I finally grew a pair thanks to Steve Sanford

Every time I visit this site I drool over the work that you fellas do. I always thought building and painting decoys was not an option for me, I can hardly draw a straight line without the help of a ruler, OK even with a ruler I get a bump sometimes ha ha. Anyways, I had a need for another LL Bean hen mallard in my spread and I just happen to have an LL Bean black duck that was in need of a paint tune up, I actually purchased it with intention of sending it, along with a couple of other decoys to vacation at Steve Sanford's Spa and Restoration Resort. Well as in some things in life stuff happens and I never got around to passing the decoys on to Steve soooo if I wanted it done I'd have to do it myself.

The first thing I did was contact Steve and asked some advise, I figured who better to ask. I hunt over some of his handy work and I already knew the man was a font of information. I told Steve I wasn't looking to do anything other then paint a nice gunning decoy. Steve pointed me in the direction of his tutorial page, gave me some sage advise about where to purchase the paints, gave me some confidence with his understanding and assurance I'd succeed and the rest is in the photos.

I don't think I did to bad of a job for the first time. I forgot to take a picture of the decoy before I started so the pictures start after I applied the first color then progress with both the unpainted decoy to my finished product.Also I didn't paint the face because it looked OK for gunning but I have another decoy on the rack that is just begging for a face lift after the season

I hope you all like ............. Thanks again Steve


Joe

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That'll hunt!
I've never done any puddlers other than converting a couple of hen pintails to drakes. I stick with divers, shades of brown, black and white.
So my hat's off to you for diving in!
 
Your work convinced me. I looked at the photos before reading your text, and was thinking to myself something along the lines of "that's not a black duck, that's a mallard".

Good job. I like to think I'm smarter than a duck, so I believe it will draw birds to your spread.
 
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