In this series I will discuss various techniques of applying camouflage to everyday objects.  Why you ask?  Easy! Cause camouflage is cool! that’s why!

My Lawnmower has been an awful eyesore for a while now.  Stored outside and ignored, it was starting to rust.  It needed a coat of paint, and I Figured, why the Hell not? Let’s paint this bad boy up!  I went downstairs and picked up some basic painting supplies:

• 3 cans of Krylon Camouflage matte spray paint.
• 1 can of rust primer.
• 1 Green Scotchbrite pad
• 4 Plastic bags and a roll of masking tape
• 1 old laundry bag.

I Highly recommend the Krylon brand of Camouflage paint to anyone who wants to try this or similar techniques.  It is incredibly fast drying, doesn’t drip very much, and lays down the flattest colour I’ve ever seen in a spray paint.  Absolutely no shine.  I’d paint anything I’d have to carry overseas with this paint, I like it that much.

 To start, I cleaned up all of the grass clippings and dirt clinging to the mower.  When painting, the time spent in prep will pay off 10 times more than time spent painting.  A good paint job is all in the prep.  So don’t skimp here, and make sure your surfaces are all nice and clean.  Once all the Dirt and grass was removed, I attacked the lawn mower with the scotchbrite pad.  The object here was to remove the thick scales of rust, and get as close to bare metal as possible.  I also did the rest of the body, and all the plastics to give the paint a clean surface to adhere to.  Next up was masking.  Any area that you don’t want painted needs to be masked off.  I used plastic shopping bags to cover the wheels and height adjusters, and then some masking tape to cover the red handles and the ends of the foam handle bars.  A small section was used to cover the front vent for the motor.

The rust primer I used was grey in colour.  Always pick a primer that is a different colour than your base colour of paint.  This will help you later on as you apply your layers to ensure you have complete coverage.  It took 3 very light coats of primer to coat the whole thing.  The coats were going on very dry, drying almost on contact.  3 more light coats of the black were applied to the whole mower as a base colour.  Touch ups were done anywhere where I could still see primer. The old laundry bag was then draped over (once dry) and I began applying the brown in quick, dry coats.  When the laundry bag is removed, a snake scale like pattern is left behind, which makes the basis for the paint job.

I walked around the yard, and picked up a few leaves, of various species and sizes.  Remember, camouflage serves to break up the outline of whatever you are hiding, so it’s important to match it to the surroundings.  There’s no point in painting something to look like a pine forest if you’re hiding it in a reedy marsh.  I glued the leaves on, sprayed over some coats of green paint, then pulled the leaves off.  Automagically, tadaa! Camouflage mower!  The Ca-Mower!

In hindsight, the only thing I’d do different is reverse the order of colours.  I’d base with the green, then glue the leaves on, THEN spray paint the black and brown before removing the leaves.  This would leave the leaves in green over a black and brown background.  Either way, the camo works.  Who knows when I’ll have another episode in this series.  I’m sure quite a few things around the house need painting.  We’ll see.