Trumpeter M-16/XM177 painting questions...

[LA2019]

Been working on Trumpeter's 1/3 scale M-16 family of rifles. Neat little kits. All built and primed. Just need to paint.

Modern M-16/M-4's are pretty much all black today but these are the older style M-16/XM-177. I think the upper and lower receiver were more of a gun metal. I think I'm going to try Tamiya dark gun metal for the receiver's and semi-black for the stock and foregrip.

Any opinion? Any "ol' timers" here with practical experience with older M-16's?


ken

 

[tyrodtom]

I remember them being all black, black plastic, and a parkerized black on the metal. The plastic would be semi gloss black, the metal flat black.

But I saw some that the parkerized black had either faded to dark gray, or they were painted dark grey.

 

[Airframes]

The early M16s I used had receivers in a mid to dark grey 'gunmetal' colour, with the 'plastic' stock and butt in a semi-matt black, which could become slightly shiny with use. The later versions, from the M16A1 on, had black 'Parkerised' barrels, and a semi-matt black finish to the receiver. The magazines on both types were normally dark metallic grey, although later these were also black-painted.

 

[tyrodtom]

That top M16 is a very early model, by 1966-67 the M16A1 had added a bolt assist and a closed front flash supressor.