Post by 2nd Bat on Apr 2, 2013 22:06:27 GMT -5
So i have had this now almost a month and love it but the look is just too pristine and sports rifle like for me to leave it alone. It was only a matter of time before I would tackle it visually.
The tung oil finish is very nice on the rifle and it has darkened with exposure to the elements and normal handling but still remained too light to replica a GI issued fielded rifle. Today I applied by clean rag two thin applications of water based acrylic stain. I removed the hardware (which I also modified) and simply dipped the rag in a product called folk art stain 2804 WALNUT. I rubbed it into the stock, let it dry and applied a second coat. It soaked in and created just the look I wanted.
For the hardware I tried to install as many actual parts as I could and here is what I
discovered: The stacking swivel will fit as will the upper sling swivel. The lower sling
hardware serves a the nut for the butt plate screw and doesn't work unless you use an actual lower butt plate screw (a good idea as the ICS butt plate screws are phillips heads
and flat head screws were what was used) An actual front site fits right on the ICS gas assembly but in some ways looks worse as it further exaggerates the improperly shaped gas assembly.
I put a thin strip af ABS plastic on top of the gas assembly once removed and resin pasted it on. Once dry I painted the entire assembly in a pewter finish and once dry applied a thin overwash of black acrylic and finally dull coated it. The Garand gas assembly was made of stainless steel and did not hold the parkerized finish when fired and fielded. Hence these components quickly took on a different shade then the barrel which typically remained black. Once installed the modified gas assembly eliminates the goofy gap between the gas assembly and ICS Garand barrel. The process of removing the gas
assembly also removed the plastic orange barrel tip. To remove the gas assembly use a
hex wrench on the site and slide it off to the side. This exposes a tiny grub screw which
comes up using a very small hex wrench.
Re-Install by reversing the process. The plastic ABS strip was slightly thicker than a
Starbucks stir stick which I thought about using. Once painted it is quite discrete and nearly gets rid of the gap. I also pewter painted the butt plate but left a strip of black between the butt plate edge and the stock so it would not look so bulbous.
I then took sand paper and roughed up surfaces that would normally experience wear in
the field including the butt plate edges, the site, receiver group edges and edges of the
charging handle. I will probably dremel the handguard band so it looks like the early war
machined part and will redo the locking lug to the single slot by filling the X into a slot.
For skirmishing purposes i notched a thumb and finger finger sized groove on both sides
of the stock centered above the clip. This makes pulling out the clip much, much easier
and isn't distracting visually (I don't think).
I will take pictures tomorrow and try to get them posted. Some would be bothered by the
things I did and not see them as an improvement but I feel it makes a great gun even
cooler.
The whole process was perhaps two hours?
I reassembled everything and am quite happy with the results.
The tung oil finish is very nice on the rifle and it has darkened with exposure to the elements and normal handling but still remained too light to replica a GI issued fielded rifle. Today I applied by clean rag two thin applications of water based acrylic stain. I removed the hardware (which I also modified) and simply dipped the rag in a product called folk art stain 2804 WALNUT. I rubbed it into the stock, let it dry and applied a second coat. It soaked in and created just the look I wanted.
For the hardware I tried to install as many actual parts as I could and here is what I
discovered: The stacking swivel will fit as will the upper sling swivel. The lower sling
hardware serves a the nut for the butt plate screw and doesn't work unless you use an actual lower butt plate screw (a good idea as the ICS butt plate screws are phillips heads
and flat head screws were what was used) An actual front site fits right on the ICS gas assembly but in some ways looks worse as it further exaggerates the improperly shaped gas assembly.
I put a thin strip af ABS plastic on top of the gas assembly once removed and resin pasted it on. Once dry I painted the entire assembly in a pewter finish and once dry applied a thin overwash of black acrylic and finally dull coated it. The Garand gas assembly was made of stainless steel and did not hold the parkerized finish when fired and fielded. Hence these components quickly took on a different shade then the barrel which typically remained black. Once installed the modified gas assembly eliminates the goofy gap between the gas assembly and ICS Garand barrel. The process of removing the gas
assembly also removed the plastic orange barrel tip. To remove the gas assembly use a
hex wrench on the site and slide it off to the side. This exposes a tiny grub screw which
comes up using a very small hex wrench.
Re-Install by reversing the process. The plastic ABS strip was slightly thicker than a
Starbucks stir stick which I thought about using. Once painted it is quite discrete and nearly gets rid of the gap. I also pewter painted the butt plate but left a strip of black between the butt plate edge and the stock so it would not look so bulbous.
I then took sand paper and roughed up surfaces that would normally experience wear in
the field including the butt plate edges, the site, receiver group edges and edges of the
charging handle. I will probably dremel the handguard band so it looks like the early war
machined part and will redo the locking lug to the single slot by filling the X into a slot.
For skirmishing purposes i notched a thumb and finger finger sized groove on both sides
of the stock centered above the clip. This makes pulling out the clip much, much easier
and isn't distracting visually (I don't think).
I will take pictures tomorrow and try to get them posted. Some would be bothered by the
things I did and not see them as an improvement but I feel it makes a great gun even
cooler.
The whole process was perhaps two hours?
I reassembled everything and am quite happy with the results.