Rocket Red
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Hi All,
Recently came across a bag of very used decoys hanging in a barn. The owner said I could take them. These dekes are in varying state of disrepair, all are plastic old G&H and Carry Lite (I think). Most of the green heads are black heads and some are almost completely black. They are all mallards, mostly mags with some regular size as well.
I thought it would be fun for my daughter and I to paint these and get them back to usable. I have never done this so I have a lot of questions.
1) What type of paint should I buy. Parker, the UV stuff, other brands?
2) Should I buy kits or are many of the colors not required? I mean for a green head I figure paint his head (green), his beak(yellow), his neck band (white), the stripe down his back (black), body (gray) and tail (black and white) (5 colors). The kits seem to have a bunch of other colors, do I need to get that detailed (the blue and white on the wing etc?)
3) I have about 25 that are usable, I would like to make at least half of them into bluebills or scaup (black and white divers of some type). Is there a mix of divers that you would recommend? I have plenty of puddler decoys as it is. I would like to add a little variety to the spread. We mostly decoy ringnecks, scaup and buffles in the areas I hunt.
4) With any decoy spread how many drakes to hens to you recommend? It seems like when I am putting together a small spread I tend to grab more drakes than hens (2:1 ratio) just as a gut feel, am I wrong?
5) Do I have to prepare the dekes for paint, or can I just start painting?
My other useable decoys are mallards, pintails and teal. I hunt mostly saltwater marsh and sloughs, and river valley puddlers. I know it is a lot of questions, but I know that the members of this board will have good insights for me on this stuff. Thanks in advance!
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"Painter of light, my a$$!"
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Gooose
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Drake to hen ratios? Pintails 3 to 1 from mid to late season. The reverse in the early season. Why? A lot of the 1st year juvenile Pintail drakes actually have plumage that looks similar to hens...they haven't fully fledged. Those young birds will migrate thru quickly. By mid November go to the 3 drakes to 1 hen ratio. For the rest of your puddlers go with 2 drakes to 1 hen. Divers are a different story. Scaup/Bluebills and Ringnecks go with 2 to 1 or 1 to 1. If you mix them in with Widgeon and Pintails go with 2 to 1 always. If you place these off shore from your puddlers then it doesn't matter. Canvasbacks, Goldeneyes and Butterballs go with 1 to 1. Always nice to set a pair or two of these offshore from your main spread in deeper water. I wouldn't mix them in with the puddlers
I really wouldn't be too worried about about fine details such as white neck bands but you definitely want the white wing patches. For the gray areas go with a really light gray for those areas where the feathers are barred dark and lite. Darker gray where its a solid color.
For prep on the G&H's I would just hit them a bit with course steel wool or a wire brush. G&H paint jobs are usually fairly well attached. Carrylites on the other hand suck for the quality of their paint jobs holding up. You will want to work those over reel hard with a wire brush.
For paint I either use the kits or acrylics.
Good score!  If it was me I'd repaint a couple Magnums as Canvasbacks, all the non magnums as Scaup, and the rest of the Magnums as their original species.
I wouldn't be to worried about perfection in form and color appearance. The old timers weren't....some of the old wooden decoys that performed well on Grays Harbor back before plastics are what I'd consider the art deco style of dekes. They worked then and work to this day. Those oldtimers figured out that if'n the birds were close enough to spot an imperfection then they were close enough to be dinner. 
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fishdoc
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Thick Tail
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I agree with Gooose...plus let your daughter paint some for christmas presents.
doc
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If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always gotten.
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Rocket Red
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Thanks guys!
Those are great ideas and tips. I will be ordering paints today. The last two years have been good for scaup and ringers for us, I definitely will be doing a lot of them.
Fishdocs idea about having the little one paint them for x-mas is a great one. I told my wife that I was going to use the dining room table as a decoy painting station and she said "No way, keep it in the garage". Then I told her I was going to have Ella paint some for x-mas presents and she had a change of heart!
I will try and post pictures of the end products.
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"Painter of light, my a$$!"
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