HOW TO: Gun painting and weathering

"Gunpainting" is the modern German term for camouflaging firearms by painting, and "Weathering" can be translated as artificial aging. Today we want to show you how it's done. For our paint job, we chose an M4CQBR from the days of Operation Red Wings as our template:

First, prepare the gun for spraying. Cover all openings and areas that should not receive paint with painter's tape or masking tape. Next, remove any dirt and degrease everything roughly. We used the spray paints from Begadi, namely Brown, Coyote Brown, and Sand, as we believe these are the best for such endeavors. They dry quickly, adhere very well, and have a nice matte finish. IMPORTANT! Do this in a very well-ventilated room, or even better, outdoors.

In the image above, you can see the initial situation, a mishmash of colors. To change this, the entire gun is colored chocolate. We applied only a thin but still opaque layer. Not all areas need to be perfectly brown, as it looks better when some black shines through in places. Let the paint dry well before applying the next layer.

Now apply the next layer of color - Coyote Brown - in stripes using a dusting technique. It is important to maintain a large distance of at least 50cm, preferably more. This technique helps blur the transitions between colors. If desired, you can also use grids or nets as shown in the Helmet Paint Guide.
Once this layer is dry, move on to the final layer. Here, we applied the color "Sand" very selectively, as we didn't want the gun to be too light. Remember: less is more, as overdoing it will turn the entire gun sand-colored.

If you don't like the desert look, you can, of course, use green and brown tones instead. The possibilities of color are nearly limitless. What matters is what you like and what provides camouflage.

With that, the painting is finished. It doesn't have to be perfect, as the paint will naturally wear off over time. We wish you success in painting and weathering your gun, of course.