# How To Camo A Tin Boat



## BassBlaster (Aug 13, 2011)

I havnt seen a "how to" posted on applying camo to a boat here yet so I decided I'll post my experience today. I'm no expert by the way. This was my first time but it turned out well.

I started by sandblasting my tin. Lots will tell you that sandblasting is not a good idea. I think otherwise but thats another story. After sandblasting, my project got held up for a year so my tin sat bare and oxidizing the entire time. Because of that, I spent multiple hours with a grinder and cup brush cleaning the oxidation off before painting. This step would not have been necissary had it not sat bare for so long. Next was Self Etching Primer. I used Rustoleum spray bombs. I used 5 cans. I applied 2 coats of primer to every area to be painted and let it set overnight. I then lightly sanded the primer with 220 grit. The primer said to use 400 grit but the paint said to use 220 grit. What gives, lol. I went with 220 because I had some on hand. I then blasted all the dust off with a blow gun on my compresor and hauled the boat out into the driveway. I wiped it all down with Mineral Spirits to be sure I had removed all the primer dust and let it dry. Now we are ready for paint!!

This is the primer sanded and cleaned and ready for the first coat of paint. The tape and newspaper are just keeping my new Steelflex from catching overspray...







For painting the camo, I ordered a stencil kit from Reelfoot Custom Camo. There are a ton of places that sell camo stencils but I couldnt find any I liked except for the ones at Reelfoot. They sell a couple different sizes in various patterns. The pattern were doing today is called "River Bottoms". I'll be using Krylon Ultra Flat Camo spray bombs.

The first step is the base color. My base color is Olive and I decided to give it 2 good coats to make sure I got complete coverage of the primer. It took about 6 cans.






For the life of me, I can not paint with spray bombs without leaving a shadowing effect on the overlaps. Not to worry here though, next step...shadowing!!

For the shadowing effect, you just paint random blotches and lines in black. There is no method, it's completely random. Biggest issue here is just not getting to heavy with it wich I feel like I did in a few places. Were not painting here, just painting shadows that will be in the back of the pattern.






Now that the base is down and the shadowing is done, were ready to start with the stencils. Unless your using a duck boat specific pattern the first step is most likely gonna be "bark". The bark stencil needs to be overlapped so that it is continuous throughout the pattern. I tried using electrical tape per the instructions to hold the stencils but it wouldnt hold. Masking tape did the trick. The paint dries fast enough you can lift your stencil and stick tape to it almost imediately and you wont pull it off. You can get heavy with the paint here again so you get nice dark bark patterns. My color here is brown.






Now on to some more involved stencils. My next stencil is a "brush" stencil. This shouldnt be continuous like the bark but its up to you as to where and how much brush you use. Shoot the brush brown with dark heavy lines like you did the bark but before moving the stencil you need to highlight it lightly with another color. Just a quick mist to create a highlight. you dont want to cover all of your base color. The directions called for medium brown highlights but I didnt have that color so I used khaki.






Now to the final step in my pattern, "leaves". This stencil really sets off the pattern I think. This is applied exactly like the brush stencil except you reverse the colors. Spray the leaves heavy and dark with the khaki paint and then stripe each leaf with the brown. I kinda gave it a light overspray and then hit it hard down the center of each leaf for a more 3 dimensional look. The instructions actually called for a shot of medium brown on each leaf before the dark brown but again, I didnt have that color. I still think they turned out okay.






Here are the final results...











If you are using the same Krylon spray bombs that I used, the cans say it takes 7 days for the paint to completely cure and become scratch and chip resistent. Being that our tins usually take a pretty good beating, I'd give it the full 7 days before use.

Thanks for looking and please feel free to ask any questions or add to this thread.


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## Brine (Aug 13, 2011)

Good job Man!

I've got an appreciation for stencils... #-o


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## optaylor823 (Aug 14, 2011)

WOW!!!! I have seen boats done like this, but did not realize what all was involved. The boat looks great.


