For orange knockdown paddles and sp[nners I first paint white, then orange. The orange shows up much brighter when covering white primer. Spray can designed to spray down/inverted for marking roads, sporting events,ect are thicker paint and cover best and dry real quickly.
For knockdown target faceplates most any paint will do. If the faceplate has details to highlight in a different color I use a Mylar/plastic sheet with the details cut out with a X-Acto knife. This makes touch up go real fast. Save the Mylar templates for each target and use them over and over in the future.
I have a Pheasant colorful knockdown target made by Rick Stoughenburg that uses 4 mylar templates for 4 colors. Rick sent them with the target purchase many years ago. They are still very functional and makes repainting fast.
Rick was full of great target ideas. His single anchor point targets are the best IMO.
As a shooter, I prefer a light solid color on the faceplates... like white or light blue or light yellow. So I can see my misses at least at the beginning of the match when it's most important to make sure you are dialed in... and can still make some adjustments in your mind in hunter class or dial in or make some new marks for open or WFTF.
As a match director, I want simple, quick and easy... so again solid color is best. Priming the kill paddle with white primer and then the red or orange finish coat works best. The faceplate works good with just white or light blue primer.
As a eco minded person, I don't like spray cans. I hate to breath the overspray. I hate the spray tips get clogged when they are still half full. I hate throwing the empty cans away.
I would prefer a 1" cheap brush (1.99 for a dozen at harbor freight), and small cans or jars for red and white, with lids that are filled from a gallon paint can, and a jar of water to drop the brush in. A small tray with some tools and oil for fixing targets and the paint jars is nice to carry from target to target.... That's how I like to do it, but we use the spray cans to my dismay, since my clubmates do the job most of the time.
Wayne
Some paint we use because it is cheap and other paint we use because of the color. We use mostly spray can paint but also use some brush on for multi color targets and for detail. Paddles are painted a white under coat and then a yellow top coat for black targets and day-glo orange for all of the rest. Our targets are painted somewhat natural colors with some detail and never just solid colors and never pink or other other non-realistic colors. It's just not that difficult to do a little detail on each target. We use a paint pen in various colors and a cheap black sharpie( from dollar store) for ears, eyes, tail feathers and so forth. We do have some multi color targets that require up to five colors and they take some time and effort to touch up or repaint. Some simple templates help. Targets are touched up and painted after every match and then at the end of the season they are cleaned , checked and repainted more thoroughly and targets that have a lot of paint on them are stripped and repainted completely.
Painting is just for color and gets damaged every match no matter what so there is no need to "cake" on thick coats of paint. Less is better for less build up and easier stripping when needed(they also look better). Also patience is a good thing(and difficult for me) but it's important to let paint dry before doing more on the same target. I actually let the targets sit for a couple weeks before I paint the paddle top coat.
We don't leave our targets out on the course. We bring them in after each match. We have practice targets set up on the practice range that reset with a bottom paddle and even they get taken in and repainted once a year. Field targets can last a really long time if they are cared for and obviously over the years I have developed a definite opinion on the subject. Some clubs put less effort into the targets but I think they make the match better and more fun for the shooters.
Probably more than anyone wants to know, but there it is! Come to Falls and enjoy our targets.
Rick B. FTRPA
Important to emphasize that one should paint the BACK of the faceplates WHITE... For any target placement on the course where the Sun is behind or to the side of the target, the white color on the back of the faceplate reflects sunlight onto the face of the paddle, helping to accentuate and prolong the visibility of the paddle as the match progresses and the paint on the paddle itself "disappears."
Any white will do, and usually lasts a long time, as the backside of the silhouette receives little pellet sharf and abuse.
We use rattle cans of the least expensive paint we can find at Home Depot or Ace Hardware. We use only flat white or flat black on the paddles with a contrasting color face plate of either tan, gray, aqua, light green, yellow, or various browns. We also use highlighting colors for the animals bellies. All of this is then outlined / detailed with a sharpie marker for some contrast. When we do repaint, we use cardboard pieces, laid over the target to mask the areas not being painted, and only "dust" the paint color onto the target. Just enough to cover the previous pellet hits, but try not to build up any paint layers. it just chips off anyway.
We try to get the "old" style nozzles, so that we can invert the can and clear the nozzle, then wipe it with a rag. The newer "any direction" nozzles are a PITA in that you cannot clear the nozzle. One old guy working in the paint department at ACE Hardware told us to store the rattle cans upside down, also. We have been doing that, but don't have a definitive result just yet. We are trying to minimize the number of different colors we use so we don't have so much to buy. Using the paint sparingly, we can get paint cans to last a long time. You don't need a lot of paint, but try to get creative on making the animals look like animals instead of a solid colored blob.
Now you guys are really making me feel like a slacker. I just hose em own with rattle can, face contrasting with kill zone. If I had to get artsy painting on eyelashes and such, the laughter might be responsible for a miss or two. Personally I like those with caked and chipped paint. Something else to aid in focus range finding.
