How to weather an AK, without the weather. (photos)

[Penguin]

This modification is for AK lovers, because hey... we all know an AK can't/should never be pristine.

Well, to match my contractor look.. I thought having a nice and shiny AK would ruin the majesty. I used photos of captures AK47's I found through research to figure out the wear pattern ect. So after several different attempts to make it look "found", I came up with this.

I don't know if this is new or not, but hey... I've got photos.

To begin I sanded down all the edges of my metal body that would come in contact with limbs, gear... ect. Any protrusions. I then went over the body with a rolled up sheet of 600 grit sandpaper. I made sure to not take off too much of the original finish. After that, I took my trusty prismacolor coloured pencils and went to town. The reason I like these is because they can be "blended" and are much thicker in consistency than normal pencil crayons.

These suckers.



I used a gold, silver, purple and blue to get the right effect. The gold and silver are "metallics" so they have that certain sheen. The entire line are very waxy so they have a slight iridescence when light hits them. I started to colour small sections on to the body and using my thumb and a sock I smudged them around to get a general used hue, with some larger blue areas to show a slight bluing. I used the silver to accent the trades edges, not the insides of the trades. I used the gold and really jammed it into the body to break off large chunks of pencil. I worked it in to the sanded areas and after a while it started to bite and these very organic patterns emerged. You can sketch the oxidization wherever you please, in whatever shape. Very rust-like. The great thing is this rust can be removed and put back on, on a whim. Because, it's.. not.. real! depending on the finish of your body you may need some other colours to achieve this, but it can be done

After going over and touching up some parts with blue, silver and gold (like the sights) it was done. The sights were especially tough because of it's design but you can use the gold in small quantities to look like dirt, you can also mix in a brown pencil too.

The thing I like about this method is the pencil works into natural scratches it gets from play, and the ones you create through sanding and general use. The method is tough in the sense that it takes a lot of trial and error, smudging and fixing to get it right.

here are some shots of it done with different lighting.

the side





the back



the front section


a closeup of the rust


the site


If you have any questions, shoot.. but just wanted to post my little day project here.

I take no responsibility for those attempting this modification, all lost limbs - pets - family members or prized collectables are not the responsibility of the writer.

[lt_poncho]

Holy...that is some seriously good work. The kind of work like when that Michaelangelo guy did that ceiling murial...yeah...like that!

[CanIplayDaddy]

very nice. awesome job. how abt the magazine?

[Manvil]

Thats the best weathering job ive seen to date. The guys over at arniesairsoft.co.uk would appreciate this thread theres about 2 posts a day on how to weather your aeg but none compare to yours, great work.

[Coma]

Very nice, I like the job done on the rust and the rear sight especially.

I would reccomend using an even finer paper or something like emery cloth on the large blank areas on the side of the reciever. As can be seen in the third picture down there is a wear pattern that looks a bit obviously done by hand. Using a very fine sand paper like 1200 grit wet sandpaper rubbed gently can remove those obvious marks. Hopefully it will leave no marks on its own (the whole point of using progressivly finer papers) and you willl still have your wear.

How about tips on weathering the wood next?

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Coma

. As can be seen in the third picture down there is a wear pattern that looks a bit obviously done by hand.

Well the thing is, weathering IS usually done by hand hehe. Repetitive stress on finishes causes weathering, rubbing ect. So a pattern really isn't all that out of the realm of possibility

but I do appreciate the input!

[Coma]

You know what I mean, lol, manufactured weathering.