i have an older 1648 that i want to convert to a duck boat, but would like to keep the total cost down as much as possible. what is the least expensive way to give it a camo paint job? it is the original green color now, but it has faded quite a bit. i'd probably think it needs a new base coat to start with.

i cant vouch for durability..but i saw cammo paint at home depot the other day. Its in a spray can and was prob about 6 bucks or so a can.

There was a guy on Ebay - (i think he lives in
duncanville) that sells stencils....get some of those and use the spray paint....it does not have to be perfect. Match the colors and pattern to the area you hunt.

Get cheap paint and some tree branches and get after it. Do it again when you think the birds can see you

We ended up using the camo spray paint from walmart and made our own stencils out of large pieces of cardboard. It has held up pretty good for a few years now

If you want to do it reasonably cheap, but right, Sand the boat down. Get a oil based base color...I would recommend brown, we did black and afterwards it seemed that brown would be a better choice. Cut some stencil designs out of cardboard, or just use branches or reeds or leaves. Use mixtures of brown, green, tan, and black spray paint til you think its good. Also nothing wrong with getting different colors of spray paint and going to town

I agree with Traveler. Did mine in an oil-based flat slate grey and just used black to break it up. We hunt in timber, so it hid well with the grey/black combo.

We used the black...it looked cool but in the field, the black stood out against brown mud flats

i used the parker duck boat paint that is i think arounf $40 a gallon and sprayed it on with a $15 sprayer from harbor freight. dont waste your money on stencils go to hobby lobby ask for their stencil blanks(its plastic paper) and cut out your own its a lot cheaper then spending $20 on stencils and if you want to go cheaper use posterboard from walmart and cut it out with a boxblade. ill try to post pictures of my boat i did.

aluminum boat paint job

^ here is a link to the boat i couldnt figure out how to post the pictures.

I started off with a gutted 17' Monark aluminum bass boat


Put down the base of self etching OD green


I made a set of stencils out of the large plastic yard sale signs. Available from Lowe's/Home depot/Wal-Mart, etc.




Laid down a series of random arches in flat white over the base OD green.


Laid down some flat brown thru the first stencil.


Then flat black thru the second stencil.


Flat tan thru the third stencil layer and some green thru a stencil of leaves.


Same to the motor


Finished and put back together.


All said, I think I have about $75 wrapped up in the camo (not including the OD green base). If I recall, I used 5 cans each of black, brown and tan. 2 cans of white. The yard sale signs were about $2 each.

Maybe this could give you some ideas for your own project.

Hubbs, sweet job on that rig. That's definitely one of the better DIY paint jobs I've seen.