Re-Painting brand new decoys - GHG Buffleheads

Steve Sanford

Steve Sanford

Well-known member
All~



I am flat-out right now - not unusual at this pre-season time of year - refurbishing scores of gunning decoys. Most of these gunners have a pedigree of long standing and were made from wood and or cork: LL Bean, Wildfowler, Al McCormick



I have re-painted my share of plastic birds - especially older Herter's. And I have put the first paint on brand-new factory birds - most notably several species of Homer Decoys. New for me, though, was re-painting brand new, out-of-the-box factory birds.



A friend on Long Island wanted to add some Bufflehead Hens to his Greenhead Gear Bufflehead Drakes. Evidently, GHG does not offer Hens in its larger divers. So, 6 new Drakes were mailed right here.



Since the tried-and-true methods and materials do not necessarily comport chemically with some of the newer "space age" (?) materials, I have been in experimental mode. I think I have found an approach that works.



I began by scrubbing the birds with lacquer thinner. It dissolved some of the paint with the help of a brush and a rag.


NOTE: Click on any image to view it larger.



View attachment GH 01 sm.JPG




After a day in the sun, my test bird got a coat of Rustoleum sprayed on. The label trumpets the fact that it bonds to plastic. So, the first bird got some camouflage paint, then spent another day in the sunshine. At the end of Day 2, I could not scratch the paint off the keel with my fingernail. I interpreted that as evidence of a good bond between GHG and Rustoleum.


View attachment GH 02 sm.JPG




So, on Day 3, I painted with my usual Behr latex house paints - colors as per my Tutorial at: https://stevenjaysanford.com/painting-bufflehead-gunners/



These bonds, too, seem strong the following morning - so I painted all 6. Instead of the original flat camo, though, I used a satin grey spray.



Here is Sample # 1.


View attachment GH 06A Portrait sm.JPG




And here is the Herd.


View attachment GH 04 Rolled back WARM CROPPED sm.JPG




Of course, the real test of my experiment will be a season of gunning on Great South Bay.



All the best,



SJS
 
Looks like transgendering is catching on in the duck hunters world too. [sly]

They look great Steve.
Thanks

Best
Bob
 
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Nice work as susualy Steve!
I will have to give the Rustoleum plastic primer a try on some of my old Carrylite buffies.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Tom~

Both Rustoleum and Krylon offer primers that they say "fuse" with plastic. I just wish I could buy it in liquid (not spray) form.

All the best,

SJS
 
Pretty good job on the sex change. Not much on them for eating, but they make for sporty shooting.
 
Hey Steve -

Without seeing the decoys, my bet is the manufacturers are switching to one of the many low surface energy plastic. Typically these are cheaper plastics and reduce cost quite a bit. On most consumer plastics (think milk jug for instance) the type of plastic used is stamped on the jug somewhere. It is the little triangle thing with a bunch of gobble gook numbers inside and around. This tells you the type of plastic the item is made of. It not sure if it is required of decoy manufactures to put this info on the box or deke.

3M has a product called primer 94. You wipe this on any plastic and then anything will stick to the low surface energy plastic. Great product but I bet it is hard to find. I would guess many automotive paint suppliers would carry it. Works good for paint adhesiion and more specifically adhesive adhesion to these tough plastics.

Mark
 
"Low surface energy plastic"???? Guess I need to go surfing on the interwebs.....

I will see if my NAPA can get that 3M Primer 94 - sounds like it'd be handy to have in the shop. I'll be painting a Royalex/ABS canoe tomorrow. I'll just be using oil-based duckboat paint because the hull is so weathered that I think a quick sanding with 80-grit and wipe with acetone will do the trick.

All the best,

SJS
 
lot of folks in my area like to use plastic decoys due to the cost. many convert older plastic mallards into divers, some of the older plastic decoys are soft on the sides, this flexing of the plastic is hell on paint causing flaking etc. we have had some success wire brushing these types of decoys and then spraying or brushing on rustoleum truck bead liner. a spray can does about a dozen, quart can will do 50 or more. prime with rustoleum oil primer and paint with what you like. we have had good results with the durability and seems to stop the flaking. Harder plastic decoys such as the ones Steve is repainting can be bed liner coated as well. wire brush and wash first. Steve's process is more comprehensive and likely bare plastic is preferable if not using bed liner. it would be great if we knew what type of paint was used on these decoys originally so we could pick the correct solvent. Safest stripper by 3m is a multi paint stripper, very easy to use and will strips oil and latex paint. just paint it on and wait, scrub with a 3m pad if needed, wash it off. non toxic, no smell, indoors or out, no gloves needed.
 
Steve Sanford said:
"Low surface energy plastic"???? Guess I need to go surfing on the interwebs.....


SJS
Click to expand...

Polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, blends, all are low surface energy plastic. Try to make an adhesive that sticks to this stuff without priming. Tough thing to do well.

Mark
 
This is the stuff. Sorry for the late reply.

I would think shipping this would be expensive due to the solvents used in the product. If you could source locally at most automotive paint supply places you may get a better price.

Mark
 
That primer should work great for people wishing to paint a kayak for duck hunting use. In the past its been very hard to get good adhesion of paint to those hulls and any life out of the paint job.
 
Hi Steve. How did this paint job hold up?

I would like to try repainting some faded SportPlast brant. The only thing with them is the plastic is kind of black already, which could do for the head. However in it's current, weathered (dark gray) state, I think the heads are worth repainting as well.
 
Steve Sanford said:
"Low surface energy plastic"???? Guess I need to go surfing on the interwebs.....

I will see if my NAPA can get that 3M Primer 94 - sounds like it'd be handy to have in the shop. I'll be painting a Royalex/ABS canoe tomorrow. I'll just be using oil-based duckboat paint because the hull is so weathered that I think a quick sanding with 80-grit and wipe with acetone will do the trick.

All the best,

SJS
Click to expand...

FWIW, I have used both the Krylon Fusion and Rustoleum Camo rattle can paints on Royalex canoes with good results. You WILL go through a LOT of cans. Let me know if the oil-based works after an acetone wipe.
 
Jeff~


Yes - the sanding and acetone did the trick. Key was probably the weathered state of the Royalex.


Never got around to posting, but the process yielded a fine "stash canoe".


View attachment sm Discovery 17.JPG



The vessel is an Old Town Discovery 158 - picked up at our local transfer station for $18 a few years ago.



All the best,


SJS

 
Those are some pretty hen buffleheads. Great to see that they're still holding up. I've got six plastic teal that I've tried various methods on and could never get the paint to stick. I'll have to explore the products in this thread.
 
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