JUNE WORKBENCH

Guess I will start this one off. I have been carving decoys out of the pink insulation foam. I have been messing around with patterns and I got the buffy patterns the way I like. I just finished this buffy with burlap and mastic I will apoxie sculpt the bill in a few days. I need work on the head and cheeks but for my 1st ever decoy I am happy with it. I also have a brant in the works. Thanks for looking>

make sure you carve the bill down to allow for the apoxy sculpt, that will keep it from being way too big. I can't really tell from the photos, but if you use a hardboard cutout of the head drawn from a photo of a real duck it will give you some stability in the bill and always get an accurate profile. The profile looks good for a buffie, but you'll need to trim the bill down. You can do it even after burlapping which is how I usually do it, but you can also carve it down pretty small with the hardboard core.

Nice Chris! Don Mintz is the master of foamers, lucky to have him here!

DonMintz wrote:make sure you carve the bill down to allow for the apoxy sculpt, that will keep it from being way too big. I can't really tell from the photos, but if you use a hardboard cutout of the head drawn from a photo of a real duck it will give you some stability in the bill and always get an accurate profile. The profile looks good for a buffie, but you'll need to trim the bill down. You can do it even after burlapping which is how I usually do it, but you can also carve it down pretty small with the hardboard core.

Thanks Don that pic didn't have the hard board in the head but I do put in in there. At 1st I didn't like the body look but but burlaped anyway for practice and like the way it looks. My epoxy sculpt will be here Monday or tue so I will cut the bill down and put it on.

Don you opened a can of worms now. I am gonna be picking your brain. Haha

While most of us struggle to find time/energy to knock out a couple of dekes, George continues to produce great gunning rigs with regularity (the old fart is retired, so what else is he s'posed to do???)! He asked me to post a photo of a spread of mallards and blacks that he just finished up today.

BTW... George reports that his wife had a great week of treatment at Hahnemann in Philly and she seems to be doing well!

Great looking rig George. I wish I could turn out decoys that fast! I finished carving a rig of 6 mallards...working on black ducks now. No painting though, just carving. Saving the paint for the mid summer.

Now, a redhead has its base coat. a whistler has the bottom gacced, and I just finished repainting a mallard for one of my customers-That is it for today!
Stay busy, you all, and thanks, Ed. Next time you drop over, perhaps i can get a posting pics tutorial!

Chris,

I hadn't seen your foam buffie but it looks great. That looks like a great way, and a little more affordable, for me to give carving a try. I would like to make some scoters for a long line rig. Thanks for the pics!

Russell

Chris S. wrote:Guess I will start this one off. I have been carving decoys out of the pink insulation foam. I have been messing around with patterns and I got the buffy patterns the way I like. I just finished this buffy with burlap and mastic I will apoxie sculpt the bill in a few days. I need work on the head and cheeks but for my 1st ever decoy I am happy with it. I also have a brant in the works. Thanks for looking>

Russell,
That is the main reason I started carving with foam because it is a lot cheaper to do. Also it does not cost a lot to get started. I also made a hot wire foam cutter. It's kinda like a band saw but for foam the wire gets hot and cuts out the pattern just like you would do with wood. If this is something that you would like to start doing check out workingdecoys.net that is where i got the info to get started.

Foamers are the way to go for the guy that just wants to build his own decoy rig. The time and money I put into cedar decoys is crazy, but I loving carving cedar. I enjoy the tradition behind it.

Thanks for the input gentlemen.

Davey,
Just a suggestion for the website, we need a countdown clock till the next duck season. I need more torture.

Russell Vrhovac wrote:Thanks for the input gentlemen.

Davey,
Just a suggestion for the website, we need a countdown clock till the next duck season. I need more torture.

I got this one its 143 days 15hours 13min and 4sec till nj coastal zone opens not that I am counting or anything

here's a look at some of the apoxy work you can do on your foamer, not only the bill, but the wingtips and tail are good areas to reinforce to prevent wear.



I'm starting a set of layout scoters like these this week.

That is killer Don!

And Russ, I'll see if I can get a timer.

A black, a can and woodies on my bench. Have the drake woodies nearly done with painting.

rester in the front is a really nice looking piece! post up when you get them painted!

Got the drakes painted. Tried to keep it simple.

That is a nice, simple, fairly animated group of woodies--Not difficult to repaint, either!! next set, use yellow ochre rather than cad yellow for the first edge of the bill. While the contrast is greater with the brighter, it may be off for the bill, however, you get them out in a nice spot, the livers will NOT care. Now, get those ladies done.

Fantastic looking woodies!! Great job Tom!

Thanks Davey and George. I'll check that bill color closer, I have a frozen bird I can check for reference. I plan to do a pair of full bodies woodies in the near future.

Tom Yocum wrote:Thanks Davey and George. I'll check that bill color closer, I have a frozen bird I can check for reference. I plan to do a pair of full bodies woodies in the near future.

Unfortunately, frozen birds aren't good reference for bill color (or feet, if you're a taxidermist). They start losing their bill color a few days after the bird is harvested. From your photo, I don't see anything wrong with the bill color. Look like wood ducks to me!

Tom, the best thing about a frozen specimen is that it keeps its color, well, not the bill, and once the bird dies, the color of the bill diminishes quite rapidly-Trust me on that color, i have a tendancy to observe little things once the dog has brought it to hand. Yeah, there are vriations also!
As stated, if the woodies notice that, it is going to be too late for them to realize it!!

This is my first decoy ever. I made it from the pink insulation foam then burlapped then I did a restle coat with Titebond III and saw dust. I then let it dry for a week. I primed with Kilz and painted with flat exterior house paint. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think for a gunning decoy I won't have any problems getting them to decoy to these. I need to do the eyes and keel. I think when I add about 8 more of these little guys i will have some good buffy action this season. Looking it over again I see that i did the side pocket lines upside down. I am not worried about this but I will do the next ones the right way. For a basic gunning decoy what do you guys think.

Nice Buffy Chris. Get a nice rig of those guys and you'll be pulling them in across the bay!

Got the hens done...