Free: Contests & Raffles.
To prep the decoys you can just wire brush off the lose paint and be ready to go. If you have access to a sand blaster or power washer that will take off even more paint and give you a better base to start with. I like to prime it at this point but watch what primer you use. If you plan on using an oil based paint you wouldn't want to prime it with a latex primer.Next figure out if you want to paint or flock them (I prefer flocking but it is more time consuming and requires an airbrush). For painting looking into Parker paint kits or golden acrylics. I have done the cheap sample paints from Home Depot/Lowes and they do okay but you get about 2 years on it before the paint starts to come off. If you don't mind repainting them every other year and saving a buck then for sure give them a try since it is your first try at it.If you plan on flocking them I would suggest rustoleum paint as the "glue". I buy my flocking from Fowl Flocker. The only colors you need in flocking are goose grey, brown, white and black (I'm experimenting with green this summer so that list might change for me haha). For an airbrush look at harbour frieght. They sale a decent double action air brush for 15 bucks. It's not the best but it's a great starter for learning. Then get a tupperware tub, you want one big enough that you can put the whole decoy in the tub and move it around with out touching the sides. The last thing you will need is a flour sifter. The process is pretty basic paint on the glue then sprinkle the flocking over the decoy. Let dry 24 hours and then put on a second coat. On the second coat put on enough glue that it looks wet but isn't running. If you get the paint too thick the flocking will become crusty looking. You do this for all the block colors then air brush on the details. Example, for a drake mallard you would do goose grey with grey rustoleum over the most the body, Leather brown rustoleum with brown flocking for the chest, black rustoleum with black flocking for the head and tail.If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a message.
Pic of them in shade. Just the heads were flocked that was the only thing done to them and I think they turned out awesome.
There was a guy on Flocknocker who used to sell CD's on how to repaint and flock duck and goose decoys. He did a pretty good job of it as far as I could tell. If you get really good at repainting mallard decoys I have about a dozen CRD's that could use a repaint.
