Eider Rig Construction

Good morning, Bill~

Great Eider Fleet! One does not often see them feeding upland like that. Of course - as seen in the second photo - they are vulnerable to predation by Small Mammals......looks like that rascal has already consumed 5 of them!

All the best,

SJS
 
Thank you everyone!

Steve Sanford: You've got me thinking a shorebird style standup eider decoy would be really cool. We see them perching on the rocks all the time so it wouldn't be so far fetched. I just am anxious to get started on my boat build (money from this rig will be a help ;)) so the shore-bird eider will have to wait, for now anyway.

Steve Sutton: I have carved a lot of oddballs, including a few red-breasted geese that are parts of brant rigs. At the moment a borealis is not in the scheme, but maybe in the second 12. Or I can kill two birds with one stone and make a stick-up northern eider!

Bill
 
You knew when you typed that that I was going to respond I WANNA SEE THE RED BREASTED.....I'm crushed now that I'm not the only person with one in their rig....Barnacle would be the more likely and I can still say, (until proven otherwise), that I have the only one of those.....


A full body would be neat......I have a rig of full bodied HArlequins and since we didn't always hunt from right on the shore I made a floating rock for them....(5) drakes sitting on a rock with a two lines of floaters swimming up to it.....KILLER....though honestly we often had our birds down before the entire rig was out.......lost the ROCK when it flew out of the boat on the expressway on the drive home one evening.....in the right sized boat I'd have had a whole flock of the little buggars on the deck as camo....




Steve
 
Here you go Steve, there are others too, sorry! No barnacle geese yet. But I have done a trio of pygmy geese, a few masked ducks, a pink eared duck, a Salvadories teal, a pink headed duck...and I'm sure some others I'm forgetting.

 
It took me a while to get them textured and primed. I've had to take over the garage since they take up so much space. I had to have the time to do it, but the time had to cooperate with the weather, since I wanted a couple good dry days in between each step to make sure everything was cured so it took some time to get here...
Here are the three hens textured and primed, the drakes are primed white, I'll save those photos until they are closer to finish.

And here is the first hen roughly painted. I used Ben moore exterior paint, I can't remember the color off the top of my head but it was a little more golden than i wanted it, so I added in some Burnt Umber to get them a little more "red". I'll finalize the color i want in the end with a glaze.
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/04B05D82-C605-431D-ACAF-ADC300088DA0_zps1qmuxm1m.jpg.html]
 
Last edited:
Good morning, Bill~

Those 3 Hens show lots of motion already! And the finished bird sports your usual simple-but-dead-on paint.

What materials/products do you use for texturing and priming?

All the best,

SJS
 
Thanks Steve, I use a 50/50 mix goldens brand molding paste/gesso sponged on for texture. Primer is a rattle can...grey for the hens, and white for the drakes.

Earlier you had asked about weighting the keels, I thought about it but chose not to as they are already big and heavy enough, I can't imagine the amount of lead it will take to self right them. Plus at 11" wide I don't think they'll need help staying upright, even in new england seas!

The three hens are all blocked in, and started details this morning. My intention is to finish the hens tomorrow night, after the mystic wooden boat show!

Bill
 
Thanks, Bill~

I keep meaning to get down to the Mystic Show again - but each year too many things get in the way. (I cannot, complain, though - I'm writing this from the shores of Lake Champlain....)

All the best,

SJS
 
As promised (to myself) I got the hens done today after the boat show. The aformentioned tinted Ben moore for the main body color, then dry brushed burnt umber for the feather "streaks", some raw sienna to brighten the cheeks, and finally the original BM color to outline the feathers on the back. Besides the BM all paint is traditions. The only thing left on these will be a glaze which I will do in a couple of weeks. I also layed out the white on the drakes, hope to get at least one started with the black tomorrow.

 
Thanks Steve, that is my favorite as well. She has attitude.

It was my first trip to the boat show, and I decided to bring my 2 year old, which (take this in the spirit which it is intended) was a mistake. I couldn't really spend the time i wanted poking around, but what I did see was great. I got to meet Sam Devlin, and talk to him a bit about boat building, which was cool!

I'm very close to finishing this rig, and although I have a few more commissions to finish, I'll be starting the boat soon...Cant wait!
 
In the home stretch on the drakes, hope to finish the paint tomorrow night...I'll skip out on fireworks! Same Ben more as the hens, flat black and white, except liquitex on the bills. I use liquitex on the bills of many of my birds, I like the sheen it has.

 
Thank you troy and Paul.

Paul, I'm not super happy with the green I ended up with, but this morning while doing touch ups I mixed up (traditions) titanium white (4x)hansa yellow (2x) and pthalo green-blue (1x) and that was the perfect green I was looking for. Its dry brushed over the texture on the BM white head.

touching up the white and black this afternoon and then a few days drying while I'm in maine for a moose conference, then glaze...then DONE!

Has been a fun project, but I'm ready to move on!
 
the final phase after paint is the wash, which i picked up from Pat Gregory (check out his and Tim Speights site, lots of good stuff!). I like the way it seems to soften and smooth out a paint job. I play with the tint a little for individual species but on these I went with raw umber and olive green. I actually went a little too dark, but if the customer isnt happy I think I can lighten them up some later. Anyway, here is a drake with the wash on it:

and finally..the rig!
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0545_zpsm7nehxt1.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0532_zps1thpr2nj.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0536_zpsdha3n9aq.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0539_zpsczbgobu7.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0540_zps8284gmtc.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0541_zpsvtfchkdz.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/Billwigeon/media/Eider%20Rig/DSCN0534_zpsbaogw5rc.jpg.html]
Finishing up a drake king in the next day or two who is also part of the flock!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top