VIETNAM TIGER STRIPE XDM 3.8 COMPACT 45ACP
Back in January we held a joint contest with the Facebook group Springfield Armory XD/XDm/XDS. The winner of this contest received a refinishing, some new night sights and a holster. The customer who won decided on a Vietnam tiger stripe camo across the whole pistol. I broke the pistol completely down and gave it a base coat of KG Gunkote Magpul FDE. The polymer parts were then misted with KG flat air cure Gunkote. After a full cure of the base coat, we stenciled out the first set of stripes and coated the pistol OD Green. We then removed all stencils and give it another mist of the KG flat air cure coat. After the pistol was allowed to fully cure again, I applied the next layer of stencils for the black stripes and sprayed the gun. Every time I do complex camo like this, I am amazed at how it turns out. When you keep adding layers like this you have to work backwards coating the lightest colors first and work your way to the darker ones. By the time you get to the third layer you end up with so many stencils that everything is covered up and you don't know what you have. You then have to carefully and slowly remove all of the stencils taking care not to damage the fresh coat. The best feeling is to remove enough of the stencil and see that the semi finished camo appears exactly like you imagined in your head--you just have to giggle with delight. At that point the camo looks great but looks too clean. To dirty it up a little, I spattered it up with some more black to give it a more grungy look. To top it all off as you can guess we misted the polymer parts with the KG flat air cure coat. That last clear coat not only protects the polymer, but it evens all of the layers so you can't feel the different colors.
