Gun Tools/Paint planner/Updated September 28, 2026
AK-47 Paint Job Ideas: Camo, Cerakote Colors and Stencils
Try a paint job on a real AK-47 before you tape anything off. Spray, brush and stencil the receiver, wood and magazine, test Cerakote colors, and save the picture.
Paint your AK-47 online before you spray it
Start from a pattern or strip it and paint your own with a spray can, a brush, stamps and stencil sheets. Everything lands on a real photo, so the paint picks up the light and the texture of the parts.
Photo: AK-47 photo by the US government, mirrored by GunPartPicker, Public domain
Opens full screen. One finger paints, two fingers zoom.
AK-47 paint job ideas
Every pattern opens on the gun above, ready to repaint in your colors.
Tiger stripe AK-47
Vietnam era brush strokes over a light base
Leaf stencil AK-47
Real leaves held on the gun and sprayed around
Netting AK-47
Spray through burlap or netting for a scale pattern
Woodland AK-47
Big hard edged blobs with black branches
Desert blotch AK-47
Soft brown clouds over sand
Multi-terrain AK-47
Soft fades with small hard shapes on top
Rhodesian brush AK-47
Diagonal brushstrokes of green and brown over sand
Flecktarn dots AK-47
Clustered dots in four colors, German style
Digital woodland AK-47
Pixel blocks sprayed through a digital sheet
Digital desert AK-47
Tan and brown pixels over sand
Splinter AK-47
Sharp angular shards, cold war style
Rain AK-47
Short vertical rain lines over a light base
Two tone AK-47
Tan lower half, green upper, done in an afternoon
Solid AK-47
One flat color over the whole rifle
Cerakote colors on a AK-47
The shop sprayed finish most people ask for. Pick any of these in the gun finish paints and paint it on the photo to see it on your gun.
- H-265 Flat Dark Earth
- H-267 Magpul FDE
- H-235 Coyote Tan
- H-199 Desert Sand
- H-236 O.D. Green
- H-148 Burnt Bronze
- H-237 Tungsten
- H-234 Sniper Grey
- H-146 Graphite Black
- H-190 Armor Black
How to spray paint a AK-47
1Strip it down
Take off the dust cover, recoil spring, bolt carrier and gas tube. Paint the dust cover off the rifle so it still seats.
2Degrease everything
Wipe every outside surface with acetone or isopropyl alcohol. Paint will not hold over gun oil.
3Mask what moves
Plug the chamber and muzzle, tape the magazine well, trigger, safety lever and rear sight leaf. Scuff the wood lightly first or paint only the metal.
4Spray the lightest base
Two light coats of the lightest color, 8 to 12 inches away, 10 minutes apart. Thin coats stop runs.
5Lay the pattern
Hold leaves, netting or a stencil sheet on the gun and spray the next darker color. Work light to dark and finish with black if the design uses it.
6Let it cure
Handle it after an hour but give it a full day before it goes in a case, and a few days before hard use.
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Skip the paint: parts that come in color
Want a tan or green gun without painting? These parts ship with a color finish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you spray paint an AK-47?
Yes. Paint the dust cover off the rifle so it still seats, keep paint off the bolt carrier and out of the trigger group, and decide early whether the wood gets painted or stays bare. Tiger stripe over the metal with bare wood is a classic look.
Should I Cerakote or spray paint my AK-47?
Rattle can camo costs about 20 dollars, takes an afternoon and strips off with solvent, but it wears at the edges. Cerakote is baked on by a shop, runs a few hundred dollars and lasts for years. Try both here: the Cerakote colors are in the gun finish paints.
What colors look good on a AK-47?
Flat Dark Earth, O.D. Green, Tungsten and Sniper Grey are the most asked for Cerakote colors, and Khaki, Olive and Brown are the rattle can camo standards. Paint them on the photo above to see them on this gun before you buy anything.
How do you get paint off a gun later?
Most aerosol camo paint comes off with acetone or a citrus paint stripper and a nylon brush. Test on a hidden spot first and keep strippers away from polymer parts that the solvent can soften.
Can you paint the barrel and muzzle device?
Standard camo paint burns and smokes on a hot barrel and muzzle device. Use a high heat engine or grill paint there, or leave them black. Suppressors need a coating rated for their temperature.
Cite this tool: GunPartPicker, “AK-47 Paint Job Ideas: Camo, Cerakote Colors and Stencils”, https://gunpartpicker.net/tools/gun-paint-planner/ak-47. Paint colors from the Krylon, Rust-Oleum, Brownells, DuraCoat and Cerakote color charts; gun photos credited under each gun. Free to cite with attribution.
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