June Workbench: Let's see it!

As I have been doing my own decoys, mostly foam decoys from Homer or Bob Romstadt, I have been liquidating the odds and ends I had acquired over the years. Someone bought a couple Herters bodies from me and we got to talking. This resulted in me being commissioned to paint about 140 heads for him! While going through the 4 5gallon buckets, I paired up 6 different model 63 sized unique styles. I decided to make molds of these as there is no commercial alternatives readily available. I already had the coot mold made, and I now have Canvasback, Mallard, Pintail, and 2 versions of the Diver. My coots have been cast using Smooth-on Feather-Lite. Which works well, but is a PITA to work with. It is heavy solids, and settles very quickly. Each use requires several minutes of pre-mixing each component. So I sourced a sample of another material which I tried last evening for the first pours in a couple of the new molds.


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This new material Smooth-on Task 8 was much easier to work with, had only a little material settling, but kicked very quickly, and as a result generated significant heat. I know the molds will not last long with this material. Happy I only bought a sample kit! Back to the research. I may try 16lb foam next....
 
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Good morning, All~


Lots of great stuff - from ALL corners of the animal kingdom!


Spring here on the farm - and a month-long head cold - have kept me NDR for awhile. (I plan to be painting later this morning, though.)


But, The Bench of George Williams has been busy. I am delinquent posting some of these - so I'll let George add the details - or correct my mistakes:


CLICK to enlarge any photo.



Final paint on a Hen GWT:



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Her husband:


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The Happy Couple:


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A White-cheeked Pintail in progress:


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A batch of Twentieth Century Mallids in for some R&R:


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These birds were left afloat for an entire season....



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Both bows and sterns need attention (I see George is wearing is Special Paintin' Shoes.....):


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The Factory is running full bore.....



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All the best,


SJS













 
Steve, those mallards were made in 1997, thankfully, from Wiley Cork! Not only were they left out one full season, but multiples So far, I have replaced the tails, washed and sanded off a lot of greenish brown algae, Gacced, and am now in the midst of painting
. Whoops, I forgot to mention that one of the drakes arrived with a smile on his bill, which was corrected with Gorilla and a c clamp.
Best I can figure, more will arrive in a few weeks, AND they will come scrubbed..
Glad you are getting healthy again, Steve. Probably a result of a new sort of European bacteria.
 

I just got over that damn head cold. It IS industrial strength!

Been a long time since I've had a cold in "warm" weather months.

Lotta folks had it around here, imported from who the hell knows where...
 
Hello all - it's inspiring to see what everyone has been working on. I've got several birds in various stages of completion.
First off, I have a pair of greater scaup that have just come off of the paint table and are about to head north.


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Next I have a decoy that I competed as a retirement gift for a former supervisor. We worked together at Thief Lake WIldlife Management Area, and a lot of our work was centered on EPP Canada geese. So... I had to make sure the bill measurements on this bird were the right size for an EPP bird.


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Another retirement present for a colleague at an adjoining work area. This one reverts back to the "bad old days" (as MLBob would say) of detail carving. This one will be a boreal owl.


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The working birds are all self righting with hollow northern white cedar bodies and basswood heads. Paints are acryics. The owl is hollow and all basswood with the exception of some talons done from brass.

Joel
 
Bill those are great! I did a handful of silhouette wood ducks once a long time back...I might even have them still....mine aren't NEARLY as pretty as yours though
 
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