March "What's on your Workbench?"

John Lawrence

John Lawrence

Active member
I'm starting the March thread a tad early because I'm going to be too busy over the next day and a half or so to do so.

Looks like March will come in like a Lamb here in Pittsburgh. March is also the month of the Westlake show in Cleveland. If you are planning to attend please look me up. I'll be there sometime before 10:00am on Friday and I'll be staying until Sunday late morning/early afternoon. You'll usually find me somewhere around the pool and my decoys will be in room 158. Westlake is flat out the best decoy show going. If you've never been gives some thought to attending this year.

I going to start with my rig of Petite wood duck hens. I found the time to finish them in the last week. And I'm going to bring them to Westlake with me if you should like to see them in person.

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I also have that pair of ringnecks to show you. Originally my plan was to shoot a video on how to paint the hen but after some appreciated advice I realized that my plan and time frame just was not realistic. I just have too much on deck right now so the new plan is to carve several new decoys with which to shoot the video with early this summer.

So with that said I had the opportunity to try something new and expand my paint with the hen. I was almost done with her late last week when I took a second look at it and it just didn't set right. The paint was okay but I didn't feel as if I had taken any risks. So I painted over everything on the side pockets, breast and head and started over. The best way to describe what I wanted was a "paint shimmer". I was looking for the colors to progress from the rear of the side pocket to the junction with the neck in waves in increasingly darker values and hues. When I started again I wrote "Impressionism" and "Monet" on my palette and kept refering to those two words as I painted. I really wanted to give up on the scalloped look and just to concentrate on applying the paint in these waves. I used an impasto style of thick dabs so that you can not only see the texture but also feel it. Now I may be a little too far out there for some but when I do these types of decoys they are usually the first things off my table at shows. When I finished the sides and breast I realized that I had reflected the colors of the eyes in the paint.

Next I went at the head and during this process I kept telling myself to give up on the detail and just paint what your eyes see. Once again I used that impasto style and the paint on the head is a little chunky. I like that you can feel the texture so I can see myself doing a lot more of this in the future. So here she is and I'll have iher with me at Westlake should you want to see her.

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On the drake I used the wood grain to represent the vermiculations on the side pockets and I exposed both wings. He's about three days from done in these photos and lots will change by the end of the week. I glazed in lots of greens, blues and purples across the back. I believ that in nature there are very few birds that have true dead blacks so I try and paint in all of the colors I see in those blacks.

I know that most people paint their ringneck's heads in all purple. We have a large spring migration of ringnecks here in western PA so I get the opportunity to see them frequently. Particularly in the spring when they turn that certain way the whole top of their head lights up in a very vibrant green. So just to be different from what you would usually see I am working towards that color scheme. Different is good in my mind.


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This the oldsquaw that I showed you in the beginning of last month. I should be done with it by the end of this week.

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I spent the afternoon cutting out Labrador Duck and gadwall heads so that will be my focus thoughout the next few weeks.

So what's on your Workbench this month?
 
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i spent the afternoon attempting to draw out my interpretation of an delaware river/english school snuggling blue wing........i failed, tore up the sheet and will start over tomorrow.

frustrated in mississippi, justin

p.s. great birds mr. john!
 
Getting ready for westlake
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Got back in the shop after about 8 months off...

Trio of teal, with 3 different head patterns. Probably not the best way to get better but I still learned alot.
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The head needs more work and the bill is too long but this Blackduck is getting there...
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Wis Boz -
The heads are currently just glued on with Titebond III. After I am done messing up the neck transition, I will fix my mistakes with plastic wood and then I will run a screw or dowel up through the body and into the head. I will probably use screws on the Teal as they won't see as much use as my big ducks do.

There are many people who are WAY more qualified to answer decoy construction questions than I so you may want to post a quick thread on head to body joining and see how others do it.

Take care
Hank
 
Well my work bench is too small for my project for this month. and it IS duck related...and turkey related...and fishing related....it's my home away from home...

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but unfortunately, I've an irritating problem with the airconditioner...it leaks INTO the camper instead of dripping and running down the outside. I haven't figured out why yet. BUT apparently it did that with the previous owner and water rotted some of the braces around the AC hole in the roof and then eventually worked it's way through most of the roof....and in this humidity...can we say MOLD????

So, I decided to work on the camper since we're having such great weather. Took the top off, broke my dads nose while doing so, took the trim and screws off of the sideboards that need replacing, got attacked by a huge swarm of ants, had nasty rotten water come pouring out of one of the sideboards, finally got it light enough that my dad and I could move it off of the utility trailer we used to get it to the garage and I could start working on it and finally into the garage to flip it upside down so I could start tearing out the guts.

Last night I removed most of the plywood ceiling (most peeled off easy if it wasn't too wet...otherwise it shredded off) and started playing around with how to remove the foam and found that with the proper and careful application of a crowbar I could get the foam to just pop off...but lordy how messy it is. Tonight I will remove the rest of the foam and then see what I can do about removing the side boards...but my goal is to have this finished by March 13...I have no doubts that is possible but I need to figure out what kind of lighting I want in it b/c while the lighting I had was ok, it was not as ideal and with the topper off, I may as well put in the lighting I want.

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There is a forum for popup campers and there are pages devoted just to roof rebuilds...lots of good info there...but there were LOTS that had much more rot than I had, but I can tell you that i'm glad I'm doing this now and not later when I could have potentially lots of other problems...

The biggest thing will be to determine why it leaks into the camper and not out like it's supposed to. I have the AC taken apart in the garage (pretty sure you can see it in the pictures) and I'll rewire it to get it running again and start it up and see if I can see what the problem is....it's not the drain pan that I can see...it's not plugged...could be cracked underneath as the pan is plastic but I don't know how to get into it to check it out to see if it is or not....right now i'm just working on the roof....get that finished then go to the more perplexing issue....

Dani
 
Dani I finished a 65 Airstream Ambassador last year. Lots of work but very much enjoyed by the entire family. This is what is currently on the bench.

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My 36' Ward.Carved out of local BC old growth red cedar :).He will get some glass eyes,and oil paint when I get around to learning how to get started.I will probably thin the bill a little alos. I hollowed the bird after this photo.Not sure if the Wards hollowed any of their birds.
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