# Boat Camo



## Dr. Decoy (May 4, 2008)

Decided that it was time to paint the old boat. Did some research and thought this might help a few of you out.

First I had to clean and sand down the boat. Once I thought it was clean, I did it again just to make sure. I then wiped down the boat to prep it for paint. I was told that I could paint over the parts of the boat that were green and it would stick just fine, but would need to prime the areas that were bare aluminum. (I don't know if that is accurate or not but sounded great to me.)

In order to prime the bare aluminum I had to use a "self etching primer." I was able to find this at any automotive part supply store. Autozone was the cheapest, but it was never in stock. Paid about a $1.50 more per can at Napa and it was readily available. The primer is kindof a dullish green/grey and seemed to adhere well. (I guess the time I took to prep it for paint paid off.)

After primer, our boat looked something like this. Our boat is 18' X 48" and I used about 2 1/2 cans. I was pretty liberal with it.



















After the primer I then applied the base coat of paint. For this color sceme I used a very light tan and contrasted it with dark brown. In order not to loose the green color of the boat I decided to create a stencil.



















The stencil was made out of accetate(?) sheeting at .05 thickness. I think that most art/craft/hobbie stores sell it. I found that Reules had it in sheets about 20" X 24" I had a large area to cover so I used the whole sheet for the stencil. There are pros and cons about the stencil. At times I was happy with the thickness because it would bend and form around corners, but other times I wished it was thicker so that it wouldn't tear and would stick flat to the boat.

I used the stencil for one side of the boat and then it got to dark/late to do the other side so I waited a day. I wished that I hadn't done that. The stencil became brittle and I was constently mending it with tape. In order to secure the stencil to the boat I used tape. I rolled up the tape and stuck it to the back of the stencil and then pushed it against the boat. Later on I used a stick to push against the stencil so that I could get a nice, clear cut edge when I sprayed it. I sprayed the entire stencil in the light tan and then just a quick hit of the dark brown thru it. I used about 4 cans of the light tan and about 1 1/2 of the dark brown.

After that I then made another stencil just like before but this was to create the bark look that Mossy Oak Shadow Grass has in its pattern. I used about 3 cans of black.




























During this process I found that sparying everything that was flat and horizontal first was the best thing to do. I started at the front of the boat, then to the benches and finally the sides. I didn't want to spend too much time inside the boat with the ribs, I was too affraid that it would take forever. So I just freehanded that stuff and tried to make it look blurry.

Once the black was on I then made another stencil for the grass. I then sprayed that with a golden yellow and hit it with some green for the final touches. I used about 2 1/2 cans of yellow and about 1 1/2 cans of green. I was never a mathmatician but I figure that I spent about $85. and I have some paint left over for touch ups. It took me about a week to complete, just working on it when I would get home from work for about 3 hrs or so a night. The part that took the longest was cutting out the stencils. That was a pain. They come wrapped in tissue paper so I just drew on the tissue paper and then cut it out with an Exact-o knife. Hope that this can help any of you who want to do something similar. The paint that I used was Krylon camo and I found that Wal-mart was the cheapest. They didn't have a yellow/gold so that paint I bought from Cabelas. Good luck and happy hunting!

The finished project.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

That looks darn nice! :wink: I have painted a few myself and know how much work it takes to get them the way you want. Great Job! Oh and I did the same thing to the inside of mine, the paint doesn't last long anyway with all the traffic.


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

You should be very proud. That is an excellant looking paint job. :mrgreen: Be sure to put an orange ATV flag on it when you are out putting in or picking up decoys or retrieving ducks. It could be real easy to lose sight of it if you're not careful. :wink:


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

I agree with the others... not a boat guy but that looks sharp for being a non commercial paint job. Should hide great, especially when the phrag starts dyin off and things go that off color yellow. Great job!!!


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