Carvers Corner: What are you working on now???

[Neighbor_guy]

@Mike89 a few of these ones will with any luck make it to your decoy show this spring to get put on the competition table. 

Anyways. Since it was -118deg today we decided to spend the day in the house. So I cut and fitted fins on a pile of decoys. 

All of them are new for me. The sunfish are 2" larger than the ones I normally make. The pike are 2" shorter. The perch are completely different in both shape and size from what I normally make. Once they are glued up I will do the final touches to make them look the way I want. 

[shamalex72]

A few recent ones. A 14" cisco, 11" clown cisco and an 11" pike.

[Neighbor_guy]

Those are great sham!!! Thanks for sharing. 

 

Was at that big box store today that rhymes with Rome depot. Was going to pick up a sheet of aluminum fin material. $30.00 for a 2square foot peice of 26gage!!!! I did not buy any. I will make due for a while. But man that's expensive. 

I will have to check that other box store on the way home. 

[smurfy]

nice looking dekes Sham!!!!!!!! nice to see yr still at it!!!!!!!

[Neighbor_guy]

the goose is still working hard at decoy class. She is going with an old school block paint scheme. The rest of the class is watching the demo on feather details only a couple weeks until they present and are judged. Getting exciting. 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Neighbor_guy

[shamalex72]

10 hours ago, smurfy said:

nice looking dekes Sham!!!!!!!! nice to see yr still at it!!!!!!!

I dont Make too many anymore, just a few here and there.

 

[smurfy]

1 hour ago, shamalex72 said:

I dont Make too many anymore, just a few here and there.

 

saves me some cash that way!!!!!!! still kinda looking for a perch to add to my collection in the man cave. just so you know those I purchased from you have never been wet. there sitting nicely displayed.

[jasonmichalski]

Latest decoy new style for me

[pikestabber]

Awesome job, Jason! How did you achieve the swirl effect on top?

[Mike89]

great looking decoy Jason

[mrklean]

cool colors Jason

[jasonmichalski]

On January 21, 2016 at 3:44 PM, pikestabber said:

Awesome job, Jason! How did you achieve the swirl effect on top?

Thanks guys, it's pearl white paint with a thinned down over coating of another color, I didn't think it would shown up well so I did it quick and planed to go over in white but the pearl popped out so well I left it as is. 

[shamalex72]

Working on a hand painted cisco with oil paint. There is definitely a learning curve to using oil paint. I have to give credit to all the hand painters, it is a lot harder to make them look realistic than an airbrush for me.

[Neighbor_guy]

I used to do all my painting with rattle cans and would actually spray that paint into a Dixie cup and use that for my detail work with the brushes. 

I've gone to almost all acrylic now. It's always a trip when you get out of your comfort zone. 

Thanks for sharing. 

[pikestabber]

14 minutes ago, Neighbor_guy said:

I used to do all my painting with rattle cans and would actually spray that paint into a Dixie cup and use that for my detail work with the brushes. 

I've gone to almost all acrylic now. It's always a trip when you get out of your comfort zone. 

Thanks for sharing. 

All acrylic as in "airbrush acrylic" or by hand?

[Neighbor_guy]

The easiest answer I can give you is "yes" 

The long answer would be:

I now use acrylic for all the airbrush work and all of the hand brush and detail work as well. The endless color palet, lack of fumes, ease of clean up, and availability are just some of the factors. 

Wet blending or mixing of colors is more consistent. Not to mention that you can mix and match brands without having to worry about paints being compatible.

With the rattle cans if I started with rust oleum White can I had to stay with that paint. If I changed to Rustoleum X2 because I wanted to use that color it would alligator the layers underneath. 

At this time after almost 5 seasons of messing around with decoys and several evolutions (trust me things are always evolving) I have ended up at the following progression:

Hand carve the decoy from cedar. 

Add in the fins and eyes. (2) coats of white primer/sealer (oil based rattle can) 

lead and body filler (2) additional layers of primer over filled areas. 

Ballance and swim test

(2) light coats of white or a (1) coat of white and a (1) coat of an off shade base coat (rattle can)

Any/all additional painting from that point on will be acrylic. 

I'm not saying that's the right way to do the job. It's just the way I do it. 

[Neighbor_guy]

Final carving class update for the goose. 

final night of class before their decoys are presented to the judges on Saturday. Real life judges too, none of that participation ribbon stuff, 1-2-3. So they are all a bit nervous about how it will turn out.

This is what she came up with for a finished product. 

[Mike89]

nice NG see you at the show

Edited February 3, 2016 by Mike89
finished it

[Neighbor_guy]

On February 3, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Mike89 said:

nice NG see you at the show

Mike, are you showing or just snooping around???

[Mike89]

I will talking on the PA and snooping around

[Neighbor_guy]

busy day in the shop today. Several armfuls of wood for the stove. Cut fins for 17 decoys. Cut another dozen blanks. Then fitted these ones for glue up. For those reading this who don't carve, these are the worst steps of the process. I hate doing the fins. Cutting, fitting, and glueing are suck. Carving and painting = fun. Fins, lead, and body filler = 

[mrklean]

Are you going to be at the Alex show in March?

[Neighbor_guy]

Yep, that's the show I am building up inventory for. With any luck I will move a few. One way or another, buy sell or trade. 

[Neighbor_guy]

primer and body filler...  Another round of sanding and one more coat of primer. Then ballance and swim testing.... Getting ever closer to the fun part. I remember why I try to keep the batches to less than 6. More than that gets cumbersome. There are 11 hanging now, yuck.

I may need to put one of these ones in my collection... I have one of the original koi fish in my decoy box, but it's looking a little bit tattered. And I need to get some teeth marks in that small crappie shape. Only a couple more weekends to get that done. Otherwise it's another 9months of speculation. 

[Neighbor_guy]

Wow... 5-days since I posted that. It's been a very busy 5-days. Just not in the decoy shop. With the planning for our chapter banquet and the Women's event in Hackensack I just didn't have time to do much. Everything in the above picture did end up balanced and has had the 2-base layers of white out on. 

The 5 of the koi have been scaled and are awaiting clear coat. Each scale individually hand painted takes a lot of time. With any luck that will go on tonight. 

Everything else is ready for the next steps in the process, the layering on of paint colors. Pearl, gold, green, purples, black, white again, grey, and black one more time. Then several full coats of clear to lock things in place.