Building the early SPR (MK12)

[Ki6vsm]

Interesting. I've done a lot of mixing with Duracoat paints myself. I've used one of the FDE colors (not "Magpul" in this case) and mixed with Foliage. I forget which flavor of Duracoat Foliage though. Bottles are in the garage. That resulted in an interesting blend that can either look greenish or brownish depending on the lighting conditions. I dubbed it "desert sage". Painted one AR middy with it and also my trekking poles with it.

I've also used their Desert Mirage Lizard, which to my eye is a greenish version of true Coyote Brown, and mixed it with, I think, "Magpul" OD, and painted an SPR upper with it. Turned out kinda neat looking. More greenish than my desert sage. And it looks great when swapped onto that lower.

[FMJBT]

Interesting. I've done a lot of mixing with Duracoat paints myself. I've used one of the FDE colors (not "Magpul" in this case) and mixed with Foliage. I forget which flavor of Duracoat Foliage though. Bottles are in the garage. That resulted in an interesting blend that can either look greenish or brownish depending on the lighting conditions. I dubbed it "desert sage". Painted one AR middy with it and also my trekking poles with it.

I've also used their Desert Mirage Lizard, which to my eye is a greenish version of true Coyote Brown, and mixed it with, I think, "Magpul" OD, and painted an SPR upper with it. Turned out kinda neat looking. More greenish than my desert sage. And it looks great when swapped onto that lower.

One thing I would do differently on this project if I had it to do over would be the paint. I would probably start with something like Duracoat "Marsh" which is a light, yellowish tan, and mix a bit of something like "Lizard Brown" to darken it up a bit to approximate the color of the old KalGard finish used.

The KG Gunkote is easy to use, as there is no hardener to mix in prior to painting. The downside though is that the lighter colors can shift during baking without warning. Most of the parts on this rifle were baked together, minus the handguard. They all reach baking temp at different times due to material and thickness. The end result is that they all go in the oven the same color, but come out in half a dozen different shades of tan. An air cure finish like Duracoat would have worked much better for getting consistent colors on all the parts.

[Ki6vsm]

One thing I would do differently on this project if I had it to do over would be the paint. I would probably start with something like Duracoat "Marsh" which is a light, yellowish tan, and mix a bit of something like "Lizard Brown" to darken it up a bit to approximate the color of the old KalGard finish used.

Oh great, another color I have to buy. LOL Or at least buy a sample card of from Lauer. Thanks for the info. I googled images of it. Marsh actually appears to be really close to the Krylon camo color "Sand", which I've come to really appreciate on various gun parts. It's a great base for desert environments. After a base coat I've given my parts a sponge dabbing with Krylon Khaki.

Not to taint your nice thread with non-Mk12 images, but here is a rifle I painted in Magpul FDE (except for the handguard, which is factory C'coted in FDE). The bipod was sprayed with the Krylon Sand and then dabbed with Khaki.

I would love to find a Duracoat color that matches this "Sand".

[r_seng]

[FMJBT]

More finishing touches added to add a bit of dirt and character to the rifle, the SPR just doesn't look right when its clean:







In my version of a perfect world, I'd be shooting a few hundred rounds out of this rifle every day, so the carbon and mung buildup would occur naturally. In the real world though, I'll be lucky to put 1000 rounds through it over the course of a year, so the worn look had to be achieved artificially.

The carbon deposits are actually graphite from a #2 pencil. I scribbled a large dark spot on a piece of paper, then rubbed the paper along areas of the rifle where gunk would naturally accumulate. Smaller areas were done with a q-tip rubbed over a scribbled spot to get graphite into the cotton.

The mung (oil from hands, face, and general finger cheese) deposits were accomplished by adding a light layer of brown shoe polish, then buffing off with an old t-shirt. This removed a lot of the "carbon" deposits, so I added in a bit of dirt after the shoe polish by rubbing those spots with newspaper that had large dark pictures on it. The ink from the newspaper transfers readily to other surfaces, giving a well worn patina that would otherwise take years to build up.

I also swapped out the notched version of the Harris 6-9" bipod in favor of the non-notched version, which was available at the time these rifles were fielded. Fortunately I had one of these that I purchased about 20 years ago, so the wear on it was already just about perfect.

