I've helped a friend do it before, so i have a little experience. Either buying, or making your own stencils is the easiest way, IMO(but then again, i have NO artistic skill at all). We started with a primer, then painted the entire thing tan(we used an almost golden tan, or sand tan. I've seen Olive done as well. Really depends on how you want it to look). That's when we used the stencils. This website has some free stencils you can print out and use, to save you time from designing them yourself. http://www.outdoorwriter.net/?p=361 As for the kind of base paint, we used Parker duck boat paint. Hunter's Specialties makes some nice paint as well. I noticed cabelas has a kit that includes stencils and paint. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunting/Waterfowl-Boating-Blinds/Waterfowl-Blinds-Concealment|/pc/104791680/c/104786280/sc/104680980/Cabelas-Stencil-Kit-with-Paint/737791.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse.cmd%3FN%3D1100119%26WTz_l%3DSBC%253BBRpod4319&WTz_l=SBC%3BBRpod4319%3Bcat104680980 Finally, you can either use a spray can, or paint with a brush. We used the spraycans for the stencils because it was faster, and the brushes for the base because we could cover more of a larger area evenly and quickly with a brush. If you enjoy doing this enough, you might find yourself doing a similar job to your shotgun(dipping your gun can get expensive, and a lot of duck/turkey hunters like the camo look). Also, if you find yourself branching out in hunting(deer, turkeys ect) and have questions, feel free to PM me as hunting is one of my passions. Have fun!