Painting your can
Note that Chris Caserta has a very good tutorial on
camoflage painting elsewhere, so I'll try to avoid
rehashing that material. Turning a military surplus can
into a painted cache can is basically just a 3-step
process. I'll use a surplus first aid box as our
example...
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Peel off all labels and stickers (if any);
this is generally just an issue for non-ammo
cans -- at least, the ammo cans I've bought
have prices written on them with permanent
markers vs. stickers. If a paper-based label or
sticker is stubborn, saturating it with mineral
spirits or alcohol seems to help loosen up old,
dried out adhesive.
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Scuff the box with fine sandpaper or a
"scotchbrite" pad, & clean it thoroughly to
remove any oils and dirt. For ammo cans, you'll
want to sand off as much of the yellow
lettering as possible (it's chemically
incompatible with some paints). There's no need
to strip the old paint off (either chemically
or with sandpaper), it's generally sound and a
good foundation for your work.
You can clean the box with soapy water (make
sure to rinse well to remove any residual
soap), but I'd recommend using mineral spirits
or alcohol instead, if you have some on hand.
Mineral spirits are a particularly good cleaner
for removing oils and price tag "goo" off your
cans. They also strip most enamel paints, but
not the paint (likely lacquer) used on the cans
originally.
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Paint the can. This might just involve
painting a label with stencil(s), or you might
wish to apply a camoflage paint job first.
I've heard you can sometimes find camoflage
color paint (with a nice, flat finish) at
Wal-Mart. I've had more luck, though, at my
local surplus store. I'd recommend that you
avoid buying paint from hobby stores. Hobby
stores are oriented toward small-quantity users
(and you'll need a fair amount of paint for an
ammo can), requiring very accurately matched
paint colors (which you don't) -- so hobby
store paint winds up being wickedly expensive.
Note that primer paint colors can be used to
match some things (gray primer matches many
branches and some bark; red primer in
combination with other colors matches rusted
steel).
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Camoflage
Before you start work on painting your cache can, you need
to seriously think about what the location of your cache
will look like year-round. My one complaint about Chris'
camoflage writeup is that it focuses on matching foliage.
Unless you live in a tropical environment or are planting a
cache in evergreens, this won't hold for at least a few
months out of the year; here in Colorado, it won't work for
about half the year at most sites. At any rate, you might
get better year-round camoflage by matching your site's
soil, branches, and twigs (vs. leaves). In the case of very
arid cache sites, you'll be trying to match the site's rock
colors and shapes.
Also note that wildlife can provide good inspiration for
camoflage patterns -- a tiger's stripes, a giraffe's
mottled colors, even a deer's brown coat provide effective
camoflage in the "right" surroundings.
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In many cases, a mil. surplus can's original
green paint will work just fine. Either you'll
be placing it in evergreens so the starting
color is a reasonably good match, or else the
box will be hidden / camoflaged with local
materials (dead leaves, pine needle debris,
rocks), so the color won't be an issue.
You'll want to be careful when labeling your
cache -- plastic labels can often make the can
"stand out" visually, and if the color is
really a camoflage issue, you'll want a fairly
low-contrast paint scheme (say, make your label
a different shade of green vs. the black paint
used here).
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The next step up in complexity is to just
paint the whole can a color that roughly
matches its surroundings (i.e., painting to
match the rocks, soil, or vegetation it'll be
surrounded by). This example is for a can
that'll be hidden under a very dense bush (so
it's sitting on bare, brown soil).
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I've found this paint scheme (thin gray
lines over brown) is a pretty good "sticks
& dirt" match for brushy deciduous areas
(where matching green foliage would leave the
cache exposed in fall and winter).
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This paint scheme is a good match for
"reedy" / grassy areas. In retrospect, I should
have used a different color for the stenciled
label, but that's life...
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Stencils
I've found stencils to be very handy for painting -- both
for labels, and for camoflage painting. At its most basic,
a stencil for "sticks & dirt" camoflage painting can
just be a 1/4" x 10" slit cut in a piece of manilla folder
material.
Stencils for labeling will take a bit more effort. For
these, I've printed stencil designs on viewgraph sheets
with a laser printer (with the right sheets, an ink jet
printer could also be used). Then, you just need a sharp
hobby knife, some cardboard to protect your work surface,
and a lot of patience.
Some tips for using stencils:
- For nice sharp edges on labels you paint via stencil,
the stencil needs to be held very flat to the box. I just
tape small rare-earth magnets to the "top" side of the
stencil to help.
- Don't get the paint can too near (within a foot) of
the stencil when you paint, or it'll "blow" paint under
the stencil and mess things up royally
- After you spray paint on a stencil, take care to lift
the stencil straight off the box. You want to pull the
stencil fairly soon, to avoid getting it stuck to the box
and reduce paint "wicking" under the stencil, but have to
carefully avoid smearing the paint when you do pull
it.
For further reading
There is all sorts of on-line material delving further into
the history and design of camoflage patterns. Here are a
few interesting places to start looking...
