October "What's on your Workbench?"

Wow this thread really took off fast this month. I'm glad that you fellows like that mallard. The Tornoto antique birds have always been a favorite of mine and I was looking for a change of pace to try out some new ideas on.

As for painting the hen what I'm thinking of is under paint with some mellow buffs and creams and then concentrate on using the dark browns in steaks to represent the flow of the feathers.

I'm finishing up the carving of a breast preening mallard drake today and then I'm going to start a redhead. This one is kind of out there, real wide, nearly round with a very high sloping back to a small low tail. Just a crazy idea I want to try but those crazy ideas are usually the first things off my table at shows. We'll see how they workout.
 
Finished up my common scoters and added some hens to my bluebill flock.
These are the oil boom foam & burlap dekes I worked on last year. Still have a ton of foam left but little time to work on them.
Not quite the art work y'all post but I am sure the divers wont mind!
I do plan to make some GEs next and will take some more time to shape them as well as adding a bottom board for better head & keel attachment strength.
Start with foam, cut into blocks then shape & cover in burlap.

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Then paint into simple diver colors & add 1" pine sillouhette heads & keels.
Bluebill pair


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Scoters

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Bomber

I'd have to look it up in old photos but those super mag g'eyes that Hank did the original for have been in my rig more like 8 years. Originally I painted them and then took some advice on how to make the paint more durable by wiping varnish on and then wiping it off. It turned the decoys YELLOW and they continued to yellow over the years. Couldn't stand it anymore so we pulled them from the attic and started repainting. One thing is for sure, they are BIG.
 
Pretty tough to follow Joh and Sean. Here's a few i've been hacking on for a while, obviously not finished but the carving aspect of it is done.
The wigeon is norther white cedar and the redhead is western red cedar i believe it came out of a 100 yr old barn if i remember correctly. Both are hollow and will eventually be set up to self right.


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Hollow cedar birds. Wanted to make a decoy with a pad weight and a leather line tie....so I made this wood duck. I am realy into Sean sutton's work...so I have been taking alot of inspiration from it and putting some more knife work into my birds. Oil paints will be the next step in the future.

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Here is an update of a second mallard that I've been working on. It's just about ready to be finish sanded and sealed. I used the same head pattern on this decoy and just made it a breast preener.

Here it is just after I started carving.

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After I finish carved the head I changed the angle of the head and then tilted it slightly so that he looks off to the left some.

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And the back side of the head. I'm planning on starting to paint this decoy at the end of next week.

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Great looking blacks Locke! Those are dandies!

Just finished painting some widgeon, an Illinois River mallard drake and a hollow black duck from my Great Grandpa's pattern. With the exception of the black duck, all have vintage black hatpin eyes from Herters. Years ago I found a guy from Milwaukee who bought 30,000 pair of these eyes. I bought 2 boxes of 1,000 pair each. I just opened my second box. They are excellent eyes for puddlers...
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