[Hellspawn]

Thought I would share an idea that I had a few weeks ago after pondering how in the world to get a good camo paintjob on paintball goggles without having it peel and chip, if this has been posted before I apologize.

I came up with this idea and after a few attempts worked out a great solution for those who want to look good on and off the field, this mod will even work with the problematic JT flex pro masks and still keep the majority of the flexibility that makes the flex pros rock.

I wanted something that could take a hit and clean up like a stock mask, took a few tries with different ideas but this worked the best.

Supplies needed:

Favorite camo cloth
3M super 77 (they have a stronger formula, that should work as well)
new exacto knife
scissors
Outdoor Modge Podge (craft store)
1000 grit wetsand paper (Auto zone)



This is a shot of everything dissasembled before being wetsanded to obtain a flat matte look



This is a closeup of the mask before being wetsanded and re-assembled.


I didnt have the forethought to take progress pics, but since it looks like I will be doing this for a couple of people now, I will make sure to take pics as it comes together.


In a nutshell, this is the process.

Grab a peice of your favorite cloth, for my project, I wanted a ACUPAT and picked up a ACU bandana from my local outdoor store. (I want to get ahold of the new ultralite ACU from the online store and use that material next time for a perfect match to my gear)

completely break down your mask, remove the lense, everything and give it a good cleaning.

Get a can of 3M super 77 spray adhesive



and liberally spray both the mask and the back of your favorite cloth

For my ACU cloth, I cut the peices I needed before spraying.

Once you spray both your mask and cloth, let it sit for a minute or two, it helps the adhesion.

Apply the cloth to your mask, making sure not to get any wrinkles in the cloth, it will stick together and can be a pain to pull apart to get smooth.

Take your exacto knife and slit where your air vents are, if you do this quickly, you can take advantage of the tack on the back of the cloth to stick it to the inside of your vent holes.

Once you have covered all of what you want covered, get yourself a bottle of outdoor use Modge Podge (I found mine at my local craft store, Roberts crafts) and apply several light coats to the mask, waiting 15 mins to dry inbetween coats and I found that using a foam brush worked the best when it came time to wetsand.

Also, on every coat, I used a tupperware orange peeler to keep the vent holes clean, on my first attempt I didnt clean out the vent holes and had a huge mess, took me a couple of hours with an exacto knife to clean out the holes, learn from my mistake. anything that is flat and small enough to get in between your vents would work just as well, I just had this sitting in the kitchen when I went looking for something to use and it worked perfect.





Once you have applied several coats (I applied 10 coats to my gear) let it cure 24 hours at least before attempting to wetsand.

I used 1000 grit wetsand paper to sand my mask and gloves, took some patience but I wanted a good flat matte look, no gloss finish giving me away.

I dont have a pic with the finished product yet, ill take that tonight, I hate to admidt it, but I took several hits right in the grill last saturday and the mask cleaned up perfectly.

I hope this might help someone looking for a camo solution for thier goggles like I was.

*edit



This is a picture of my sons mask that was my first attempt, hasnt been wetsanded but you get the idea, we are going to replace his lense with a smoke or clear and get the ACUPAT goggle skin for it. should look really good.

This post has been edited by Hellspawn: 05 June 2006 - 03:54 PM

[EPIC_Snake]

wow nice mods man! very original idea, in fact ill have to try this out myself....

[Hellspawn]

Heres a couple more pics of the completed mask





This stuff is extremely durable, it dries like a hard flexible rubber shell.

[Charlie Echo]

Wow! I am impressed! I have been doing the same with camo tape. But I hate bieng limited with strips. Not only am I going to do this to my mask, also my A-5. Looks really durable. I would give you the craftsmanship award, nice job.

[Hellspawn]

It is extremely durable, but I would be afraid to try this on my A5, the thought had occured to me, but still makes me alittle nervous.

If you tried it, I would suggest totally breaking the gun down to the aluminum shell, do each shell and then re-assemble, that way if you needed to strip/clean your gun, you wouldent have the shell to mess with.

The problem you are going to run into is, as you add each layer of Mod Podge, you will get a thicker and thicker coating/shell, if your not carefull, you could have a problem with the halves not fitting together properly when done.

