What's on your work bench?-April
- Thread starter patrick mccarthy
- Start date
Cody Foster
New member
Just finished these two. LL Bean bodies, I made the heads, tried to get as close to original shape as I could.
William Reinicke
Active member
Made a few hens. All a bit different. Still haven’t totally decided on my exact style. Might post a few variations tomorrow and ask for you alls opinions on what looks best. I’ll never have the talent that some have here but I’m pretty happy with the progress made on this version.
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William Reinicke
Active member
So got wrangled into planting trees yesterday so I didn’t get any spray time. It’s been pointed out there are some anatomy errors that I’ll get resolved on the next set of hens. So struggling in the chest feathers. Two designs here, not sure I’m in love with either. The stenciling looks ok once adding the second layer or rows of the lighter color. The other chest feathers look like spider webs to me. This brid on the right is not done, and I still need to go back and lighten up the chest some. So asking now might not be completely fair because this bird definitely lacks dimension in the chest. There's a chance I may need to go back to the drawing boards on the chest feathers and come up with a completely new approach. Interested in you all's thoughts?
The other section I’m wrestling with in my head is in the femoral tract (I’m slowly learning my duck anatomy, kinda sad considering I’ve killed thousands and I don’t the correct terms for their anatomy) area and the feathers between wing tips and tail. Also, tail will be lightened up, don’t mind the almond color you see. These birds aren’t done yet. But I am leaning towards the bigger feathers vs the small but I’m getting 50/50 on which is liked over the other. So what say you all?
The other section I’m wrestling with in my head is in the femoral tract (I’m slowly learning my duck anatomy, kinda sad considering I’ve killed thousands and I don’t the correct terms for their anatomy) area and the feathers between wing tips and tail. Also, tail will be lightened up, don’t mind the almond color you see. These birds aren’t done yet. But I am leaning towards the bigger feathers vs the small but I’m getting 50/50 on which is liked over the other. So what say you all?
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I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before. As far as getting whiter contrast on feather edges or tail feathers it's often necessary to let the buff dry for an hour or so before adding the white or you just end up without any of the white staying on top of the other color, it just blends in. You may have already figured that out, but I don't remember telling you this before.
William Reinicke
Active member
Yessir I learned that pretty early on. I know airbrushing white, when dry, is not bright white. So I paint my drake tail feathers by hand to get the white to really pop. Sometimes 2 coats is necessary. I know these hen tail feathers are dark. I really just played on these birds, and Ill certainly go back and shoot the tails with white. I like airbrushing the tail feathers white on hens, because it dries kind of cloudy and not as much contrast compared to hand painting the white. I think it looks more natural when it comes to hens. Their tail feathers are certainly light in color but not near as bright as a drakes tail feathers. I added lines on these ones, but it was more just for visual appearance before making up my mind on what to do. These first sets of foam hens have got a lot of paint. I am hoping my next batch goes much quicker and there arent as much changing and reflocking or starting over. But this is part of the process. I have been down similar "figuring out" stages with other hobbies. Its just where I am right now in this hobby. Its a ton of fun, and I know you emphasize on being able to do this every day, while others have to go to work and dont have the time to practice like you do. Sometimes I wonder if that is better for my brain though. Not being able to be at my bench, forces me to look at others work and techniques and look at hundreds more reference photos to take back to the bench when I have time. It forces me to imagine how I will perform a new technique or makes me think about new ideas for the next time I get to the bench. Sometimes thoughts and walking away are more productive for my brain than sitting there trying to grind to get to where I want to be.
Ill even study paint techniques not related to decoy making at all. So, I really watched other artists and how they made their feathers go from that 2d look to "coming alive". At what point, and what technique, did they perform to start achieving that? What I found, through a week of researching and watching many individuals and looking at multiple pieces in relation to actual photos, is shading is everything. The ability to blend colors together to achieve a shadow or blend really made pieces come together. Early on, I kept hearing the rule of 3, and had no idea what that meant. This last week, it really hit me and clicked. But what is failed and mentioned is that 3 colors can be laid down but if they dont blend, you end up with a choppy looking feather that almost looks tribal. My first go at decoys was this way and I ended up repainting and reflocking and starting over. But compared to what I made this last weekend, compared to my first attempt, you can see what I mean. Tribal tattoo bird compared to now. I think there is good progress, but definitely have lots of progress to make still.
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hopefully the curve is shortened for you. There wasn't much available with either advice or even painting tools when I started painting in 1967. My mom got me a few paint by numbers when I was a kid and in fact I used some of the kit paint from those to do my first original paintings. I didn't know any better, so when I started painting I laid things out like paint by number, what I think you'd call tribal. Even with paint by numbers you don't get an easy 3d look, it's when you start to learn blending, shading and highlighting that things will become alive.
Work on the living space over the woodshop continues. Over the past several weeks the bathroom tile job is coming along. I hope to finish it in the next couple of weeks. A co-worker with a lot of tile experience is helping me on this job and we work on Fridays. The heart pine bead board ceiling has been installed. I still need to apply the finish but don't think that will be too bad since I'm using Waterlox which is a wipe on finish that is fool proof.
