What's on your Work Bench ? DECEMBER 2018

Good morning, Matt~


That's one comfortable-looking Hen! Did she float? What did you make her out of?


All the best,


SJS

 
Matt, nice paint work! If you are not sure your paint is fully cured, particularly for acrylics, just overlay a dry cleaning bag on your float tanks water surface to float test your birds.
 
Good morning, Rick~


Your idea of covering the water instead of the bird is genius! I have always wrapped the bird in Saran Wrap....


All the best,


SJS

 
Plagiarism is the most sincere form of flattery! Pretty sure I stole the idea from Bob Furia a decade ago...

After 26 years of compiling dry cleaning bags and taking them to the recycling center, I now have a use for them! Perfect timing, since I don't wear a suit more than three times a year now, but I also don't spend a huge chunk off my time in airplanes anymore either, which is a bigger positive!
 
Last edited:
[size 4] You didn't steal, Rick; you just "layered" some information. That was something I used to do when I had to internally weight a decorative with no keel.

Mallard Urn decoy made it to its destination in time for the owner to get in a hunt with it on the final day of the Wisconsin season. Sent me this pic:



View attachment image2 (900 x 542).jpg
 
Good morning, Bob~


Great photo! The detail is tremendous - not only the inscription on the "plate" - but also the underside of the bill!


I brought a couple more veterans back into the game. This Herter's - a Model Canada "Black Mallard" - is an over-size balsa-bodied bird from the 40s or 50s. I bought it recently because my Dad had several like it when I was growing up. This one had a very narrow "wood-pecker-like" bill - from the factory as far as I could tell - so I did a bit o' plastic surgery to give it a more duck-like shape.


I think I will keep the paint bare-bones simple.


View attachment sm 1 Herters Model Canada 2.JPG



I have looked and looked but cannot locate the "before" picture for this bird. It is a Wildfowler "Superior Model" stamped from Old Saybrook. It also sported a copper tag that told me it was once owned by a Coastguardsman in Maine. It was an eBay "target" for me because it had been re-painted as a Hen Black Scoter. Like the Herter's Model Canada, it has a balsa body - but is essentially life-size. Here it is next to a Point Pleasant Wildfowler Broadbill that I had posted in an earlier month.


View attachment sm 2 OS Broadbill 3 - on bench with PP.JPG



Here it is "at sea" - really just on our frog pond behind the house.


View attachment sm 3 OS Broadbill 6 - on water.JPG



Both birds have already enjoyed new days afield.



All the best,


SJS

 
Golden's matte acrylics take a long time to cure, so this approach enables me to weight the birds and get them to balance-out closer to the carving/painting sequence.
 
Good morning all, nice work as always. Steve I'm always partial to those wildfowler scaup, I own quite a few that I tell myself someday I will repair and put back into commission!
Heres my current workbench, its full of mergansers:

View attachment c.jpgHere is a recently finished Surf Scoter:

View attachment b.jpg
and lastly, as of January 1, I'll be taking on a new career path, doing waterfowl taxidermy! here is my latest black duck:


View attachment a.jpgagain I have no idea how to get those photos upright....Bill
 
Bob, I'm really enjoying the dead mount carving and layout progression series you have posted. Robert Mitchell did a tutorial on the old Workingdecoys.com website on a wood duck dead mount. He too, ended up going with bondo in the wing bases to get the transition and angles right. Also, Karen is an asthmatic, so all my bondo work is garage based, too! Sarah's point is well taken! I use it on all the neck joints on foam birds that are two part molded.
 
[size 4] Rick,

The deadmount bird has been: a.)fun; b.)challenging; c.) a sometimes painful reminder of why I quit doing decorative carvings. Although this is not 100% "decorative", it is still something that will hang indoors as decoration.

Seriously, it has been a good change of pace and something I always wanted to attempt, but never really got motivated enough to do. Still looking for the "right" mounting background.

Meanwhile, I am doing some of the painting in areas that will be downright impossible to reach prior to moving on to wing attachment. Think I have them (The wings) fit so that the very minimum amount of filler will be required but it will not be Bondo. The auto-body, sandable filler I referred to in my weekend post on the "Ropes & Tools" site is actual auto-body spray paint primer that fills finely joined tolerances with multiple build-up, and which is then capable of being wet-sanded smooth as glass. But, man, does it smell! My Airshield powered respirator mask was the tool of the day that day!

Had a quick hunt with Scooter today, and the late Bobby Sutton was in my thoughts as a nice drake was taken over a rig of frond birds that I made way back after he sent me my first carton of palm fronds with a note saying: "See what you can do with these!"




View attachment IMGP1112.JPG
 
A Craig's list find this week. A dozen cork LL Bean eiders. I am going to keep one pair (pictured) as original but the others will be refinished and floated again. They were purchased locally and have floated the same waters that I guide on. For the past 10-15 years they have simply been looking at the inside of a garage. Excited to finally have a dozen of these, I've been looking for a while.



View attachment 001.JPGView attachment 002.JPGView attachment 003.JPG
 
Great find, Troy!


I did something similar with some Beans Black Ducks a few years back: picked the best two to keep on the shelf in original paint - but sealed and primed and painted the rest so they could go back in the game.


All the best,


SJS

 
I actually have a contribution this month!

I have a buddy, whom I hunt with on the East Coast every year, who has a fascination with Red Breasted Mergansers. Not sure why, but whenever we hunt, that seems to be the holy grail bird.

Last year, we were boating and came around a bend to find a clump of decoys perched up against a bank, apparently to be lost forever to the marsh. In the bunch, were a couple plastic "cheapy" ducks, AND a handmade Red Breasted Drake. It's an interesting decoy, with hand carved pine head, glass eyes, but the body is some sort of closed cell, soft packaging foam. Anyways, he insisted that I take and keep the Tweezer Bill, (it's one of my most prized possessions), while he scarfed up the plastics.

I decided to carve a simple gunner to give him this winter when we next meet. Old brown cork body, pine head, and mahogany keel. What's especially neat about this bird, is I used absolutely no patterns. It was ALL done freehand. Never a writing utensil touched the piece.

The found warrior first, followed by my recent contribution.



View attachment 20180118_182152.jpgView attachment 20181205_181259.jpg
 
Troy~


I do not actually dunk the cork birds, but I do give them what I call a "soaking coat" - making sure plenty of spar varnish works its way into every crevice, fissure and crater. I hang them - with wire in their anchor line attachment - so that all of the excess varnish makes it way to the tip of the tail before it sets up. I try to wipe the tail drip off before it hardens.


The fully-cured varnish needs just a scuff-sanding with 80-grit before I put my oil primers on.


BTW: Your Eiders look to be in pretty good shape. With my older Beans and cork Wildfowler "shelf-riders", I do brush on a coat of Linseed Oil to nourish both the cork and the exposed wood. I'm not sure how antique collectors might feel about this practice, but I worry about the too-dry cork getting to the crumbly stage.


All the best,


SJS

 
Back
Top