Drake Mallard

Here's a drake mallard I finally finished up this past weekend. I've been out of town for the past few weeks so I haven't spent too much time in the shop. I had this only about 95% complete before the family and I went to Texas, and I was able to put the finishing touches on it this past weekend. The body if made of tan cork and the head is white cedar. It's painted with acrylic paint.

You can view full size images in the mallard gallery of my decoy page.



In-process mallards

I spent the weekend away from the workshop with the family. I did bring a few heads to carve and some almost finished birds with me though. This is a mallard that I needed to really spend some time giving a good sanding. At this point it's ready to seal up and paint, unless I decide to undercut those primaries.

The brown filler isn't really a mistake. It's more of a correction. I carved the edges of the primary feathers as a straight line tucked right into the side pockets. My friend Gary Hanson suggested that it would look better if I broke up that long, straight line by having the tertial feather hang over the edge of the primary. I agreed with him.

Here's a cork hen mallard I mounted the head on recently. This one just needs to have the neck cleaned up, and then a final sanding before it's ready to paint. I use a marine epoxy called WEST, which squeezes out of the neck joint and makes a mess when I clamp it, but it's super tough stuff and is really worth the clean-up effort. My plan is for this to be my first decoy painted in oils.