Hot glue, Hip attachment tutorial

[NDNHunter]

Thought I would share how I do this. In my quest to learn hip attachment, I came up with this. It might not work for everyone, but it's one of the best ways I found.
The first pic. shows how I wire and wrap the leg for a hip attachment, the loop and the slot in the form.  You need to establish hip socket depth and position which you get from the carcass.

[NDNHunter]

Test fit the wire loop in the slot, make necessary adjustments to both wire and slot until you get a nice fit. Make your loop fairly wide as this is where you will get  side to side strength.  I cut my slot with a jig-saw blade on a wooden handle.

[NDNHunter]

front view of test fit... Do this to both legs.

[NDNHunter]

ready to glue leg #1  Fill the slot with hot glue. The beauty of this is there are no wires in the way as your working on the bird, You won't stress the skin and feathers as much as with conventional wiring, no more running sharp wires through your fingers either,    lol 

[NDNHunter]

leg #1 glued... get another cup of coffee while glue cools...lol        
DO NOT MOVE the bird until the glue is completely cooled. Probably the only draw back is the time it takes to cool. I use that time to work on tail setting or base work. The glue still sets up a LOT faster than bondo though...

[NDNHunter]

bird flipped over ready to glue leg #2.  Fill slot with hot glue.

[NDNHunter]

leg #2 is glued, I finished the caulking, and bird is closed up... notice, no glue on feathers, 
Also, very little wire bending is necessary, legs are pretty well posed...

[NDNHunter]

Here's the bird standing. This is the strongest hip attachment I've seen, very sturdy, and very accurate, not to mention simple.  
Hope the pics. explained it better than I did. Does it get any easier than that? LOL  

[wa]

nice goldherst

[KMA]

Perry, that attachment definately looks nice and sturdy.  What if you did want to move the hip swivel to adjust the pose? Do you have to plan this in advance or is there enough play in the leg and wire to make adjustments? For example, if I wanted the pheasant walking down a fallin fence post with one foot in front of the other?

Thanks for taking the time to show this method...I am always surprised when I see something done  differently and have that "Oh, cool" realization. - Matt

[NDNHunter]

Thanks Matt and wa!!  No problem adjusting the legs and hips anywhere you want once the glue cools. I try to pre plan my pose and make the right bends before I glue but you can change up the pose anytime with no problem at all.  Get as wild as you want with it. Questions or comments welcome!!

[bigyay]

wow thanks for taking the timeout and posting the tutorial.have you got a pic of the hole bird finished

[Randy H]

Great idea Perry, thanks for sharing.

[SteveP]

Thanks Perry,
It's always cool to see someone innovate. Is that a complete carved body, or a supplier form rasped down? I don't carve bodies, but I do modify forms and wrap bodies. So I don't know much about the difference between carving foam and urethane bodies. I always recess the anchor points and hot glue the recesses on forms, so I'm sure the hot glue will hold your attachment technique on those. I just wonder about the carving foam, when I make that leap.

[stargazer644]

Hi, NDhunter,

Just to say thats a good, well presented tutorial. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, wishing you well, stargazer644.