After the second stage of paint, it is time to put the second stage of tape on. (Remember...the first round of tape is still on there)

I had no idea what I wanted to try so my first attempt at a black oak leaf looked like this (pieced together from scraps):



Well....that took up too much room and looked kind of crappy, so I tried to use the rest of the scraps and some oddly sliced strips to make up the rest of the pattern. Trying to stay off the first round of tape except to cross it every now and then.

This is what I ended up with:

Next is the final color coat. 2 coats of Satin Fossil, and another 24 hours of drying time.




I have absolutely NO idea what this will end up looking like.

Oh yeah....just to add...all the painting was done outside and then I hung the bow in the small bathroom downstairs with the fan on 'til the fumes went away.

Okay...so last night...I could not wait. I peeled off the tape a piece at a time. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed. It was a lot lighter than I thought it would be.

Looks Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I stared at it last night for hours. I figured if I could add a little touch of a darker color to fill in, I might have something.

So...today after work, I went and picked up the can of Satin Espresso and a can of matte clear.

I took a 3M pad and went over the entire bow to try and knock some of the edges off of where the tape edges were. Maybe I should have tried to wet sand it for a smoother result, but as I said, I'm not concerned about winning any shows with it. After the 3M pad, I hit it with a tack cloth.

I decided to take half of an old file folder and cut out a few stencil shapes.




I took the bow outside and had Tristan (my boy) hold it and proceeded to take the various stencils and spot spray the bow with the brown. It made a big difference in toning it down.



When I peeled the tape off last night, some of it came off to bare metal. You can see the spot by the grip that looks like a big brown blob, that was just covering it up. You can see I was not too concerned with the grip area, because it will be covered with either a 2R or a Sims Tentacle Wrap.

I took the bow apart after a while and took each piece outside for a coat of the Matte Clear.

I really should have known better. I have had the worst luck with clears in the past and I have no idea why I should have expected a different result, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

I sprayed the clear, and immediately after I finished the last limb, the stinkin' base layer started bubbling up. I was FURIOUS! It is the same product. I will never use clear spray again to cover other colors.

Anyway, I went with it and decided to just run my fingers over the bubbles and it did not peel. Now parts of it have a crinkled look to it...oh well. No matter how much I was beginning to get used to the looks of the thing, this pretty much ruined it for me. I wanted to throw the whole dang thing in the trash.

Anyway...I added the parts to the riser and here she is.

Here are a few pictures out back to try and give the camo effect some perspective.



(the others I took out because you all saw them on the first page)

You can kind of get an idea what it will look like up in a tree against a skyline, which was my original intention.

With 4 different colors, a roll of painters tape, and a worthless can of clear, I have $21.39 in this in materials and that includes tax. I could probably do at least another 3 bows with the remaining materials.

I tried to keep an accurate "man hour" log, but kind of lost track a little bit between doing other things, taking pictures, and posting the results. I would be very confident in saying I truly have less than 3 total hours in the actual complete camo process, and it may even be closer to 2 hours. Thinking about and cutting the tape was the most time consuming.

Is it crude?

Yep.

Is it functional?

Absolutely!

Is it cheap?

Yep.

Was it fun?

You betcha!

(until I used that stinkin' clear!)

That turned out great, nice work!  It's always fun to figure things out yourself.

Well done, very cool pattern.

Wow, Nice Job Jim....

     

probably should have waited on the clear for a week or two maybe a lite sanding and a couple more coates i really like the finish bravo!

that is so awesome you have given me some inspiration im heading to the hardware tomorrow to get some epoxy for my limb sliver and im going to re do the rattle can job on my 64 kodiak

Thanks again for the inspiration. I have a Astro II with the metal riser, now to dress her up.

Thank you for the "how to" post!  Your efforts will serve as inspiration for others to find a better or worse way.  It all leads to a collective pool of knowledge from which we all can draw.  I think it turned out great and will be very effective from a tree stand or open country out west.  Thanks!!

My Nomad may end up like this...

Sweet job I like that ASAT style look.  Great camo

looks good to me....great job....  

Cool...be great out of a tree stand, blend right in!

Absolutely nothing wrong with that camo job. It for sure isn't crude. You should be proud of a job well done.