[FMJBT]

[Kwikvette]

So beautiful.

I've been having fun with my .22lr all while buying a ton of reloading supplies; my poor MK12 only gets shot when my girl takes it out to the range.

[FMJBT]

So beautiful.

I've been having fun with my .22lr all while buying a ton of reloading supplies; my poor MK12 only gets shot when my girl takes it out to the range.

I don't shoot as much as I'd like to either. I figured after retiring I'd be at the range all the time. But honestly it's kind of a pain to drag out all the steel plates to shoot the long guns unless I can get friends to go along. Hard to find the time for reloading too, lots of house projects taking up my day. I almost hate to say it, but at this point I think I might enjoy building them a tad more than I like shooting them....

[Tumerboy]

Well done. This is a project I've considered for a while now.

Can I ask where you're finding G1 reference images? It seems like all everyone ever talks about/shows is Gen 3.

[FMJBT]

Well done. This is a project I've considered for a while now.

Can I ask where you're finding G1 reference images? It seems like all everyone ever talks about/shows is Gen 3.

They're scattered among the now 866 page MK12 thread on AR15.com. I've been looking through that thread for years, saving whatever images I could find of the early rifles. There's also a lot of good reference photos here https://imgur.com/a/Gze0V

This image posted earlier by Falconzllx is probably about as high resolution as it gets for pictures of the original Gen I uppers: https://i.imgur.com/KHD65bI.jpg

[Ki6vsm]

Beautiful rifle. I hope that Green Mountain GM-M49 barrel finds a load it likes. FWIW, that FDE rifle I attached (pic) above has a GMR stainless 20" barrel and it is a tack driver so far with light bullets. I'm still in the process myself of finding a great load with heavier stuff. Hornady 68gr HPBTs group around 1 moa with a certain range of TAC powder. My loads with Hornady 75gr HPBTs and TAC didn't work out as well when I tried them. But I have some left, so I will try again, this time with a better scope. I don't have any Varget, but I might try RE15 since I have a bunch of that. And I believe the burn characterstics are similar to Varget.

I also have an upper with their GM24(?) barrel. Their 18" medium profile stainless barrel. I have not fired anything through it yet. I hope it shoots as well as the 20" fluted.

BTW, I just looked into buying some Duracoat "Marsh". Yikes! Their prices have gone up at Lauer. When I first started buying Duracoat the little bottles were around $15. Last time I bought it was $18. Today it costs $23! May as well buy the 8oz bottles at $36, but jeez, then you're spending a lot of money on paints if you want a few colors. I'm just glad the Duracoat seems to have a years-long shelf life if stored correctly.

And speaking of Duracoat colors, have you ever used their RAL8000. I love the color. Don't know if it has a real place on a US service rifle clone, but it sure looks neat. As a kid building WWII models I just called this color "mustard". I know the Germans used it as a base color for many of the armor cammo patterns. And I think the Germans still use it on their weapons. Here is a pic from a SHOT show, displaying an HK rifle in that paint color. Not the best pic or lighting unfortunately.

https://twobirdsflyingpub.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/shot-show-2014-hk-g28/

[FMJBT]

Beautiful rifle. I hope that Green Mountain GM-M49 barrel finds a load it likes. FWIW, that FDE rifle I attached (pic) above has a GMR stainless 20" barrel and it is a tack driver so far with light bullets. I'm still in the process myself of finding a great load with heavier stuff. Hornady 68gr HPBTs group around 1 moa with a certain range of TAC powder. My loads with Hornady 75gr HPBTs and TAC didn't work out as well when I tried them. But I have some left, so I will try again, this time with a better scope. I don't have any Varget, but I might try RE15 since I have a bunch of that. And I believe the burn characterstics are similar to Varget.

I also have an upper with their GM24(?) barrel. Their 18" medium profile stainless barrel. I have not fired anything through it yet. I hope it shoots as well as the 20" fluted.

