Old Herters

[roy brewington]

Well , I was waiting to hear back from about guy about a fiberglass banks style dory project and my 10 y/o daughter was asking make fish(tie flies), build a bird house, or build something . So what else am I supposed to do. I pulled down the first bag of the herters , grabbed titebond and the tote of walnut hulls. They helped for about 2 birds each (10 y/o’s) 5 year old stuck around for a few more. He liked doing the walnut coating . Got about 20 done too/bottom with one coat and just didn’t 6 more just the bottom. So about 16 more to do the first coat. Daughter stole a hen bb for her room since the boys both have decoys in their rooms, fair I guess. Hopefully they will help more with the painting . My daughter was scrolling Steve’s how to section for the painting, Steve, FYI she says “oh I can do that too dad “.

The dog pic was from earlier when I was about to head to a buddies for his trailer to pick up the dory. She came in covered in what I thought was poop , but I think she just rolled around at the neighbors with her dogs in the fresh cut grass that was in a puddle. Had to get the kids out of the truck and wash her……

Tony

I normally keep some lengths of thin electric fence style line cut into 16" lengths to insert thru head bolt hole with a hook bent on each end and just hang the decoys to dry after painting or restle coating. Allows full body coverage all at one time. Hung Out in the sun speeds up drying process and also lets any excess titebond simply run towards tail doing that process. This is the time of year i,ve always done those decoy projects ,outside weather permitting, on trestles and table. Mostly because the dull coat I spray over paint doesn,t like above about 35% humidity. Might work for you or might not but does speed up process a bit.

 

[Tony hall]

I normally keep some lengths of thin electric fence style line cut into 16" lengths to insert thru head bolt hole with a hook bent on each end and just hang the decoys to dry after painting or restle coating. Allows full body coverage all at one time. Hung Out in the sun speeds up drying process and also lets any excess titebond simply run towards tail doing that process. This is the time of year i,ve always done those decoy projects ,outside weather permitting, on trestles and table. Mostly because the dull coat I spray over paint doesn,t like above about 35% humidity. Might work for you or might not but does speed up process a bit.

I used a Philips screwdriver thru the head hole to help hold the decoy. The wire would be a good idea too. Unfortunately we aren’t getting over 70 this whole holiday weekend. Once I have 2 coats on each bird , I planned on putting them back into the attic to cook for a month or so.

Tony

 

[Tony hall]

Well it was a quick summer! Was gonna post on the work bench but figured I’d keep the story here. I got them all coated earlier in the summer, stuck them back up on the garage. Finally found time to prime all the bodies. Couple week ordeal balancing work, home and the dory project I thought was gonna be a quick weekend build.

Went with Steve’s paint plans and so far I think I’ll be upset when someone blows one apart trying to shoot a cripple!!

Tony

 

[Steve Sanford]

Well it was a quick summer! Was gonna post on the work bench but figured I’d keep the story here. I got them all coated earlier in the summer, stuck them back up on the garage. Finally found time to prime all the bodies. Couple week ordeal balancing work, home and the dory project I thought was gonna be a quick weekend build.

Went with Steve’s paint plans and so far I think I’ll be upset when someone blows one apart trying to shoot a cripple!!

Tony

Good morning, Tony~

Great work all around!

For your daughter's files...here are the Redhead paint schemes....



...and Mrs. Redhead...



All the best,

SJS

 

[Tony hall]

Thanks Steve, I’ll save those instead of constantly opening your website. Still need to get the hen paint, totally forgot when I went for the other stuff. Also shoulda got a quart of fedora. Didn’t realize I was painting the whole bird with it then doing details. The sample lasted 8.25 birds. I do really like how dark the hen BB look. In the winter when the leaves are down I can see straight across the river to Canada. Raft of birds within 100 yards of shore (shore being about 100 yards from house) you definitely see lots of white. Anything past that, it’s black rafts. Think more hens is almost a good thing.

Grabbed a sleeper mold from a buddy, tried one last night , baking the mold in the grill and warming foam in water but either the foam isn’t warm enough or my math was off. I’m gonna wait till later in the week to make more supposed to poke into upper 70’s.

Thanks again Steve for all the knowledge and simplified how tos!

Tony

 

[Michael B]

Jason and Steve. I think the restle coating will happen. These will be on mainlines and we typically leave decoys on the lines and pile them in the bow of the boat. Steve, do you think that the epoxy is that much better than TB3? Significant increase in price btwn the two.
-Tony

For what it’s worth, I’ve tried using Titebond III and walnut shells. About half the decoys experienced significant flaking and failure of proper adhesion as shown in this photo (I removed loose material just with my fingers). Undoubtedly a prep issue. It also adds more weight than I thought it would. From now on I’m burlapping with only as much mastic as necessary and sealing with three coats of spar varnish. It creates a hard shell and adhesion won’t be a problem.

 

[William Reinicke]

For what its worth, we use rustoleum paint for flocking... it also makes a nice adhesion for walnut shells if thats what you have to have on your decoys. I did it with some snow geese last year, to see if it was a texture I liked vs flocking, and they still are holding up great. I dont like the rough nature, and think ill honestly just paint the flat white rustoleum right to the foam when it comes time to really start cranking out snow goose decoys for a full body spread. Snow geese might be the only decoy I wont flock. Everything else is going to be fully flocked.