Kris, we were lucky enough to run into two retired former USAF personnel, one of whom had a wife who as a commercial artist, when we first shifted from pass-shooting cranes to hunting them over decoys. We met them back in Minot and they allowed us to trace copies of their custom crane silhouette decoys onto some cardboard sheeting as patterns to use to make our own. My brother was kind enough to supply me with mylar drafting sheets with the old business logo on it from the era prior his purchase of the company. I made some custom feather group templates from these mylar sheets that enabled me to quickly airbrush feather group layouts on several different body positions, after I had cut-out, sealed and base painted them. With the cape feather layouts outlined, all I had to do was mix up some different gray scale values and fill the individual feathers in with a variety of fan spreaders...pretty realistic at ten yards!
Steaks are red oak soaked in boiled linseed oil, spar varnish and mineral spirits, mixed on a 1:1:1 ratio. When dry they get several coats of flat black, as do the beaks. At this point I have 102 finished.
Dennis, PM sent. Do you use any of Deception Decoys full bodies?
Rick