Camouflage Help

[Journeypilot]

Hi all,

I'm new the forums, have been Geocaching for about a month now and thoroughly enjoying it!
I want to put a mini Geocache series out, I've put a lot of thought into it however I'm stuck on one part. One of my containers is fairly unusual in its shape, it's brightly coloured and I'm wanting to Camouflage it with something. It's a plastic container so of course I've looked at using the Krylon Fusion spray paint however it's quite expensive and the cans are way to big for what I need now and for what I can see me ever needing. I've been toying with the idea of trying to cover it in Duct tape of various colours to create a camouflage effect however whilst most of the container is a basic enough shape for the duct tape to work well there is one section which is very unusual in it's shape and I don't think it'll work.
Can anyone recommend me a paint that would withstand the elements and be a reasonable price for me to do the part that duct tape wont work on please.

Thanks!
JourneyPilot - Aaron

[DrDick&Vick]

I have used the car type sprays in Matt Black quite succesfully

[Predictable Bob]

It might help if you use a piece of coarse emery or glasspaper to rough up the surface before spraying

[Journeypilot]

Thanks for the replies!
Yer I've heard that the plastic might be a bit too smooth to accept the paint properly so I'll definitely make sure I roughen it up.

[keehotee]

Are you stuck with using that particular container for some reason? You can buy a 1 or 2 litre lock'n'lock for less than a can of spray paint......

[Palujia]

You can get a "camo" bag - or even "camo" tape from any of the Geocaching suppliers or even use the paint that is used on the plastic put together kits available in model shops

[Journeypilot]

The container itself is fine (it took me a long time to find a container I liked for what I'm wanting to do), it just has certain aspects to it that are a bit detailed that means applying duct tape will be difficult.. i'd have to cut off very thin strips and stick them on.
The model paint I was thinking about, from what I can tell enamel paint is supposed to be water resistant so I think I'm going to pop into the local hobby shop tomorrow and grab a pot :-).

[Lonewolf]

It all depends on the effect you trying for. It has to mimic the background for the camouflage to work. Texture is sometimes more important that colour.

Plain old green fabric sniper tape will cover up most containers. The real camouflage gets added to the fabric buy rolling it on the ground. Dust, water and trace plant residue will discolour the fabric in a natural way. I think a fabric covered container that has been out for a while is hard to spot. If you want to be really evil get hold of artificial plants. You know ones with leaves made of fabric. Stick bits of that between the layers of tape and the whole thing turns into bunch of ivy with a screw top lid. h34r:

If you have to paint a container use sand paper first. Paint it up and then half cover it leafs. Add another coat and take away the leafs and all the outlines are left behind. The effect breaks up your paint job into a completely random pattern. Avoid any paint that has the slightest gloss effect. The natural light outside will reflect off just enough to be seen. Go for the flattest most random pain effect.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

[*geocass*]

I coat my containers with Xylene using a brush which removes all of the shine and allows the paint to stick a lot better. I leave it to dry off overnight and then spray paint black in the morning. I wear gloves to do it though as Xylene isn't something that you should mess with!

Went out on a maintenance run yesterday for one of our series and the containers are still very well covered. The paint chips a little around the clippy bits, but over all a good method of camo-ing.

[Journeypilot]

Thanks for the advice! I got my cache out the other day and published it. Eventually I ruffed it up with some sand paper, cleaned off the dust, applied a thin layer of black enamel spray paint, lightly sanded the loose bits, reapplied and it seems to have held really well. .
If anyone isn't in the Nottingham area and has no plans to be up this way, if you're interested send me a message and I'll send you a photo of the cache container.