going to give it a try

Final coat on my resting deek this morning. Last night I decided to bust out the dremal and hollow out a spot in the bottom of the sleeper that I laid a lag bolt into for weight. So I then used gorilla glue to fill it in and coves it with saw dust. So this morning I woke up to a tumor 3 inches high sticking out of the bottom of the decoy. I thought of trying to cut it into a keel but it had a lot of air pockets so I used a razor blade and file got it flush again and gave it another coat of wood glue and saw dust.
 
put the first coat of kils primer on my sleeper decoy last night will see how it came out this afternoon. i have to put the eye in the head of my resting decoy i was originaly going to just paint an eye on to it but after some good advice from a member on this site i believe i will try it with the tac. i did use some wood filler on the rester to blend the neck a little. I have continued to take my time and be patient with this project because i dont really need the decoys i didnt even intend to start this project until after the season. But with doing the research i got excited about it and now i just have been working these two decoys and i look at them and see if there are spots that need more sanding or if im going to add wieght or a keel, i didnt really have a plan as to how i was going to start this project i just researched the diffrent way online and combined a little bit of everything. i hope that me keeping track of this project on here will help others in the future with making there own decoys. last thing I have been playing with the idea of adding tail feathers to my rester and if you look at the pictures it comes to a pretty extreme point so i was thinking if i cut a slit in the foam and slif in a piece of 1/4 ply in it would look like the under tail feathes. if anyone has any tips or advice im all ears and will take it all into consideration.
 
put another coat of primer on my sleeper decoy and did some more sanding on the rester i also cut out and shaped another rester this one i tried to give some more detail to the wings and make him look fluffy. i made him after looking at some ducks out on the ice. for the keel i just used a 2x4 scrap block at 6 inches and rounded off the corners with the jig saw then drilled a hole in the center of the block i then used some old washers i had and used that for wieght inside of the keel. i dont think i am going to spend to much time on this decoy for the most part it was experimental just. first beacause of the extra detail i attempted and second because i used a 3rd piec of foam glued on to the block to make the head and i carved it all at once. im a little worried of the bill being weak i saw some guys putting screws up into the bill. i am going to leave it and see how it holds with the glue and sawdust. on another note the sleeper that i have primed is way more solid then i was expecting it actually has a plastic feel to it and my 2 year old son has yet to be able to crack or chip it as he likes to "help" me put the decoys on the shelves. i have a few pictures im going up load just showing the 3 decoys. the decoy i just made i had 80% done in about an hour and a half last night using the dremal rasp and file along with some sand paper i have to do a little work on the head and get some eyes for it but as you get a feel for the material and the tools it can really be a quck process to get the foam bodies cut out. Once this foam i have is gone i am going to be switching over to all wood decoys.

View attachment foam decoy 1.jpg
View attachment foam decoy 2.jpg
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Chris,
IF you'd like to go tackless on your next set, and you're going to make more, I suggest some glass eyes from China. I got >400 for about $20. Interested in the source PM me and I"ll send you the link. I don't like posting links here.

Mike in CT
In a marsh NOWHERE near your spot
 
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