De-Shining webbing - DB13 Dodger

Tim Clark

Tim Clark

Member
After jealously seeing all the pictures of grassed dodgers, I finally decided to take the plunge and have one made for my Duck Boss 13. Thankfully a good friend has a marine canvas business and did what I am incapable of doing well - sewing! However, the seatbelt webbing I used has a LOT of shine (see pictures). Does anyone have ideas on reducing this? I'll be grassing over it, but I still want to get it knocked down before I hunt. A few ideas I had in mind: mudding the whole blind before I grass, taking some sandpaper to the webbing, and last resort painting it with some flat spray paint. I'm putting in some additional process photos.

Next steps on the blind: I also patterned and sewed up a blanket with the same webbing to lay over my legs, just need to get the aft eyes installed and work up a chock to hold a broomstick brace in the vein of what Steve Sanford has posted in the past for these blankets. I'm also going to lay down some aviary netting and grass the deck. Next off-season I'll finally give her a good re-paint on the deck.
IMG_3516.JPEGIMG_3506.JPEGMore pictures to come after those steps!
 

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Matte spray paint really is your best bet. Mud works great until it gets rained on and if you sandpaper it enough to take the shine off you’re going to ruin it. I know it’s painful to paint up such a well crafted addition but i think it’s the only way to get rid of it
 
Most folks I know go right over it with a flat brown/green spray paint. Raffia, canvas, even salt hay. That should do the trick. You guys did a great job with the dodger. Better than anything I could have come up with.
 
Tim Clark said:
Never heard of it before. Quick search seems like I'll need an airbrush to use it...is that right?
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Nope, comes in a small spray can. Testors Dull Coat.
I used it back in the day when I built my flock of 1:48 scale WWII aircraft. It was great to use unless you sprayed in very high humidity and it hazed over the entire topside of your newly completed Corsair. Dont ask how I know.....
 
Pull your trailer 20 miles on a muddy road in Saskatchewan. Guaranteed to eliminate the shine even after rinsing with a garden hose. Tust me, it wasn't intentional but it worked great. RM
 
Carl said:
Nope, comes in a small spray can. Testors Dull Coat.
I used it back in the day when I built my flock of 1:48 scale WWII aircraft. It was great to use unless you sprayed in very high humidity and it hazed over the entire topside of your newly completed Corsair. Dont ask how I know.....
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Carl~

I'm guessing you "know" because you saw me - age 12 or so - spraying Testor's Red on my AMT 1953 Ford F-100 (1/25th scale) in my cousin's garage on a rainy day. No gloss finish in those conditions! (One of those many mistakes from which we learn....)

All the best,

SJS
 
Humidity isn't a friend of Testor,s Dull coat! I,d spray paint that webbing with some Rustoluem Camo Brown & Tan. That's instant mudding. Put some paper behind it if you don,t want to get it on dodger fabric but actually giving it all a mist will cut down on shine. Or simply pop stiches and replace with some 3/4" to 1" nylon strapping on it . Add a couple more rows for easier grassing.
 
Capt Rich Geminski said:
Take small bundles of grass and tie wrap or jute string to the webbing.
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Rich~

Just yesterday I bought a ball of jute twine - for a customer whose South Bay I just applied polypropylene
webbing instead of wooden thatch rails. Salt Hay will wedge under the tight webbing - but he isin the Hudson Valley- and may be using Cattail or Bulrush et cetera. Lots of square knots (aka reef knots) do the trick!

Basler _ FULL from astern.jpg

All the best,

SJS
 
A variation of Steve Sanford's webbing ideas, particularly for wooden boats, is to double up the webbing with the top layer a little longer so there is room for grassing material. Double stitch perpendicular to the length every 4-6 inches to create loops. Treat the mating surfaces of both the webbing and the deck with 3M Adhesion promoter. Then apply 3M Super Seam Stick (1" roll) for a hardware less installation. One less place for water ingress to rot your deck. Incidentally the 3M Super Seam Stick is used for nylon sails with out stitching so it is brute strong. Just don't use it on any low energy surface such as polyester webbing. A high tack polyurethane glue would probably work as well or perhaps a bit stonger, but it hasn't lifted in over 2000 miles. As always, test first. RMimage000001.jpg
 
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One more coffee thought: I purchased a roll of aviary netting for grassing the deck. My thought was that I could easily lash the netting to fit the deck profile and have a number of places to tie grass in. In looking at the webbing on decks, it seems like that approach will be more secure than the netting, and will require significantly less time to grass (far fewer square knots). Any reflections from folks on either side of this?
 
Tim,
My first boat, a Kara Hummer, I used plastic aviary netting and it worked just fine with raffia. If you are using native grass to camo the webbing would be easier IMHO. Why not a combination of both? The webbing added last could help secure the netting using screws to hold the webbing down? You may want to consider using synthetic materials like Blind Grass for your boat. Super durable but very expensive. I like it because it holds up great to highway travel whereas nateral materials do not. RM
 
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One of the guys i worked with made a metal frame for the boat and tied in netting. then tied iron grass to it. The frame was removed after the gunning season and hung in the garage for next season. The grass can be added to for the next season and the boat used for other play.
 
Capt Rich Geminski said:
One of the guys i worked with made a metal frame for the boat and tied in netting. then tied iron grass to it. The frame was removed after the gunning season and hung in the garage for next season. The grass can be added to for the next season and the boat used for other play.
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I like your idea Capt Rich. I get strange looks crappie fishing in a grassed up boat!
RM
 
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