Plain ol’ black ARs bore me, so I decided to try my hand at painting one when I built my shorty 5.56. I’m not set up for Cerakoting, but have researched and read that Brownell’s Aluma-hyde II is pretty close durability-wise and decided to give it a shot. Aluma-hyde II is supposedly a lot tougher than run-of-the-mill rattle can. After much trial and error (Aluma-hyde II can be finicky), I painted an upper, lower, and handguard with two coats of OD green and three coats of matte clear. The clear gave it sort of a satin eggshell finish that I found appealing. I fashioned a hillbilly dutch oven for redneck curing with a large cardboard box lined with aluminum foil (when my wife wasn't looking), and a hair dryer poking through a hole in the bottom. It was good for about 160F and I think worked well. If I were going to Badlandistan to chase hajiis, I would probably skip the clear.
The build:
Aero M4E1 upper and lower
Aero R-One 10.3”” handguard
Wilson Combat 11.3” 1/7 barrel
Wilson BCG
Superlative Arms adjustable gas block
Triggertech 3.5 Competitive trigger
JP Silent Captured buffer
SB Tactical SBA5 brace and a B5 Systems grip (played 50 shades of FDE trying to get a near match with these two)
Leupold Mark 4 1-4.5 LPVO
Hope to shoot it soon.