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Picking up an HK45 Compact in the near future. Thinking about sand color...

5K views 24 replies 15 participants last post by  Uncle Malice 
#1 ·
I know mostly no one seems to be a fan of the sand color. I haven't actually seen one in person yet, but I see some places selling them for $749 while the normal black and even the OD green models are still in the high 900's.

I'm thinking about picking up the sand and even if I hate it...I could have it cerakoted and still come out cheaper. Or even spray paint in in like OD or black colors and let it wear. The bits that wear through will just be that light sand color... Kind of the reverse of what you see when someone spray paints a black glock with khaki paint and it wear through a bit.

I know a lot of people hate that look, but I don't mind it so much. I might even pony up the cash to get the battle worn cerakote from someone like blowndeadline. He's got some VP9 samples that are amazing looking.

If anyone has any good pics of the sand 45C, especially is painted, I would love to see them before I pull the trigger on this.
 
#3 ·
#6 ·
I know mostly no one seems to be a fan of the sand color. I haven't actually seen one in person yet, but I see some places selling them for $749 while the normal black and even the OD green models are still in the high 900's.

I'm thinking about picking up the sand and even if I hate it...I could have it cerakoted and still come out cheaper. Or even spray paint in in like OD or black colors and let it wear. The bits that wear through will just be that light sand color... Kind of the reverse of what you see when someone spray paints a black glock with khaki paint and it wear through a bit.

I know a lot of people hate that look, but I don't mind it so much. I might even pony up the cash to get the battle worn cerakote from someone like blowndeadline. He's got some VP9 samples that are amazing looking.

If anyone has any good pics of the sand 45C, especially is painted, I would love to see them before I pull the trigger on this.
As long as you like it that's all that matters. But I like both the desert sand and the OD green look along with the new FDE look. Love options!
 
#9 ·
Picked up the new 45C today. I must say that I am much more impressed with the color in person than I was from most photos online. It seems to me like this color is kind of like the original Glock "OD" where they appeared to be coyote tan in photos but were clearly green in person.

These things look very mustard yellow in most photos, but it looks a lot better in person... at least to me. The trigger is quite smooth right out of box, so that's good. It is fairly heavy in DA, per usual with HK's. A few thousand dry fires should lighten that up a little bit.

I'm happy with it so far! Wishing my holster would hurry up and get here. :)

I think these photos fairly accurately represent the real color of the gun. For $749, it's a freaking steal!



 
#13 ·
Nice pistol! yea, i saw some like this sand one for sale a lot cheaper than the black, just like you. I think some think they have to be black to not look like a toy. I think it is a good look, but i do wonder if you ever sell one of the cerakote models, if it would sell as good? I had a FNP 9 that was the FDE and wanted to sell it a few years back. It did take a while, because nobody wanted the non-black look. I think you did good as long as you plan on keeping it and not just flipping it for profit. I am really wanting one also, but am waiting on a few things to shake out before i can either buy a HK45,HK45C,HK USP compact 45, or maybe a CZ Scorpion carbine. Just cant decide which i would like first, because the others would have to wait for a while.
 
#19 ·
Hey guys, so interesting discovery. First off, I want to make it clear that I am not upset by this in the least. This is not a criticism or bashing of HK in any way. I love them.

Everyone says that cerakote is nearly impervious to wear. Well, after only about a dozen or so holster presentations with the 45C, I noticed a bit of wear on the high points at the muzzle end. Like, THROUGH the coating. This seemed a little surprising as I have seen plenty of cerakote "abuse" videos where they do all kinds of stuff and the gun comes away no worse for wear. I did some googling to see if cerakote would respond to chemical strippers and the consensus seems to be that it does not. So I decided to do a little test to see what would happen and stripped my slide, sprayed a little Kleen Strip towards the front of the slide and let it sit for 10-15 min.... I then took a little bit of 000 steel wool and rubbed the slide a little. To my surprise, the coating started to come right off.

So I decided to give it a hose down all over the external areas of the slide and let it sit again, then wipe down the whole thing. So this is after just one treatment. I was actually thinking about sending it out for one of "battle worn" cerakote finishes, so this helps me visualize what that would actually look like. While it's not quite the same, I do actually like it so far.

This is my first experience with cerakote. So what do you guys think? Is this actually cerakote or something more like durakote/guncoat?



 
#22 ·
According to HK, these are guns ARE Cerakoted. Both, my green and sand guns are showing some light wear at the muzzle end as well as at the rear of the ejection port. And that's after significant range use (2500 rounds through green, 1000 through sand). Overall, the finish is very durable, and according to HK, the slides have the standard Hostile Environment treatment as a base, so any wear in Cerakote will not effect the overall level of protection.
 
#23 ·
I can't say the finish is "very durable" since I had holster wear THROUGH the coating after about a dozen holster presentations. And according to the few professional cerakote shops I've talked to, the only way Kleen Strip should effect cerakote was if it was not properly applied/cured/prepped/whatever.

And it's definitely bare metal, not the black HE finish under the cerakote.
 
#25 ·
You know, I haven't exactly made up my mind about that yet. I don't really mind the worn look so much. I have considered sending it to blowndeadline for his full "battle worn" cerakote finish (shown below). I'm also local to Robar, so I was also thinking about just having the slide redone in black Roguard or Poly T2. The robar is a cheaper option for just the slide... but I must admit that I do like the "battle worn" cerakote theme.



 
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