Off Season Doings

Early Teal is a month away and we've actually
done some stuff this off season to prepare.
Granted, we still haven't made a layout boat,
but we did burlap/paint Craig's Herters bwt
decoys and paint the Dawn Treader.

Here are some scenes from the decoys
(it only took us a year to take this project
from start to finish):

We had to clean and organize the
shed first.





Then we got the decoys ready.





I wasn't burlapping the coots, but they
really needed some work too.



We put up a rack to hold our work.







Then we got to cutting patterns for
both the top and bottom of the
decoys out of burlap.





We smeared adhesive all over the burlap
and the dekes and smoothed it
down. Took two coats.









Once the work is done, management
shows up.



But we were done and headed in.



And there they sat for eight months
until we made time to paint them.
The style is a little more ideal
than real, but I bet we kill ducks.



At least the coots turned out awesome.




And, some from the Dawn Treader:

We cleaned and sanded the boat and
sprayed green zinc chromate on the
bare patches.





Cut a new floor for the boat too.



Then we put a base coat of Parkers duck boat
paint on.





Finally, we got happy with the spray cans
of Parkers camo paint (with a can of
Krylon camo green thrown in).



The handle blends in so well to
the deck and sides that I've already
tripped over it a couple times.  This
thing will disappear in the saw grass.





Look for the DT (Dawn Treader) initials on
the stern.



I'm ready to go hunting.

ofs