Decoy paint

These were various brands of decoys with different paint schemes that I painted all of the drakes to pretty much match. The picture is before I coated them with Rustoleum Clear Matte. I used acrylic paint. Hand painted all. The paint has held up well. The hens I just touched up the bills and speculums. Did it make a difference to the ducks, No. It was a labor of love for me.

 

I went to the trouble of learning to airbrush (OK, half-*** airbrush), so by golly, that's how I redo the bulk of what I redo. But I still do the detail by brush. Some circa '70s G&H pintails from my first spread (cut their stiff, front-and-center necks and re-"welded" them at angles on my college hot plate) that I redid to brighten my little pothole spread:


And some GHG jacks spruced up in a failed attempt to interest their kind in a hole too small for their liking:


Regardless of species, distance has been my work's friend:

 

I rattle can all mine. Don’t do many plastic decoys, but with proper prep work the Rust-Oleum for plastic seems to adhere the best.

 

I use all oil based enamels from rustoleum, part of it thinned to go through an airbrush. I've tried just about everything and have settled on oil based enamels, it will take you as far as your ability will go. This pair is all rustoleum.

 

Those specks look damn good Rick

 

Pay attention to the second sentence. If the original paint is really stuck to the decoy, don't remove it.

 

Those look great.

I think I am going the opposite direction. Anything that's really beat up is becoming a black duck.