Don
It is a HUGE undertaking. Someone might think at only 360 sq. ft. it would be a small job. I am pretty much doing it all, except for electrical, plumbing, and insulation. All the carpentry is yours truly and that includes milling my own ceiling, walls, floors, and trim, and making my own cabinetry. I'm probably two years from having it completed. In another month it will be too hot to work up there until fall.
It is a HUGE undertaking. Someone might think at only 360 sq. ft. it would be a small job. I am pretty much doing it all, except for electrical, plumbing, and insulation. All the carpentry is yours truly and that includes milling my own ceiling, walls, floors, and trim, and making my own cabinetry. I'm probably two years from having it completed. In another month it will be too hot to work up there until fall.
I do a lot of smaller wood working projects, boxes and such, but my wife thinks I could be doing lots more big reno projects around the house. Right now I have a project of making new countertops in our kitchen. They will be out of blue pine and then epoxy resin over it, easy peasy right. I've been collecting the most select pieces I can find for the project and pretty soon I'll have to figure it out. Little stuff I can handle, this countertop project scares me. Here are a few of my wood working projects.
We used to make wedding gift card boxes back in the day, this is an example of blue pine for those who are unfamiliar with it. I use it a lot in bases.
This is a box that I made for my bedside, it has a hidden compartment in the box.
My wife does a lot of craft stuff for local craft shows, so I've made her some display furniture, this is card table sized top.
These landing nets were made from some walnut my dad cut on his farm in Kansas 40 years ago.
We used to make wedding gift card boxes back in the day, this is an example of blue pine for those who are unfamiliar with it. I use it a lot in bases.
This is a box that I made for my bedside, it has a hidden compartment in the box.
My wife does a lot of craft stuff for local craft shows, so I've made her some display furniture, this is card table sized top.
These landing nets were made from some walnut my dad cut on his farm in Kansas 40 years ago.
Don
Neat projects. Boxes are a particular interest of mine. I hope to do a reproduction WWI ammo box this summer. I have a box joint machine and will probably use it for the joinery.
Neat projects. Boxes are a particular interest of mine. I hope to do a reproduction WWI ammo box this summer. I have a box joint machine and will probably use it for the joinery.
Richard Lathrop
Active member
Eric,
Great work as usual. Not duck realted but I have been working to replace entire subflooring in bathroom of rental due to mold issues.
Rick Lathrop
Rick
Its always the bathrooms with floors that need ripping out. I hope the Schluter Ditra we laid down prevents that from ever happening.
Its always the bathrooms with floors that need ripping out. I hope the Schluter Ditra we laid down prevents that from ever happening.
Richard Lathrop
Active member
Staying on top of leaks as well. Tenant never told me about the leaks, probably to prevent me from discovering state of rental. Just another lesson learned about being a landlord.
Rick
I'm not a landlord but my wife wants to buy a new house and make our current one a rental. I'm on the fence about it for reasons like that.
I'm not a landlord but my wife wants to buy a new house and make our current one a rental. I'm on the fence about it for reasons like that.
William Reinicke
Active member
Both my mom and my wife did the rental thing. Neither made money in the process. The wife finally sold hers 3ish years ago but after 2 tenants, it took close to 15k to remodel her town house to be ready for sell due to the amount of damage done. My mom just just sold her house 2 weeks ago and she ended up putting in 33k to remodel after renting her house out for 4 years to the same tenant. I think I have pictures still of my moms place. In the long run..... they both lost money. An absolute terrible investment on both their parts. They both used agencies and both were lied to because essentially what we were being told when they were supposedly doing their inspections, just wasn't true. Also, my mom would get hit up every few months to have this or that repaired. Inspection after tenants were out showed that about 60% of the things she paid for, never actually got done. So she's currently pursuing lawyers to get some of that money back. What did these shi*** tenants lose out on????? Their $1500 deposit and thats it. Eric, the only reason they stayed afloat through this process is because they sold their homes during this prime crazy market. The woman made around 100k profit, even after paying the remodel repairs and my mom is making around 150k after the remodel repairs. Try doing this in a sellers market, good chance they could of only broke even or made very little profit, which would of been miserable for both of them. The actual time they both did the rental thing, they were actually losing money.
We put my house back in Baldwin County, AL into the rental market back in 2005.
With the current rental market and rates, we are finally making money but the mortgage is also relatively small (under $1K).
Haven't made more than 6 mortgage payments myself since 2005.
The last tenant we kicked out in summer 2023 trashed the place and it took 2 weeks and $8K to fix it back up. Already recouped the costs.
It will be paid off in two years and then we'll be seeing $1k/month in profit, emergency repairs aside.
Don't do it alone, get a management company. They do all the needed credit and background check, manage the money, maintenance call, inspections and keep the books for you. It's well worth the 10% off the top.
With the current rental market and rates, we are finally making money but the mortgage is also relatively small (under $1K).
Haven't made more than 6 mortgage payments myself since 2005.
The last tenant we kicked out in summer 2023 trashed the place and it took 2 weeks and $8K to fix it back up. Already recouped the costs.
It will be paid off in two years and then we'll be seeing $1k/month in profit, emergency repairs aside.
Don't do it alone, get a management company. They do all the needed credit and background check, manage the money, maintenance call, inspections and keep the books for you. It's well worth the 10% off the top.