I can smell the wood burning Ron. My wife wasn't that thrilled when I got the detailer cub out in front of the tv in the living room. I was wood burning a life-size flying wigeon in the living room when the space shuttle blew up, kind of a weird memory. Like I tell people the little details like that are described as miles and miles of lines a quarter inch at a time. I wore out one detailer burner after about 30 years and got a new one a couple years ago, but then changed the way I detail, so it sits almost new, right behind my chair in the craft room.
November workbench
- Thread starter Don Mintz
- Start date
Ronald Bock
Active member
Woo hoo! Daughter and granddaughter were out today. My daughter got some base colors started on this guy.
I rounded out this long tail. Lots of sanding tomorrow.
I rounded out this long tail. Lots of sanding tomorrow.
Ronald Bock
Active member
Jheri is making great progress on this harlequin. I've rounded out this long tail and will get out the wood burner this week.
What could be better than turning my pulsator into an Eurasian wigeon? It covers all the bases, motion, water spray, white and black. I was trying to figure out how I wanted to flock my pulsators, Caleb's is an american wigeon, mine is an eurasian wigeon. We have a few eurasians around so it won't be totally out of realm of natural. I'm working on an original master butt decoy for wigeon right now, it will be a lot more fun to flock and paint something that is laid out accurately.
Ronald Bock
Active member
Harlequin has some color to it. I'm working on the long tail for my daughters next paint project. First things first. We're driving 8 hours South for a sea duck hunt in Whittier this weekend. Hoping to get a harlequin and or a long tail.
Busy time of year.
Busy time of year.
Feeder Butts:
If you ever watch a flock of ducks tipping to feed from a distance with the sun at your back, the flashes of white as they tip stands out like a flashbulb going off!
When we had lots of gadwalls on Mobile Bay and I was hunting 25-30 days out of the season, I used 3 dzn gadwalls decoys in my spread: 2 dzn regulars and 1 dzn feeder butts with the bellies painted white like a drake gadwall.
I think they made a difference in getting birds attention and adding confidence to commit.
If you ever watch a flock of ducks tipping to feed from a distance with the sun at your back, the flashes of white as they tip stands out like a flashbulb going off!
When we had lots of gadwalls on Mobile Bay and I was hunting 25-30 days out of the season, I used 3 dzn gadwalls decoys in my spread: 2 dzn regulars and 1 dzn feeder butts with the bellies painted white like a drake gadwall.
I think they made a difference in getting birds attention and adding confidence to commit.
Mark Belknap
Member
I use a couple dozen goose butts for brant out on the coast. They take up less space and the brant can see all that white for 100's of yds. Plus it doesn't hurt that they are not the smartest bird out there, but even the black ducks will pitch right into them.
This has been an ongoing project for a couple of months. I really thought long and hard whether these were even salvageable. The decoys are some I made about 10 years ago for a friend and have been beaten up pretty good. Between being thrown on the rocks and each other, then dogs tromping around on top of them they were showing some wear. I tell people when you are hunting with custom foam decoys care for them in the same way as you would with cork or wood decoys. With reasonable care, they will last a long time and touching up easy.
