What's the best way to paint a pattern with stencils without the paint building up like hell on the stencils? It really makes a mess after a few moves of the stencil. I'm painting my boat. Got the base coat on, waiting on stencils to get here. Thanks in advance.

The kind of paint makes a difference and don't spray too heavy.

spray your stencil on cardboard and cut with razor knife - cardboard is easier to work with than plastic flimsy stencils for amateurs like me - this worked for me after I ruined 2 stencils

Set a spot to set them down and wipe them down with paper towels or rags and rotate them. Like med said dust the paint on, not to heavy.

Did my cooler yesterday

You base coat has a cure time.... if that window has closed you will have to sand. FYI

It camo, not a base/clear combo.

Have a few duplicate stencils. I lifted my boat on its side to help hold the stencil to the hull side.

Uh yeah mine was like 40 haha

What stencils/pattern are you going with? I would have a can of paint thinner and a few rags and just wipe it down every other move or so with the thinner than a dry rag to get the thinner off.

Basically bottomland stencils. First just some woodland shapes then a bark type deal.

If the stencil is light enough, you can use the air pressure from the spray gun to blow the stencil on the hull and then squeeze the trigger all the way to lay down the paint

If you use black don't use the kind that says paint+primer. A ton of paint comes out of them. I used new natgear stencils this last time and could paint another boat before they would need cleaning. Just don't go too heavy. I also mist the back with spray adhesive. Makes better lines and much easier to handle. You doing the bottomland likes on the havoc boats? That's a good looking pattern.

Haven't seen a havoc. I got the idea from the prodigy boats. My base coat is gonna be a little darker green though

Google havoc boat images. They are using a stencil you can get on Ebay. Looks damn good. Kinda like bottomland but better IMO. Not the digital, its the pattern that looks like bark.

Don't mean to ninja up your thread but what kind of paint did you use for the base coat and how did you prep the boat before the base coat?


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I actually used the hs specialties od paint that they sell at bass pro. I painted another boat I had with it then sprayed a clear coat over it and it turned out nice and held up well. I pressure washed, light sanded, wiped with acetone, and washed again for the prep.

I got a bad deal on Hunter Specialty paint – bought 2 gallons that had the wrong labels on them they were supposed to be OD but were a tan color, when I got the OD finally it flaked off (in big chunks) after 1 year, probably my fault but I haven’t bought it since. Switched to Parker and haven't looked back.

I have the Styx river stencils that I did my boat with. To answer the ops question, light paint from about 10" away. And do multiple coats instead of globing it on in one coat. Let the stencils dry and you can break the paint off when it dries.

Here's the before and during.....

Jb did you thin the paint to spray it? If so what was the ratio? I'm about to paint my boat and I'm try to get as much info as I can. I don't want it to look ***** rigged lol. The boat is a skiff and I want the paint to hold up. And as far as the clear coat wouldn't that make it shine? I was under the impression that a hunting boat needed a flat or dull finish.


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Jb did you thin the paint to spray it? If so what was the ratio? I'm about to paint my boat and I'm try to get as much info as I can. I don't want it to look ***** rigged lol. The boat is a skiff and I want the paint to hold up. And as far as the clear coat wouldn't that make it shine? I was under the impression that a hunting boat needed a flat or dull finish.


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What about thinning it to spray?


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No thinning just poured it in the hopper. Flat clear coat to protect the paint a little better

I am about to start on mine with stencils, I turned my hull over (upside down). It is going to be easy now as I won't be fighting gravity and the stencil will lay right down on the hull.