Painting our Stocks (Part 4… Clear Coat!)

I would like to say that we woke up this morning to glorious sunshine, low humidity, a dawn chorus and perfect painting conditions. Unfortunately, what we actually woke up to was the melodious music of rain on the roof and some rather soggy sounding birds.

As usual, we rolled over and went back to sleep.

At around 9am it was still drizzling and I couldn’t ignore the constant dripping on my face anymore. I pushed away the salivating feline occupant of my pillow (and personal face-lubricator) and crawled down the hallway to attend to Her-Drooliness’s hunger pangs and simultaneously, Jared’s caffeine withdrawals. After a coffee and a wash (ew! cat spit!), I settled myself in front of the Metservice webpage. Yussss!  It is forecast to clear up after lunch!

I sent Jared out to buy a regulator, watertrap and other bits and pieces while I started to set up the equipment that I had acquired throughout the week.

I now own a compressor that we sorta… slightly… kinda… uh… “appropriated” from a skip, and a new cheap 1.5mm spraygun that we purchased fair-and-square from Bunnings. The compressor has one whole extra horsepower over my current one, and the tank is twice the size (and it turns out that my current compressor is broken as of today so GREAT timing!) and I can’t find anything noticeably wrong with it. The spray gun has a nozzle twice the size of my little touch up gun so should give a much smoother finish with the thick clear.

By now, I am jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof (or possibly more like a cat on a frosty deck, or a cat that has malfunctioned and is sprinting circuits of the house and crashing into things like my legs and the windows and sometimes the other cat…) and the weather is alternating between light misty rain and steamy, sultry bouts of sunshine. The tropical feeling would normally be welcomed but not when I need crispy dry conditions!

Eventually the persistent precipitation eased a little and we no longer struggled to breathe in the veil of vapour rising from the hot asphalt. We decided to take the risk and do some painting.

We erected a tent for the sunbathing convenience of our health and safety officer (pictured) and it will also stop the occasional spot of rain ruining the clearcoat. Don’t be fooled! it looks all lovely and sunshiney but it was still raining at the time of the photograph!

You should all know the drill by now… Jared works his magnificent chemistry and mixes the paint…

…while I suit up and get ready for application… This is my first time using this spray gun and the first time using this particular clearcoat so I am feeling rather nervous! There is so much opportunity for ***redo from start***!

It turns out that the gun AND the clear are both incredibly easy to use! The clear goes on like glass. The only problem is that I changed my mind so many times during airbrushing that there are very prominent edges from the masking and they show up in the clearcoat. The clear seems to be burying the edges fairly well but a wet sand and re-clear may be in order… We will see what it is like when it is cured enough to handle…

Vic inspecting the stock for any missed bits and bugs…

Oooooh… Shiny! Hurry up and cure already… I want to play!

So… sorry… not quite the big reveal yet… A bit of a taster maybe… There are a few bits and pieces to fix up once this is cured. At least I can shoot with this stock now. All the fix-ups can wait until the future!

For the record, pulling the masking vinyl off after the previous step was the most enjoyable de-masking I have ever done. I imagine that is how snakes feel when they shed their skins… It was amazing… like picking a scab but a million times better!

Although all the work we do on our rifles is ongoing, hopefully my next post is the “big reveal” for this particular paintjob!

P.S. For anyone who is interested, I pasted Jared yesterday at 900 yards :p

P.P.S I apologise for any cringe-worthy alliterations… I may have had a leak in my half-mask…