June Workbench

Round 1 of my diver rig got painted. These are all blue foam, sandwiched foam heads, burlapped and Homer coated. I tried Steve Sanford's paint process and used his color recommendations. Couldn't get the stipple vermiculation to look good so I used a fan brush.



View attachment BBs Round 1.jpg

Round 2 are dark cork mallard conversions.


I tried textured vermiculation and like it. Should have a batch ready to go by the end of the month. Below is a before and in-process shot showing the texture vermiculation test.




View attachment BBs Round 2 Test.jpg
 
Very nice bird, Andy. I appreciate your effort at imparting animation...
 
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Thank you. I hated it at first and but was better by the third bird. On bird #3, I used a bandsaw and removed as much material as I could. That really seemed to help.
Black cork is nasty stuff. Wear a mask.
 
LLoyd~

Gorgeous Broadie-beaks! Great postures on all three - you really nailed the personality of my favorite species.

All the best,

SJS
 
Real good looking hunting decoys. They remind me a lot of my mentor Harold Koehlers decoys; myself and many others hunted broadbill over 2 to 3 dozen of his homemade decoys in Ct and RI between 1975 and 1980 when there were lots of broadbill and real winters! We would put the decoys on individual lines and anchors and use a 2 man front/back layout boat if there wasn't a convenient spot for a ground blind. Your painting is just right; you don't need any more detail! My feeling is I don't want the broadbill to marry my decoys, I just want them to attend the mixer and give me a good 15 yard shot! We always gave birds which swam in or landed a free pass--I see too many "hunters" shoot landing or just landed birds or those just flushed out of the decoys--this will give you a lot of birds, but no sport!
 
Tom Modin said:
Finally back into the swing of things and have my new work area all set up. This is one of four mallards that should be finished this week

All gunning birds.
Click to expand...

Glad to see you back making Chips Tom!
 
Good morning, Jode~

I am pretty sure I've never seen a Ruddy in flight - at least not when their big feet were not still running along the wavetops....

Great birds!

SJS
 
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