I was working on a wood duck today and realized I didn't have an artificial head to work with so had to go with the original. I also realized that I was running extremely low on epoxie sculpt and wanted to save what little I had for another bird later in the week. So, figuring the bird is personal, I decided to deal with the shrinkage and not worry about it, however, I hate the way, the little orange pointed part at the top always seem to shrink and shrivel up worse than the rest of the bill.
Being bored with way too much time on my hands, I decided to try something new and I got an insulin syringe and the Master's Blend out and started injecting. To my surprise they plumped up quite nicely as well as smoothed out some of the other wrinkles present in the orerall bill itself. I like the results I saw, so I kept injecting, around the corners of the bill and down the edge all the way down to the nail. There is an extremely thin layer of skin covering the bill and I just kept injecting under that and to my enjoyment say the bill start to plump up and look quite fleshy agian. Granted I was working with a very fresh bird, that had only been frozen for a few weeks, but it worked. The only area that I didn't see improvement was the nostril area.
Has anyone ever tried this?
I'm sure there will still be additional shrinkage as it dries, but in a pinch it seems to have worked way better than I would have ever expected. Honestly, I didn't even know you could get a needle into a bill and could inject it.
Anyone have an input on this?
Thanks,
Jon
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If you cast your own artificial heads you would never have to worry about being without one.
But even when casting your own, you still should rebuild the shrinkage on the real bill before casting, otherwise, what's the point? Why make a cast of bill that is already suffering from shrinkage?
Jon
If you are makeing 1 cast you might as well make several.. Do a alginate mold then proof the pour and then once you've got it just the way you want it then do a RTV mold so them you can pour all ya want and at .35 a pop you can pour all ya want for little or nothing...Also yo can get the eyerings also on the head so you can slip in a 9mm and finish off pretty easy..........
Only My .02's worth