Dye and your AR

[Fleche]

I finally got enough pieces in FDE to try out some dye. I found a new dye that is made for synthetics, iDye-poly. I mixed up some orange and dropped in a MagPul STR, 2 pmags (thanks Argyle) and some ranger floorplates as well as 4 knockoff brand rail ladders.

This is the result after 2 hours:

Orange it is not, definitely more of an Oklahoma dirt red-brown. The soft parts of the Ranger plate didn't take any, or at least very little, of the dye. I left the soft compartment covers from the STR in for an extra 30 minutes (and the could have stayed another to match the color although they are more orange). I think I should have stopped at 30-45 minutes just to see.

The cheap rail ladders took none of the dye at all. They actually beaded the dye.

It isn't the color I wanted, but I'll add a grip and some matching rail pieces and it'll be unique at least. It should be easy to add darker elements to camo or tiger stripe it later. It also doesn't scratch easily. I'll have to see how it wears over time, but it seems to have soaked in pretty well. I shaved a bit off a dust cover and it took an actual cut to show the fde.

I have more colors to try as I acquire more light colored parts...

 

[Matt1911]

I've been thinking of trying that with my FDE p mags to make em black. Cool stuff.

 

[CharlieGun2645]

my son painted a camo color on his ar-15 using cheap dimestore paint, it may not last but it looked fantastic

 

[Wormydog1724]

I've been dying all my FDE pmags black. Probably going to do my grips and stocks next. FDE is sooo two-thousand and late.

 

[Fleche]

Matt if you want to trade out some FDE pmags for black, I still have a few new in package.

Also, if anyone has spare (replaced plates for example) or broken parts in FDE or other light colors, I'd love to take them off your hands. I want to test some of the dyes and ideas I have found on the frisbee golf sites.

I think I'm going to color code some dust covers as a start.

 

[Fleche]

I went ahead and matched up a grip and some XTM rail covers. (the Magpul XTM's really soaked up the dye fast, I see some potential for fun with them) There was no real difference between 30 minutes in the bath and 2 hours like I did before, although it will be interesting to see if it wears faster than the 2 hour soak. The photo looks like the color is a bit different but the look the same in person. I hated the color at first, but it has grown on me now and really looks like good ol' Oklahoma red mud.

Looking for some side rail covers that will take color to finish the base dye job before testing some designs/colors. Those darn frisbee golf guys do some amazing work with this dye and I am jonesin' to try my hand at it.