I am having an issue rehydrating my mallard feet. I mounted the bird last weekend injecting warm water in them prior to mounting to help rehydrate. They seemed fine and full. I then used the two part injecta-cast to preserve them. I thought I had injected properly, but now that they are dry you can certainly see the "jerky" areas that I missed. I have wrapped them in a wet paper towel overnight to rehydrate, but it doesn't seem to work. Is there any thing else I can try? They really look bad half full in only select areas. The webs also dried and shrank pretty bad. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Did you insert a pin into the hole when you pulled the syringe out? You will probably not be able to fix your problem. You might try to inject warm soapy water into these areas, but I don't think it will help. Maybe someone else can give you some other ideas.
If you used injectable resin or epoxy then you won't be able to repair them!
Simply cut them off at the feather line and install repros.
How does the artifial foot attach to the body. I assume that I can still cut the foot from the bird, cutting the bone where the feathers stop. This leaves the bone and attached to the body, but how does the artificial foot get attached. Sorry if this is stupd, novice, question. Thanks again.
The repro foot will have a wire coming out the top of the leg.
Cut the legs off your bird with a fine tooth saw to avoid
splintering the bone!
If you cleaned out the leg bone like you should have then all
you need to do is put a little epoxy on the wire(cut the length
to an inch or so), and insert it in the leg bone from the bottom.
Go easy on the epoxy, you don't want the feathers full of it.
Position the feet and let the epoxy set up.
I have used super glue to this also; but I prefer epoxy.
Paint your repros first; no paint on the feathers that way.
Thanks for the information. It's much appreciated.