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Hand-Carved Duck Decoy, Part 2 From "Woodsculpting" episode DWDS-104

	One of Tom's hand-carved decoys. This one is the male wood-duck, one of the most distinctive of all North American waterfowl.
	With his beginnings as an avid duck hunter, Tom Matus grew interested in studying and observing the native species along the East Coast. His fascination with waterfowl eventually led him to try his hand at decoy carving.

In this episode of DIY's Woodsculpting Workshop, carver Tom Matus creates a duck decoy from cedar that is both beautiful and functional as an actual hunting decoy. In this segment, Tom carves the details on the body of the duck and paints on the colorful plumage using acrylic paints and air-brush techniques.

Materials used in this episode:

Template diagram
Cedar blocks
Decoy template
Band saw
Drill press; Forstner bit
Air compressor; pneumatic tools
High-speed grinder and various attachments
Padded drum-sander
Hand-held drill
Draw-knife
Chisels
Decoy eye-inserts
3" decking screws
Epoxy putty
High-grade marine epoxy
Acrylic paints and brushes
Hog-bristle brush
Air-brushing equipment
Paper towels
Dust mask
Protective glasses or goggles
Dust mask
Protective glasses or goggles
Gloves

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Mallard Drake Decoy, Part 2

With the shaping of the head complete, and the rough outline of the body established using a band saw and draw-knife, Tom is ready to begin sculpting the details of the body.

• He attaches the head to the body with a screw (figure A).

• He then marks the general outline of the feathers on the body (figure B).

  Figure A

  Figure B

  
  

  
  

• Using the high-speed grinder and cone-shaped cutter, he begins shaping the lines of the body including the breast, wings, etc. (figure C).

• On the tail section, he switches to a cylinder attachment (figure D) for making the straight, crisp lines around the tail.

  Figure C

  Figure D

  
  

  
  

• Before sanding and final prep before painting, Tom hollows the decoy.

• Once the detail carving is complete to Tom's satisfaction, he removes the decking screws installed earlier to join the two body sections together, and separates the two halves (figure E).

• Using a drill press and 1-1/8" Forstner bit, Tom drills out a series of holes in each half to leave a hollowed-out shell (figure F).

  Figure E

  Figure F

  
  

  
  

• Hollowing helps with flotation as well as preserving of the decoy. A solid-wood decoy would be more prone to internal stress which could cause cracking and splitting. The hollowed structure (figure G) helps guard against that potential problem.

• To prepare for painting, Tom reassembles the components, attaching the upper and lower-halves with high-grade marine epoxy. He then performs some hand-sanding and attaches a temporary painting keel to provide a handle to grip onto during the painting process (figure H).

  Figure G

  Figure H

  
  

  
  

• For the textured paint base-coat, Tom uses an acrylic-polymer emulsive paint. When dry, this paint is 100 percent waterproof. He begins by mixing the colors needed to create the grey color of the lower feathers to the texture base. He applies the base coat using a sponge and a stippling motion (figure I), working from the tail toward the front. This technique is used to apply a thick base coat quickly, and give "tooth" in an orange-peel type texture.

• To provide the vermiculated pattern of the feathers, he drags the teeth of a fine metal graining-comb through the base coat in a zig-zag pattern (figure J).

  Figure I

  Figure J

  
  

  
  

• Once the base coat has dried, Tom begins painting the details of the colorful plumage (figure K), again working from the tail forward.

• For the drake mallard, he uses a sequence of colors including grey, black, white and brown. Bright green is used for the male mallard's distinctive green head (figure L), and yellow for the bill.

  Figure K

  Figure L

  
  

  Figure M

  
  

• Once the basic plumage design is complete, Tom shifts to an airbrush using a large-capacity 1/8-oz. attachment with 35 psi. He uses this to create the softer lines and shadows of the feathers and plumage pattern (figure M) using the same paint colors he used earlier.

• Tom perfected his skills at painting the detailed plumage by careful study of the wild birds and experimentation with various combinations of paint.
  

  
  

• After airbrushing is complete, and those paints have dried, Tom uses a technique known as dry-brushing. He dips the tip of a large hog-bristle brush into black paint (figure N), then rubs the bristled end into paper toweling to remove most of the paint.

• He then uses the mostly-dry brush to gently brush on a small amount of black, following the flow of the feather pattern, to provide shadow and highlight (figure O).

  Figure N

  Figure O

  
  

  	Figure P
  	Figure Q