Exterior latex for decoys

Neal Haarberg

Neal Haarberg

Active member
I am getting ready to paint some wood decoys and have read here and there over the years on this site about using exterior latex house paint. I have been thinking about going this route and would like to know what people have done as far as sealing and primer when using this type of paint.
 
Neal, I have been using ext. house paint for around 15 yrs now. I use it on cork birds after sealing with several coats of spar. Light sanding then prime with black or if I have extra in another color. You could talk with Willie at the duck blind he carries paint(Tradtions ) which is good. Lou Tish at lock stock and barrel carries good paint . You also have (goldens acrylic) paint which a ton of people use. Guess it depends on what your putting it on cork, wood, plastic..... Lot of carvers here to help good luck.
 
Neal,
I’ve used exterior latex for all of my working decoys. The latest system I’ve used that has held up well is:

Step 1: Seal the sanded decoy with Zinsser’s shellac (David Robinson just spoke of this product in the "Wood and Paint" post).

Step 2: Sand lightly.

Step 3: Paint with exterior latex. 2 coats minimum.

Step 4: Spray with a flat/matte clear coat. 2 coats.
 
Neal, this year I painted a rig using the Behr brand paint from home depot. It comes in sample size containers for around$3.99 plus they will match colors. This is a plus when you only need a small amount vs buying a quart for $12.00 and having half of it dry up in the can cause you only needed a small amount. I found that the darker colors don't chalk up as bad as other brands...
 
Neal

I started out using Traditions acrylic. About half way through painting a dozen canvas geese, I came to the realization that for the price of a 3 oz tube, I could almost get a quart of latex. Aside from a brief (and frustrating) foray into oils, I've been using latex for all my base coating and major feathering and shading colors for most of my decoys. I keep a full selection of artist acrylics on hand, for mixing small quantities for bills and such, or mix up a new stock color to take to Lowes and have a quart blended. I like their Olympic flat exterior, one time they were out and subbed their better brand for the same price, but I found it thicker, and when I stimpled in left air bubbles on the surface. I like having the "stock colors" on the shelf, so if I goof (or when) and need to go back and rework an area, I'm not stuck starting from scratch mixing colors. Likewise if the rig needs a little maintenance between seasons, easy enough to grab the can(s) off the shelf and touch it up. Generally I keep in stock white, black, raw umber, burnt umber, "hen tan", and several grey or brown recipes that I have mixed up for different rigs. I have been priming all my canvas deeks with 2 coats of thinned latex kilz (including the wood head) and been happy with that base. The label on kilz gives a maximum recommended tinting, I've been thinking of on the next gallon of primer having them add whatever that amount is in RU so if the top coat wears and the primer shows, it doesn't' show white.

Best
Chuck
 
Neal

Get on Steve Sanford's website, Click on "How I do it", then go down and click on "Brant rehab and painting". He's got painting decoys down to a science, and he explains how to do it in detail. Use the Home depot laytex paints he recommends and you should be good to go.

Gibby
 
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