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## BassBlaster (Aug 14, 2011)

Thanks!! Ive been looking forward to getting to the paint job but now that I have done it, I'm glad it's over, lol. The hardest part is just geting the stencil to lay flat so you get crisp lines. Thats why most of my pics are from the back. Its the best looking side. You can see how crisp the lines are on the back and then on the side view they are a little fuzzy. Still not bad though, after all, its camo. I'm happy with it. BTW, not counting prep and priming, this took about 6 hours to do, however, I did take a lot of breaks just because fat people and the sun dont get along well!! I'm guessing if I worked straight through, it could be done in half that time. Thanks again!!


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## Fatdad5 (Aug 14, 2011)

That looks great!!! Awsome job!!


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## TNtroller (Aug 14, 2011)

very nice work indeed.


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## SVOMike86 (Aug 14, 2011)

BassBlaster said:


> I did take a lot of breaks just because fat people and the sun dont get along well!!


God it sucks how true this is. Looks awesome Man! good job. I've seen 2 good camo jobs in the last couple days now, if I get another tin, I just may do it...


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## Zum (Aug 14, 2011)

Looks real good as is.
Just wondering if you might hit the spots that just have the bark with alittle brush stencil.
Hard to tell without seeing it in person,I liked that brush look,but maybe it would be to much.


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## BassBlaster (Aug 14, 2011)

Nope, its finished. I guess you could make the brush continuous but if you did that, you could leave the bark step out. Its very hard to see the bark through the brush unless you are really looking for it. I didnt like the brush being sparatic at all untill I sprayed the leaves on. The leaves really set it off and made it look right.


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## FishinsMyLife (Aug 14, 2011)

Prep work is the key to a good camo job, without a doubt. I'm going to paint mine in the old Mossy Oak Bottomland within the next couple weeks.


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## BassBlaster (Aug 14, 2011)

Good luck with the Mosy Oak camo job. I wanted to do mine in Realtree but those stencils are WAAAAAAAY more involved than the ones I used. Post up some pics when its done!!


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## BassBlaster (Aug 14, 2011)

SVOMike86 said:


> BassBlaster said:
> 
> 
> > I did take a lot of breaks just because fat people and the sun dont get along well!!
> ...


Thanks!! Who else recently did a camo paint job? I'd like to check it out.


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## FishinsMyLife (Aug 14, 2011)

BassBlaster said:


> Good luck with the Mosy Oak camo job. I wanted to do mine in Realtree but those stencils are WAAAAAAAY more involved than the ones I used. Post up some pics when its done!!



Will do. I just printed out the pattern (from a google image) in the size I wanted and glued those sheets to posterboard, then cut the patterns out (X2 for everything, each pattern/color). Bottomland is pretty simple, a background color plus two more.

I did a cooler a couple weeks ago in the same pattern, I'll get some pictures so you can get an idea.











There's also a guy on my local forum that cuts stencils from mylar (same as what you pay out the ass for from Cabelas) for about half of the big names' prices, but for a couple hours work, I had a decent enough stencil for me.


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## SVOMike86 (Aug 15, 2011)

BassBlaster said:


> Thanks!! Who else recently did a camo paint job? I'd like to check it out.


Im not sure how to directly link to it, but its a new guy named PWShepard, his post is under the conversions section, its called "From the bank to the water". It's pretty awesome. I'm not into camo at all, I don't hunt duck or anything, but these 2 boats make me like it a lot more than I ever have...


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## BOB350RX (Aug 15, 2011)

the camo looks awesome i would do it to my tin but the lakes i fish have alot of boat with no regaurd to other boaters and usualy pay more attention to the skier/tuber on the back than where they are going so prob no camo for me, maybe hunter orange :-k but none the less great job =D>


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## SVOMike86 (Aug 15, 2011)

BOB350RX said:


> so prob no camo for me, maybe hunter orange :-k


Haha. That sucks, but I'd LOVE to see a blaze orange tinny...


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## BassBlaster (Aug 15, 2011)

My lettering is going to be blaze orange!! Thought it would be a nice touch to the camo.


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## BOB350RX (Aug 16, 2011)

BassBlaster said:


> My lettering is going to be blaze orange!! Thought it would be a nice touch to the camo.


THAT WILL LOOK COOL IM SURE THE ODNR WOULD APPRECIATE IT


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## reedjj (Aug 16, 2011)

That looks awesome! Great Job!


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