What's on your WORK BENCH ? - JANUARY 2021

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Half-way through the drakes on a cork scaup decoy replacement project for my rig. These will replace some Smyser birds I sold-off a while back. Goldens Heavy Matte acrylic over tan cork, basswood tailboards, and tupelo heads, sealed with thinned epoxy. I put 7/16" pine bottom boards on these to raise their profiles and rounded them down into stiff chines to minimize rocking and shed water quickly to minimize ice-up issues.
 
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Thanks, Pat! I did track down Wick's layout boat through Margie. We have a tentative price agreement, subject to my firsthand inspection. I have contacted MSU's Museum and they have voiced interest in adding to their Miles Pirnie, Schmidt brothers, Jim Schroeder, SAS. etc. Michigan carver's exhibit. I have set a broad window to get this finalized by the end of next summer, subject to secondary issues of getting all the face-to-face stuff completed within the restrictions imparted by the pandemic.
 
Of late I've been given a couple neat "remembrance" (that's what I call them anyway) shadowbox projects. The most recent was sent to me by a couple from CA that wanted to do something special for his father, who had been a fly tyer and guide in his younger days. They sent me a poster that the gent's wife had made for him, and several of this flies. It was a fun project but the aged, yellowed color of the poster, plus the gray/black lettering made mat selection dicey. I ended up buying a complete set of Crescent Select (the mats I use most often) mat samples, which helped me get the job done. Ended up being 26X27X1 3/4" in size. Oak frame with 3 coats of red mahogany stain with my favorite final finish, Chem-pak's Hunter Satin gunstock finish (if you've never tried it as a clear top coat on wood projects, you should! I love the stuff - pricey, but worth it). Wish I could color correct my photos; you'll have to trust me that the mats complemented the poster.

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Normally, I reserve some of the paint and texturing paste mix for a color when I am painting multiple decoys so I have something to match when making more. I forgot to put retarder in the residual paint after exhausting my titanium white. When I attempted to mix more from the new white supply I missed on the too dark side and would end-up with WAAAAAAAAAAY too much gray to do the backs of the last scaup. I added some raw umber and painted these redheads, two of witch will become plugs for hed and body molds for some foam blocks to sell eventually. I used a little less matte texturing paste on these scaup, minimizing the peaks on the edges of the comb strokes which lent a better vermiculation pattern for the washes and dry brush coats to adhere to. You also get a better view of how much higher these will float relative to the redheads.
 
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