re: Rattle canning my AR and need some advice :finished product on p2:

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freedom stencils

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1. Great paint job. Those rifles look great

2. $50 for some sheets of stickers is insane.

I rattle-canned a couple of cheap AR pistols, they came out pretty good. Not as high-end durable as Cerakote, but honestly a little wear adds to the aesthetics, more than it detracts.
I used flat camo tan and green, they look great to me (and others who have looked at them).

Some observations- try to use some perspective in the stencils. Sitting on a table, some of those highly detailed leaf stencils look cool. From a distance of 20 feet or more, that kinda just looks blotchy. I'm not saying don't do it, but be aware of the effect you want.

Also, you might consider flipping what your base and top color paints are. Remember, the base coat is going to show through the stencils, while the last coat will be what you perceive to be "base", as it's probably what is covering the most. So, if you paint the gun light tan, then lay a net over it and spray dark brown, or green, most of the coverage is dark brown or green. You get the light tan in the net pattern, which looks a lot like scales. If you start dark, then the net pattern will be dark, with lighter color overall.

I did a green and tan in broad (almost vertical) stripes. Looks a lot like palm fronds in shadow/sunlight. Very basic, not ornate or detailed, but from a casual distance (like from seeing somebody holding one), it stands out a good bit. FDE brace, the upper and lower, optic body and Mlok handguard all painted to match. 2 solid coats hanging in the sun. After the second coat was almost dry, I came with the green, did the stripes. Texturewise, they blended, so you don't feel anything. Left a Pmag in the magwell, so the visible part of the mag got painted too.
It was a BCA gun with side charger, so I left the BCG out, just stuck a roll of paper into the chamber so the internals didn't get painted. Rolled paper inside the front handgrip too, so the barrel and flashhider weren't painted. Cotton balls covering the glass optics.
Hung with a wire coathanger looped to the flash hider. Let it sit in the sun a few hours, put it up for about a week (on a rack, in that exact configuration). After that week, I took it back out, hung it in the sun again, did coats of matte clearcoat, let that dry in the sun. Sat it away in the rack for a week afterwards, then pulled the paper rolls, cotton, and stuck the BCG back in it.

I took time, to avoid maybe the biggest drawback- the urge to frick with it before the paint cures, and get fingerprints and smudges. Take some time to avoid that.

Offhand, I thing the only thing I did was hose it down with brakecleaner before, and pull the BCG and brace. Definitely didn't sand shite.