Grendel 20" GDMR w/Snakeskin Cerakote

[LRRPF52]

I see you are a person that cares about attention to detail. I especially like the way you blended the mesh pattern. I'm sure it was no easy undertaking but it was worth it, Great looking rifle.

Thanks for your kind words. I am a detail-oriented guy, after having been raised by a physicist who developed advanced avionics and weapon systems for DOD as his day job. I built a boat-load of model airplanes as a kid, and would typically spend a week or two just on the cockpit of a 1/48th scale bird, but that was still considered amateur compared to some of the projects I saw in Fine Scale Modeller magazine.

That is a very cool looking rifle. You did a great job.

Did you bake the parts in the oven?

Do you apply all the colors then bake it?

I used H-Series Cerakote, which is the bake-on finishing system. You have to bake each layer individually if you're doing a pattern, unless you're willing to let it somewhat dry-cure for over 24hr between each coating. Transferring the parts to the oven after being coated in the spray booth is really the job for an octopus, so patience is an absolute necessity when it comes to dealing with Cerakote.

It goes on as a think ceramic mud layer, and the slightest bump or smudge needs to be baked on, ground off, and started over with a touch-up to that area. Thankfully, I didn't have one of those moments for Bill's rifle, bipod, or optics.

This was my first attempt at doing something with a snakeskin pattern, but I wanted it to be different, so I did the highlights at the edges of the OD Green with snakeskin using Desert Sand Cerakote. FDE is the base layer. The last Cerakote job I did on a complete rifle for someone else looked like this:

Man, you set the standard! That's one fine rifle. Definitely a few hours invested there, I'm curious, how or what do you use to you bake your components?

This project was measured in days, not hours. It took about a week. De-greasing took no less than 3 days, but I was also juggling other things like everyone's Reloading Handbook orders, some other projects I have, training scheduling, 2 baby girls, Boy Scout responsibilities, etc. I use an oven to bake the parts, with a digital thermometer and timer.

Getting the rifle apart was the most difficult part, as the gas block was red loc-tited and the barrel nut was a DD unit, blue loc-tited heavily. I was concerned about getting the gas block back on, as it was extremely tightly-fit (which is great for the gas seal). I placed the treated gas block in the freezer for a few hours, cleaned the gas block journal, and the gas block literally slipped on by hand, with a fresh coat of red loc-tite.

For heat, I only used a heat gun on the gas block and barrel nut. The barrel nut required penetrating oil and an overnight soak to break loose. Patience was the key there again. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out, but kinda wishing I had done the pistol grip too.