Decoy paint - as a kit?

[Van]

Tom,
I am an amatuer decoy carver and from the colors of your decoys that I have seen, they blow away the old Herters paint. What I'd like to see is some paint available for purchase. I know some folks would probably like to retouch dekes that get scuffed up a couple seasons down the road. I'd like to be able to get some to paint my own blocks with. Not necesarily as a "kit" but if you've seen how the old Herters paint was offered, that's kinda what I'm talking about.

I've been using acrylics and mixing my own but your colors are just awesome. It would make life a lot easier if you know what I mean.

Thanks for taking the time to address my topic.
Van

[esteslanehunting]

I'm w/ ya Van. Some paint would be nice.

[duckboy1]

that would be a great idea

[SwampHunter]

I have already suggested this, as well as offering unpainted decoys.
The thing you run into with paint kits, is who is going to "steal" the paint and start using it in their company? You also have to deal with shipping hazardous materials. It's most likely not worth the hassle.
The thing you get into unpainted bodies is that it's such of a pain to get paint to stick to plastic. There is alot of prep that goes into it. You would have to pretty much mark molds so that it identifies the decoys that you sell unpainted, so that some low life doesn't try to return unpainted decoys claiming they were painted from the factory.
Too many varibles for this stuff to be done. Great ideas, but you are leaving yourself open for too much flack.

[Rusty Hallock]

Van,
I carve simple gunning birds out of cork or hollowed cedar. I mix my own colors with oil paint as my medium. I feel the best way to learn colors is to get a mixing chart. Once you have the mixing chart, this will give you a place to start.

When I paint decoys, I keep a journal for each decoy and their colors. I right down what colors I mixed get a certain color and put a sample color in the journal.

There is also a very good web site for decoy carvers. See below. Several World Champion carvers post on this site. Good luck with your decoys.

http://decoycarvingforum.com/6/ubb.x

[Van]

SwampHunter,
I recognize you from the 'fuge carving forum. As far as "stealing paint" goes... I guess that's possible but I don't see it as likely. Re: shipping hazardous materials... I agree that it is another hurdle but I would expect that they are doing it now, perhaps not, but if so that wouldn't really be a consideration.

Rusty,
I'm presently working on carving EPS blocks & burlapping. Lets just say I found a good suppply of a "poor man's cork". It works just fine. I'll stick with arylics if you don't mind. From all that I've heard, they are more of what I'm looking for at this time. I haven't gotten ahold of a color while, though I am aware of their existance. Is this what you mean by color mixing chart? I am familiar with the duckcarvingforum, as well as the one at SDH & the refuge, as well as a couple others. All are good resources.

Tom Matthews...
Any thoughts?

[Tom Matthews]

Van,

Do I recognize your name from a couple of years ago? I'm thinking we know each other - right?

Anyway, we are currently working on paint kits, more for touch-up and repair than anything else, but we are running into a ton of roadblocks with shipping hazardous materials, etc. We are working through them slowly but surely, and I hope to have more concise answers soon.

Thanks for the ideas as well as the interst in our products.

Regards,

Tom

[Van]

Tom,
I sent you an e-mail that you responded to back on 9-16. Unfortunately I was unable to respnd to it until just yesterday. My apologies. That's probably where you remember me from.

Thanks for your response and please consider that some folks might want a little more paint than a kit form. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Van

[Bowhunter]

Shouldnt be any harder than shipping Parker duck boat paint. UPS should be fine.
Bow