What's on your Work Bench ? MAY 2018

Bob, do you airbrush those feather edges on via use of a series of templates? Very nice!

Okay, back to posting an actual finished decoy: Canvasback drake, tan cork, basswood head, painted in Golden's matte acrylics.
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I had originally laid this bird out with relaxed primaries held low in-parallel to the body midline. I ran across the original painting of this head position that I pulled the pattern from, only to notice that they were crossed, so I changed them. Keel is birds-eye maple scrap from a cabinet refacing project I mooched off Eric I.
 
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Next project...stand for my dog boarding ladder, which too frequently gets buried under decoy and boat clutter. When Bill Clark bought this TDB through Tom Kondrk, Tom was selling a 1000D Cordura portable cockpit barrier he designed as an option, to enable the gunners to pile decoys loose in the bow portion of the cockpit. Tom designed these to employ the aluminum rods loaded with shock-cord runs that end in a pair of loops that suspend from stainless hammock hooks mounted in the decoy curtain rail track and the internal cockpit coaming. Bill never mounted it, but I did. I use it to separate the dog from the decoys and keep him out from being underfoot. I used an old wood cutting board that was originally intended to become a decoy weight mold as the base with a scrap piece of ash glued and screwed off-center down its long-axis. The picture depicts two oak dowels (3/4") that are going to be swapped-out this week with solid fiberglass removable replacements. Board ladder support brace slides down to nest of the dowel rods and remain upright and semi-out of the way.View attachment 006.JPGView attachment 007.JPGView attachment 008.JPG

Two pics of netting panels Steve Lewis and I installed in place of solid blind fabric panels to seal/retain contents of bow storage compartment/dog area in bow and the suspended cargo net in front of stern bilge space to hold lunch, water bottle, gloves, pee bottle, etc. and keep them off the deck and out of the way and water. I got tired of knocking dry gloves off the shelves and finding them later, soaking wet. These also allow air flow and enable the dog to see through them when he is up in the bow on his pad when I have multiple hunters on-board.

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This week I will position the cam-cleats for anchor rode retention and adjustment use and mount them ... If I can get this done prior the next good rainfall, then it will be time to fish inshore. Ice is finally gone...well 90% gone.

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Rick, glad to see you are using Tom's idea of the decoy curtain rail, he would have said it is about time.
I do have a question for you concerning the scaup decoys i got from you in our trade. Can you remember if you used screws through the bottom board to attach the keels? If so were they brass or steel, i would like to remove the "hoop" handle keels and replace them with more conventional keels to use in pocket bags and save one for a mantel bird.
You did a great job of carving these and i would like to put them to limited use.
 
RLLigman said:
Bob, do you airbrush those feather edges on via use of a series of templates? Very nice!
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Rick,

After laying in the base colors on a bird, I will use a white prismacolor pencil to sketch in feather groupings , as I think a template approach results in too much of a "cookie cutter" look.
I'll then take a mid-sized round, and put in my feather edges. Find I can work quickly and get a nice shape for the bird I'm doing that way. I buy student-grade rounds in bulk, and when they start to lose their shape, I'll just pitch them.

Key for me is eliminating the harsh transition where the edge color and base color meet. I'll use a Paasche AB external mix airbrush to eliminate most of that, followed by light washes of color applied with a number of brushes that I find work for me.

On that barrows hen the base was established moving rear to front by using an acrylic extend/blend medium to go dark - light. Then the feathers edges were laid out with the Prismacolor pencil and free-handed in with the rounds. Inner webs were shaded with rounds, then the deer-foot blender and the AB were used to eliminate any harsh edge lines Finally, after splits had been flicked in with a #OOO liner, the mop brushes were used to do light umber washes which further softened & toned down everything.

The external-feed, turbine driven Paasche AB ( like Val-Oil and other useful "tools ) was discontinued by Paasche when digital photography pretty much eliminated the demand for its unique capabilities which had long been in demand in the photo-retouching process. Fortunately, I have 2 backup AB's, and Chuck Paaschen was recently able to do a complete re-conditioning for me on the oldest (and my favorite) after I sent it off to him a few months back.



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Jeff Fenerty said:
Bob what is your process for a wash? How do you dilute the paint? Do you wipe off after putting on a wash? Beautiful bird.
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[size b5] Jeff,'

Do a watery mix of whatever wash color you're using, let's say raw Umber - using matte glazing medium + extra water (I'm using the Traditions/Jansen acrylics & mediums).


Lightly load whatever mop-brush you use, then daub it off on a paper towel to draw off even more of the wash mix, and then test heaviness of wash on paper to make sure it's as thin & transparent as you want it before ever touching the brush to your decoy.

Better to be far too light and add bits more, than apply too heavily and be stuck trying to blot or scrub it off with water. You can ruin a lot of work with one pass of a wash that's too heavy.
 
Now that is an airbrush! I have a Paasche with a external hopper, but nowhere near that quality.

Bob, thanks very much. Where I failed, or why I stopped using an airbrush was not softening the quill side via wash application. As a self-taught carver/painter I would probably be better served to paint in only one medium as well.
 
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Pat Gregory said:
Excellent can Rick! Also, excellent scaup! Good to see someone building rigs...
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I am a little short on variety, particularly compared to your decoy run...! Plus, I altered the primaries and tertials after I started, and it shows on the bird.
 
Very Funky Hoodies. I really think they are cool and should be fun to gun over, please post some pics when you get them in the water.
 
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Finished-off the last of the pre-fishing season boat work. Four days ago I began stripping and sanding. Tuesday, I applied the CP-10 primer base. And, today I rolled-on the Tuff-Coat layer, using 4/5ths of a gallon. Thirty-six hours from now I can remove the tape and replace the layer of commercial kitchen mats and the Styx River foam layer(boat floor is really nice and warm in cold water conditions).

The remaining projects are to install the tachometer and extend the tilt-trim control switch up into the cockpit ( I made the wire harness last night) to augment the one on the port side on the engine cowling, install the chock cleats, and re-paint the shelves and interior to one uniform color. I'll probably steal a table router to round the edges of the shelving rails and clean them up.
 
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