After picking up a popular waterfowl mail order catalog looking for camouflage painting stencils I quickly decided I wasn’t spending $25, nor was I going to wait a week to camo up the sneak boat I recently finished fiberglassing and pained olive drab green. So I started thinking how I was going to make my own painting stencil for marsh grass.
Since I didn’t have any thin sheets of plastic that a purchased camouflage stencil would be made from I decided to use the thin cardboard of a cereal box, we all have those lying around. After eating the rest of the box (actually I just pulled the bag out) I cut the wider sides off the box. Now I drew a stencil out and then cut the design out with a pair of scissors. Think this was a pretty cool idea I scanned the stencil and converted it to a pdf for all of you.
To make your stencil with this pdf download simply print the download and cut out between the lines. Now trace it on a piece of cardboard and cut out between the lines again. That’s it.
Either spray paint or a brush can be used with a stencil. The spray paint will give a smoother edge and initially look nicer, but remember your camouflaging a duck boat so rougher edges would actually be better. Flat Krylon paints in black, brown, and kaki work very well for boats to be used in a marsh or reservoir when setting up in various grasses. For hiding in the timber I would suggest Krylon flat black and brown.
To begin be sure the surfaces of your duck boat are very clean as paint will not adhere very well to a dirty surface. I would suggest washing the surfaces to be painted with a mild degreaser such as Simple Green and then rinse. Once dried the first coat of paint using the stencil can be applied. I always start with the darkest color first, in most cases this is black. When using spray paints simply allow the first coat to dry to the touch and apply the second, and then the third. For a marsh camouflage this would be the color black, then brown, and then kaki. When brushing camo paint on using the stencil the individual layers might need more time to dry so as the brush doesn’t rub through the previous color. As the stencil loads up with paint during use simply allow it to dry or use a paper towel to wipe off the excess paint.
Not sure about making your own stencil? Here's some stencils ready to go from ebay, but you'll have to wait for shipping...
 Camo Oak Bark Set Airbrush Stencil,Camouflage,Duckboat $7.99 |
 Camo Oak Bark 02 Airbrush Stencil,Camouflage $7.99 |
 Camo Oak Leaf Set Airbrush Stencil,Camouflage,Duckboat $7.99 |
