All Things Flocking

[HenryHawthorne]

Great picture!

Agree, Eric, staff, and forum contributors have ensured this forum is what a good forum should be -folks with a central interest/passion sharing not only around the central theme but also across their broader interests. I belong to one other forum about which I feel similarly - woodbarter.net. If you're not familiar with that one, like this forum it was started by an individual with a passion who wanted to share and invite participation - in that case in wood and woodworking. Its central purpose is to be a place for (small shop) woodworkers to share knowledge and to buy/sell/trade wood. It is quite a collection of craftsmen and smart-asses (at least I fit with the latter).

 

[SJ Fairbank]

If the truth be told, there isn't a lot of reason for the airbrush on black ducks. It just depends on how dark you want them. We airbrush primarily because it's fun.

I'd still do the double coat. Depending on how black you want them you can change the color under the brown flocking. If you aren't going to airbrush, I'd recommend gloss black rustoleum and brown flocking. Something you will likely notice on a second coat of brown is you'll see some shine coming through after you put the flocking on, shake over it a couple of times, shake the excess off and set it aside. What will happen over just a few minutes is that shine goes away as the flocking settles into the paint.

Black rustoleum with black flocking would also work just fine.

The test swatches were black Rustoleum with feather brown and dark brown for the body. I need to study the second coat, but I think the feather brown on black produces a fine Black Duck body.

The store didn't have almond bisque, I got a can of sand (color). I tried the tan and the goose grey on the sand paint, I think the goose grey may be the winner. I know you said you add a little brown to the almond bisque, I may add a touch of raw umber to brown up the sand color and retest. I'm a little behind my target progress because I'm still fussing with the little boat canvas, and there are ducks to be hunted.

 

[William Reinicke]

The test swatches were black Rustoleum with feather brown and dark brown for the body. I need to study the second coat, but I think the feather brown on black produces a fine Black Duck body.

The store didn't have almond bisque, I got a can of sand (color). I tried the tan and the goose grey on the sand paint, I think the goose grey may be the winner. I know you said you add a little brown to the almond bisque, I may add a touch of raw umber to brown up the sand color and retest. I'm a little behind my target progress because I'm still fussing with the little boat canvas, and there are ducks to be hunted.

You’re done now…. Let us know when you’re ready to carve custom poses and need paint mix formulas to get different colors for your soon to be airbrushing sessions.

 

[SJ Fairbank]

You’re done now…. Let us know when you’re ready to carve custom poses and need paint mix formulas to get different colors for your soon to be airbrushing sessions.

I did the fancy poses thing years ago, just too much work for one decoy. But the flocking looks like fun and the results you guys get are phenomenal. I'm curious what kind of blending, if any, I can get using only flocking on the heads. I may tinker with mixing flocking colors just to make a mess. I'll be surprised if I'm not airbrushing in a couple of weeks.

 

[William Reinicke]

I did the fancy poses thing years ago, just too much work for one decoy. But the flocking looks like fun and the results you guys get are phenomenal. I'm curious what kind of blending, if any, I can get using only flocking on the heads. I may tinker with mixing flocking colors just to make a mess. I'll be surprised if I'm not airbrushing in a couple of weeks.

I haven’t really delved into fancy poses just yet either. I don’t think it’s going to be too hard and it’s no secret we work with foam, and not wood. Im assuming it makes life mucho easier…. I think lol. I probably will never know though, as I’ll probably never work with wood in my life for decoy making.

I should just get the bumper sticker now…. Foamer for life!

 

[Don Mintz]

The rustoleum color is just Almond, but it's just not quite right for a black duck head, even with the bisque tan flocking. Here's a tip if you do start airbrushing, it's easier to start with a light base if you want to paint light colors over that, it's hard to paint white over dark flocking. It's easy to paint dark color over light or medium colors and get good coverage.

Caleb and I keep experimenting with color and flocking combinations to get where we want to go. I recently flocked some harlequin heads and used gloss black over the top of the head and blue over the rest of the head and flocked black. The blue shows through and of course the black is black, it gave a good base for the head with only coating with black flocking.

The big deal with blends in the same painting steps is the flocking has to be the same, the colors don't. For instance the wigeons I paint brown on the body and grey on the head and flock the whole thing grey and get a great base for painting over and as I mentioned before I hunted over a wigeon that had no airbrush on it other than the bill and no one knew. We shot three limits of mallards, wigeons and a pintail that day.

My background is wood carving, I did a lot of competing over 30 years ago, but never in decoys. If I do a decorative waterfowl carving it will likely be a life size flying bird, fully feather detailed. When it comes to decoys, my own decoys are pretty common looking, with poses reflecting behaviors like feeding, fighting, calling etc. There might be a time when the details might matter, otherwise it's just artistic expression for me. Caleb is a production painter, he thinks I mess around too much and take too much time.