provide a female stencil of the same pattern if such is desired. Under high-humidity conditions, the stencil should be lightly blotted on a clean towel before being applied to the gun. components in your kitchen oven, set the oven at 110 degrees, and bake for 15 minutes. While waiting, prepare your second color, and clean out your sprayer and your primary color con tainer with Dura Coat reducer.

Randomly select one or more of the male "peel ‘n spray" templates from your stencil roll and position on the base colored items. Spray overall with your second color, dry in the oven, clean up, and prep the next color. Apply more male templates, and spray, dry, clean, and prep your next (accent) color. Now remove all the templates, select and apply the female templates as dictated by the design. Apply the accent color, dry in the oven, clean up your spray tools, and remove the female templates.

Finally, spray overall with Dura Coat clear in your choice of matte, satin, or gloss. After 20 to 60 minutes of air drying, the gun can be reassembled. Conclusions This same clear coat, I’m told, can be sprayed on an out-of-the-box blued barrel and the barrel will never rust. On stainless steels, the clear coating promises an end to oxidation worries and greater protection against those bright "wear" marks that are such a pain to blend back in with the original finish.

Another intersting product in the Lauer lineup is Dura Fil, a surface filler that’s spray-applied to lightly pitted metal and scratched or slightly scored wood surfaces, thereby smoothing them out prior to any color coating. You don’t have to dive in big time with Dura Coat, either. An introductory kit contains colors, hardener, reducer, and a can of aerosol propellant for the included airbrush. This kit will finish a couple of long guns and lists for $71.99 in a catalog published by Lauer Custom Weaponry.

If you go to www.lauerweaponry. com on the web, and click on Dura Coat in the top bar and Camo Paks in the drop-down menu, a listing of the numerous available camoflage patterns will be displayed on the left side of your screen. Each time you click on the name of a Camo Pak, a photograph of a gun will pop up, with that design applied in full color. If that doesn’t inspire you to start up an in-shop custom-finishing operation, I don’t know what will. ■