If you wanted to camo your marker, I would suggest a duracoat paintjob, if your cheap like me, use krylon or there is this really nice camo form tape that you could use to cover your gun wthout messing with sticky adhesives.

I am going to buy a couple rolls of the stuff, it sticks to itself, keeps its self sticking properties after removal so you could remove it to clean and reapply after it dried.

http://store.botacht...mccafoprwr.html

[voodoo45]

Nice! very nice i am impressed with your mask very cool

[The Miser Chief]

Nice, though you might want to be more concerned with your shiney gun. . All I did was cut up some camo cloth into unevan strips and glue it to my mask giving me a gihlee (spelling?) effect.

[WardenWolf]

That's pretty sweet. Arguably the best camo mod I've ever seen for a mask. Although it is a pain to do for those of us who don't like messes.

[Scarnucci]

Mad props to Hellspawn for the inspiration and directions. Here's mine.

JT Proteus. Its too bad that it only breaks down into two pieces. I think if the earflaps came off all the way it would have been easier. As it was I had to do the face part in about five pieces of camo.



Here is the finished project:




Here is how it matches up to my TruSpec ACU BDU's.



Added some strips to break it up a little more:


All in all, it took me about $20 in materials and a couple of hours a night for three nights. One day for cutting and gluing, one for mod podge, and one more for a couple more coats of mod podge and then I buffed it with fine steel wool to get a bit of the shine off.

Thanks again to Hellspawn for doing it first!

This post has been edited by Scarnucci: 15 June 2006 - 01:15 PM

[poor stocker]

I like colors more. ( I'm a speedballer at heart.) But that is by far the best home dome camo I've ever seen. Mad props.

[Scarnucci]

poor stocker, on Jun 15 2006, 07:30 PM, said:

I like colors more. ( I'm a speedballer at heart.) But that is by far the best home dome camo I've ever seen. Mad props.

Well, I'll admit I had never ventured into a fabrics store until I was engaged to be married. You would be amazed at the fabrics you could find. I'm sure that you could find something to fit your speedball style. Once you do, its just a little bit of elbow grease till you have something unique.

[Death_Dealer]

wow awesome mod.thanks for the write up i got something to do this weekend i just got to find me some woodland digi camaflauge

[gamer]

You get some serious Special Props. That camo looks excellent, and this is a very doable method of camoing a mask. One off the best off-the-shelf methods I have ever seen. Well done!

[poor stocker]

My backup mask is a proteus, so I might try this, would you mind posting a little ono how you got the proteus well covered?

[Scarnucci]

poor stocker, on Jun 15 2006, 11:50 PM, said:

My backup mask is a proteus, so I might try this, would you mind posting a little ono how you got the proteus well covered?

I'll do my best. I started with the nose piece, but the same methods were used for all five pieces of camo that I used. The bandanna was (I believe) 22in X 22in, folded into four squares. I just cut out each square and worked with them one at a time. I layed the unglued square out and placed the area that i wanted covered over it, and traced it out, allowing for lots of overlap. Just make sure you do lots of trial and error lining up the piece the best you can, folding it over and looking for potential folds that you might want to eliminate with the exacto knife. When you are satisfied, go ahead and spray the adhesive on both the mask and cloth, just as Hellspawn directed. I found that I was able to move the cloth around even after the glue was down. Really the Mod Podge does the most adhesion (IMHO) the spray glue just holds the stuff down for the Mod Podge to work its magic. I also used masking tape to tape off areas that i didnt want glue on at the time. I did try initially to do one big glue job across the whole mask, but it was impossible to get the cloth to lay right, and it looked a mess. It worked out much better doing it a section at a time. Anyways, once the nose was done, I did the lower "Jaw" on either side, and then the earflaps. The ear holes were tricky, you have to push them out, paste the camo over the holes, then slice the holes such that the cut flaps will paste inside of the mask, and glue them down. They were a tight squeeze getting back in, as the cloth and matte adds a little to the dimensions of things. Be particularly watchful of the lower rubber neck guard. It doesnt come off, and the glue and mod podge doesnt stick to it very well either. I had to cut the cloth very exactingly and glue it particularly well along it. I also sanded the mask before I started gluing anything, just to give it a little more to grab on to. Any other q's drop me a line.

This post has been edited by Scarnucci: 15 June 2006 - 10:57 PM