Thread: "Off with her head"

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

look at a greylard......you get every possible combination of colours there... often the drakes look much like hens colouring. a grey duck (either sex)isnt hell of a lot different to a mallard hen so crosses between them and mallards...AKA a greylard often the drakes heads dont have a lot of green....the white neck band goes away and often the other white markings are gone too.I always have a real mixture of colourations in the spread..does it make any difference to the ducks??? stuffed if I know but its fun painting them up and kidding myself it makes them better.

The mallard drake is the biggest rapist in the avian world!the first duck ive ever shot was a horny mallard drake sniffin the arse of a terrified parrie hen in full flight. Yup he got a head job that he didnt bargain for !!!
Go to any public park where ducks are and look around ,theyre in all colours of the rainbow .
One mob i remember out at the groynes near chchs harewood crematorium ,featured a duck who may have been sired by a taubmans colour chart ,it had that many colours on it!
A lot of large ducks in the mob too ,with known domestic ducks &meat ducks very prominent.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

maaate...you are about to embark on one of lifes great adventures...fixing up and repainting decoys is half the reason I go shooting ducks. sing out if get stuck on something,chances are Ive crossed it off list sometime before.

Thanks MD, yes this is something I can do on these cold winter days.
I will be sure to call out if I get stuck, my Mrs is an artisted and is great with a paint brush so she may help me as well.

A couple of my decoys are cheaper ones with a strange colour so they might get a complete overhaul (colour change)

Today's effort.had even numbers so seven drake's changed gender... slightly shiney but otherwise happy with paint job,then took 4 drake's of Italian 80s vintage that had the tin soldier look and changed head angles,the magnums in particular have improved greatly,most happy with end look

before and after.....painted it yesterday,got up this morning and decided it needed kinked head too.... much betterer to my eyes anyway.
now got hen/drake ratio much more to my liking 3 girls /2 boys not quite beach boys level but near enough, when add the greys in it will be closer still.

as youre so keen Picasso ive got a couple of sacks full of assorted geriatrics etc etc -shall i send them your way for plastic surgery and a facelift.????

PS-tea toight a fat opening day parrie ,now so chocka with stuffing ive had to pinand sew his arse shut likewise his neck.served with mashed spuds and golden vege mix.IOf that dont give me me vitamins etc etc buggered if i know what will.hes sitting on the stove top at present oven bagged marinating in a can of european pale ale!!Im a man of exotic taste .BUUUUUUUUURRRRRRPPPPPPP

You drop them off and I give them a tart up.no worries. I'm sitting in maimai at present,lifted of dozen birds and hour ago when I arrived,hoping they will return.havent got even a single decoy out,just sitting on their home water on a drizzly day.

sorry sory sorry micky i misread ''insert vibrating disc'' and was about to give my'' really micky'' disprroving stare

Ok MD I as promised the first wet weekend I would give this a go, I wasn't as adventurous as you by cutting heads off however I did give 3 drakes a sex change.

After going through all my decoys I realised they were in better nick than I thought, one had a chewed beak which I could have fixed a bit better but I had 6 of the cheaper decoys that needed a colour change and 3 drakes got re gendered at the same time.

Step 1 the base coat



Step 2 the light feathers



Step 3 beak, blue feathers, white feather, black eyes and beak marks.





Before



After



Before



After



Pretty happy with the final result, thanks MD for the inspiration and to Davey for helping me with the colours.

Now maybe next season I should give duck shooting another go.

Well done that man.they just like bought ones.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Well done that man.they just like bought ones.

Cheers mate, a good project for a wet weekend

Now mix a bit of your two colours and with a nearly dry brush held at very low angle dragged across the feather details and it will make the raised detail pop.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Now mix a bit of your two colours and with a nearly dry brush held at very low angle dragged across the feather details and it will make the raised detail pop.

Yeah I have dragged the brush over the feathers on their backs with the lighter colour which has highlighted them, I have checked the good decoys I have and what I have done is similar so I might just call it done at that.

Thanks for the suggestion though MD