Cut the glare of 10rd Tubes and Caps...

[shartley]

One of the biggest issues I see (all pun intended) with stock class tubes (10 round) is that when they are worn outside any pockets (such as in a stock class harness) they become visual beacons for opposing players. The standard clear/white tubes just jump out at you, and even more so when filled with bright shelled paint.

What is even worse is when you use speed caps that are your standard red or bright orange. WOW, talk about standing out on a woods/rec/scenario field.

For those who have not considered it, there IS a cost effective way to take care of this problem. RIT die.

That is right, the stuff you can get at any grocery store for a few bucks a box.

I recently did up a batch of 100 speed caps and 100 10rd tubes and they came out great.

If you follow the instructions you can’t go wrong. The caps take about 15 minutes per batch (a large pot can do 100 easily) and the tubes take about 30 minutes per batch (a large pot does 10 tubes comfortably and 20 if you want to, but 10 at a time comes out better).

One thing folks need to pay attention to is that you don’t BOIL the water, but simply SIMMER it, and make sure that you check every 5 minutes or so to make sure everything is submerged in the water and even rotate things from top to bottom for even coverage.

Another thing to watch is your water level. When doing many batches you will see your water level drop substantially. Just fill it back up and make sure you stir it all evenly again and bring it back to a simmer. And when you see that your die is not being as affective as it used to be, just add another box of die. I used two boxes for my 100 and 100 batch. But use only ONE box at a time, not both at once.

With my batch I used BLACK Rit Die and the results were great, if not unpredicted. The caps came out black, but the tubes came out GREEN. This of course was fine with me, but did surprise me.

Well, here is a quick picture of a bunch of them….



The green is actually uniform between tubes. The reason it looks different is that when light hits them it changes how dark they look. And as you can see on the speed caps no orange is left. It is a soft black, but dark enough to subdue the caps very well.

And the green is light enough to allow me to see when they are loaded, but dark enough to really cut down on the brightness they once were. I think these will blend in rather well when worn even in “open” harnesses.

I still get a kick out of them coming out green when using BLACK die though. LOL Good thing it still works well.

I hope this helps some folks.

[SCBrian]

Originally Posted by shartley

With my batch I used BLACK Rit Die and the results were great, if not unpredicted. The caps came out black, but the tubes came out GREEN. This of course was fine with me, but did surprise me.
.

Green Rit = Blue tubes....

Blue = Blue

[Bloodyswimmingpool]

yeah ive been wanting to do this. i just dont have the time right now. ill be doing this in the summer though.

[shartley]

Originally Posted by SCBrian

Green Rit = Blue tubes....

Blue = Blue

Thanks. That is very handy information. I will keep it on hand and pass it along whenever I can.

[Bloodyswimmingpool]

then how do u make black or smoke?

[scpaintballer01]

good question. Try somthing like brow or a darker color cept black cause we know what happens to them.

[shartley]

Yes, a “smoke” is actually what I was aiming for…. But as pointed out, we know that does not work with black. I guess folks could try a brown (as suggested) but I would not hold much hope for that seeing how the dies react to the tubes. It must be the makeup of the plastic that does not accept the die very well, because as you can clearly see it worked perfect on the caps.

And I know since I LIKE the way they came out in green (although unexpected) I will not be playing around with other colors just to see if it works. If anyone else does, please post your results though,….

[shartley]

This thread is being mirrored (but with much more input) on another forum. Here is what another member posted:
Posted by Vyo:
I'll try and get a pic later when I get home, but I did some tubes and all my caps over over the weekend.

Dark Green Rit Dye does in FACT result in Blue tubes. And I must say, its a very NICE blue. The Caps are even better, almost a deep midnight blue.

I bought the Liquid version and for the pan I used, I used maybe an 1/8 or less of the bottle. I'm VERY happy how mine turned out.

He then came back and posted this later:

Ok..I did up about 100 caps and 20 tubes to start with, dind't know just how well the tubes would come out, but I figured anything was better than the orange caps. Seems a little lighter than they are because of the lighting. The second picture is a bit better. The look MUCH better in person.

the dark part of the tube is sone green electrical tabe I use to make my tubes for easy identification. didn't feel like taking it off, so left it on for more uniqueness.

Took this pic to give you an idea of just how well you can still see through the tube, and with a couple color balls.

(btw, the brown/gold balls.. Draxxus, nasty cheap paint...)

And here are a couple more pictures I just took of mine. These ARE green, but are taking some of the blue in the step paint they are resting on. As you can see, they work GREAT! And as Vyo posted, they look better in person, as is the case most of the time.

[scpaintballer01]

wow, those look RELLY good

[shartley]

Originally Posted by scpaintballer01

wow, those look RELLY good

Thank you.