The thing with paint jobs is, you have to go bold at the very start. The bolder the paint job, the better it’s going to look when it’s worn.
The problem with going bold is that you have to put up with your blaster looking a bit disco, until the natural wear and tear kicks in.
It doesn’t take that long for a patina to start etching itself, but people panic. That’s understandable. They do a great paint job, but because it doesn’t look quite right initially, they start to weather it.
It always looks forced and unnatural.
Listen to someone who’s been there, done that and later come up with one of the most iconic blasters that’s knocking around the internetz right now:
Fake wear – don’t do this shit!
– Roar Stene, B79, Berserkir Mechanized.
1. Roar’s Blaster: Fake Wear and Tear (Don’t Do It!)
Above is an early iteration of Roar’s infamous 416N. When I spoke to him on the blog a few months back, he had this to say of the 2013 iteration of his paint job:
…I ordered a few cans of NFM EC paint and sprayed a desert paintjob on it. And as stupid as I was, I did some fake weathering on it as well…
Kids, dont do fake weathering, it looks stupid! 🙂
2. Roar’s Blaster: The Stages of Natural Wear and Tear
This is how Roar’s 416N looked with fresh paint, in early 2015:
Late 2015:
April 2016:
Pre-Berget 2016:
How it looks now, post-Berget 2016:
Awesome…but a big change in the rate of decay.
Why so?
The wear post-Berget is actually from the damp. It just tears the paint from the body. Our guns stood outside one evening and it was pretty moist out there: even some rain.
And suddenly a base attack and the paint just ripped itself off, basically 😛
This makes perfect sense to me. I’ve used NFM before and it’s really easy to strip. In fact, NFM is marketed to militaries as a paint that’s easy to remove. So now you know the extra secret!
You wanna know how to do a Berserkir Mechanized paint job?
You do?!
3. How to Paint Like a Berserkir
One of the things I get asked very often, is why I choose to mask off trades, rails and so on.
Why not just paint it all, right?
First of all, looking at reference pics when building an impression is key. Its not often you see a Norwegian HK416 which is completely covered in paint, as the soldiers need to follow instructions on how to paint their rifles.
I’ve even heard stories of soldiers being denied permission to paint their rifle, because they didnt follow the painting instructions the first time they painted their rifle.
I have not been able to study the instructions fully, as I’ve only seen low quality reproductions. It also looks like they update the instructions every now and then.But the instructions tell personnel which items to mask: all the trades, serials, rails, selector switches, charging handle, buffertube, gas block, barrel, iron sights, dust cover, gaps between the receiver to pistolgrip and so on.
Even the small gaps on the new slimline buttstock it is advised to mask.
It also looks like Norway is not the only country to have these rules. Australia seems to have the same type of instructions, as you can see masked off trades and rails etc.
Anyhow, I dont know the exact reason why they do choose to have these rules, but it might be a warranty thing. Its pretty obvious that its easier to clean the paint off when intricate areas and identifiers are masked up.
And to be honest, I quite like the look it gives.
It’s just one of the “unique” things about Norwegian kit.
Roar’s HK416N Parts List:
Tokyo Marui HK416
RS Aimpoint CompM4 w/Tenebraex killflash
RS HK416 Rail
RS HK416 Slimline buttstock
RS HK416 rear BUIS
RS HK416 front BUIS
RS HK vertical grip
RS HK front sling mount
RS HK/Blackhawk sling
RS Insight M3X
B&T rail covers
VFC Gasblock (without bayonet lug, slingloops are being removed)
VFC 16″ barrel with TM 416 flashhider
FMA AN/PEQ16
Freedom Art Swivel Sling mount
You can read my recent interview with Roar, here.
The Reptile House 