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Sponge camo on a scope.

Jscb1b

Dumbass.
Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 22, 2018
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Arizona
I've seen really good jobs on stocks. Has anyone tried sponge camoing a scope. How did it turn out? What did you do for prep? How did you protect the glass. What about the turrets? Thanks!
 
The glass is usually packed with soft stuff and taped carefully. Same with the turrets. A sharp knife and planning is essential. Alternatively you can get camo vet wrap.
 
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scope cropped.jpg

Wipe the scope tube off with rubbing alcohol to get any dirt and oil off.

I took the scope covers off and painted them separately inside and out (the visible parts). Once they dried, I used them to cover the lenses and painted the whole scope. It leaves the front and back portions of the scope without paint, but I'm never going to run the scope without covers so it doesn't really bother me. Come to think of it I painted it with the rings on too.

If you want to do it without covers then use tape. The best would be blue painter's tape, but almost any tape will do. Put the tape in a cylinder shape like a sunshade, and have the sticky side facing out. Then cover the open ends with tape. Take your time and be careful! It would suck to accidentally bump the tape and get paint on the glass. yikes!

For the turrets I ran one piece of tape around the portion with the marks on it. On the side of the caps where it says which way the adjustments go, I used a compass and a razor to cut tape into a donut shape. It was pretty good, but not perfect. Anything else you don't want to get covered in paint, put tape over it. The more time you take in getting everything ready the better it will look in the end.

Mine wasn't sponge camo, but the concept is similar. Lay down a base coat of the main color you want, in my case dark green. I pulled some grass and leaves out of the yard and sprinkled them on, painted certain spots in tan, then kept adding layers in light green and dark brown. I'm pretty pleased with it. The picture doesn't really show the fine details.
 
I could be wrong but I think @deersniper had an MK5 for sale that was rattle canned with a sponge pattern. I really liked it's paint job. I've spray painted optics but not with a sponge pattern.
 
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A lot of TP or a lot of cotton balls on the glass to cover it completely.

Mask off areas you don't want paint on.

Decrease with alcohol while wearing gloves.

Have at it.


Super simple really, just like a barreled action or rifle stock.
 

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I sponge painted this scope with Krylon using bits of sea sponge as an applicator. I just tore random bits of each piece of sponge to create some texture to the pattern. As far as prep work, I just taped over anything that I wanted to protect and put cotton balls over the lens and taped the caps closed. The scope got a very quick wipe down with denatured alcohol before I applied the paint
 

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I’d add one or two more colors and make the pattern a little more dense. You can tear pieces from your sponge and use different sides of them when you apply the paint to vary the shapes of the splotches.

Worst case, if you don’t like it, and it’s krylon, then you can wipe it all off and start again
 
I'm trying to match desert bare nothing alive. This is a practice scope. It is way to dark.
 
I considered resale value so I wrapped mine when needed. The Zebra stripe works good on an AR in the winter, especially one with the A2 stock .
Vet Wrap Camo
 
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I’ve painted a few but quickly realized I don’t keep a scope long enough to make it worth the trouble.