BTW, I just looked into buying some Duracoat "Marsh". Yikes! Their prices have gone up at Lauer. When I first started buying Duracoat the little bottles were around $15. Last time I bought it was $18. Today it costs $23! May as well buy the 8oz bottles at $36, but jeez, then you're spending a lot of money on paints if you want a few colors. I'm just glad the Duracoat seems to have a years-long shelf life if stored correctly.

And speaking of Duracoat colors, have you ever used their RAL8000. I love the color. Don't know if it has a real place on a US service rifle clone, but it sure looks neat. As a kid building WWII models I just called this color "mustard". I know the Germans used it as a base color for many of the armor cammo patterns. And I think the Germans still use it on their weapons. Here is a pic from a SHOT show, displaying an HK rifle in that paint color. Not the best pic or lighting unfortunately.

https://twobirdsflyingpub.wordpress....w-2014-hk-g28/

I really like the Hornady 75 BTHP, so my first option is going to be playing with powder type and charge, run some ladder tests to see if there is a particular load it likes. If that doesn't work out I'll give the Nosler 77 grain custom comps a try to see if the more blunt ogive on them runs better through this barrel. If that fails, I guess I'll try running progressively lighter bullet weights until I find something it likes that still has decent long range capability. The new Nosler 70 grain RDF bullets may be a possibility if they can be loaded to mag length.

Supposedly the Army is going to replace the Knights M110 with the HK G28 at some point, so we may see that RAL8000 color finding a place among US rifles yet. I like the anodized versions of it I've seen, but most of the painted rifles and molded plastic parts tend to look a lot like Caterpillar Yellow to me, lol. I'd like that color a lot more if they could dull it down a bit with some gray. Probably after a few deployments worth of wear and dirt, that color would look just about right

[smoothy8500]

I really like the Hornady 75 BTHP, so my first option is going to be playing with powder type and charge, run some ladder tests to see if there is a particular load it likes. If that doesn't work out I'll give the Nosler 77 grain custom comps a try...

I'm pretty happy with the Nosler 77gr CC's at 600yds. Similar specs to your barrel-Rock River Arms 1/8 Wylde but in an A2 upper. Powder choice doesn't seem to make as much difference as choosing the right load/velocity.

[smoothy8500]

RE-15, Varget, IMR4895, and AA2520 have all given good results in 77's and 80's. I currently use AA2520 with the Nosler Custom Comp "blems" bought at Shootersproshop.com as low as $11 per hundred. They also have the Nosler RDF in blem and over-runs too.

[Ki6vsm]

I really like the Hornady 75 BTHP, so my first option is going to be playing with powder type and charge, run some ladder tests to see if there is a particular load it likes. If that doesn't work out I'll give the Nosler 77 grain custom comps a try to see if the more blunt ogive on them runs better through this barrel. If that fails, I guess I'll try running progressively lighter bullet weights until I find something it likes that still has decent long range capability. The new Nosler 70 grain RDF bullets may be a possibility if they can be loaded to mag length.

Supposedly the Army is going to replace the Knights M110 with the HK G28 at some point, so we may see that RAL8000 color finding a place among US rifles yet. I like the anodized versions of it I've seen, but most of the painted rifles and molded plastic parts tend to look a lot like Caterpillar Yellow to me, lol. I'd like that color a lot more if they could dull it down a bit with some gray. Probably after a few deployments worth of wear and dirt, that color would look just about right

I also have some of the 69 and 77gr SMKs yet to try. But I do like Hornady. I was actually amazed at how tight the groups are with just their plain-Jane bulk 55gr FMJBTs. With the above rifle they groups at about .75" at 100 yds. That's when loaded to 25.7gr of W748. I have no idea what the MV is at that load. Haven't gotten my new chrony out to the desert yet.

I bought a 500-ct box of the cannelured 68gr HPBTs for a good price last year. I want to load some up and see how they fly.

Regarding RAL8000, yeah... I know what you mean. Duracoat's idea of it might not be the best. I wish they sold a sample card of it, but it's not on their list of available sample cards. Lots of different versions of "black" can be had, along with numerous pinks. Go figure.

RAL8000 sure looks good painted on an old Pkw III though:

http://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/3/2074/3690008854_24b0af4b35_o.jpg

https://resourcesformodellers.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/ral8000.jpg

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