I finally bagged my first duck, a nice mallard drake. I skinned it to mount, whew, that took awhile. I've only done a few pheasants so far, so am still a newbie. Anyway, after skinning, I cut off the breast and thighs WITHOUT measuring for length and girth. I tried kinda putting it back together much to my wife's amusement, but can't get an accurate measuremnt. Any ideas on how to order a mannikin, without buying all the sizes? Thanks in advance.
Return to Bird Taxidermy Category Menu
try to make a mache body.you will learn about taxdrmy quickly.emprovise.learning experience. get more ducks,then measure first.
Wheres your WASCO bird manual?
Its has everything you just ask, plus pictures for those who cannot read the archives.
Did you measure the body and draw your paterns?
Mache a bird body doesn't make. You are thinking about excelsior, probably. Easiest thing to do is buy a commercial mallard body in average size and use that. Van Dyke's used to sell them.
For us commercial hackers, I often wonder why the supply companies every bothered with that "girth" crap anyway. Ninety-nine out of 100 mallards will fit the same "average" sized mannikin. (Course now, we ain't talkin' them barn yard, corn fed types that hang out in the city parks. I'm talking WILD mallards.)
to all who gave helpful answers. I kinda assumed using average and either shaving or rebuilding it to fit. I've skinned about 40 pheasants this year and all seem to be with in a fraction of an inch or so (average).
Happy Holidays,
Bill
You will find that using the smaller bdoy will allow moving the skin around and feathers can be place easier.
You may wish to think about a layer of acrylic caulking in the bird, this will hold the feathers where you place them.
Most of the time people flesh the skin then figure its a good fit on the manikin,,Thats where they forgot about the fat they removed..Smaller is better by far..This not only allows you to taxi the skin but it makes for easier attatchments.
The skin and feather groups have a natural memory which while drying semi set themselves..By this I mean while blow drying.The Ole shop vac does the job fine.I put all my bird together wet and dry them once I have them on the form and suspended on a base or wall wire..The only time I use caulk is on heads and the I tube inject through a eye or ear with a syringe.Its one way of many ways to do this..It always provides for nice full looking heads and nothing shows up on a greenhead better than a sheen from properly preening and setting.........
I use only a couple pins to hold in the wing and above the legs on the saddle to hold the skin in place..Many times you will see rough areas on mounts from people NOT taxi'n the skin and allowing it to set.Nothing lookis worse than a blotchy chest on a bird//.
The tube on a syringe is actually a easy way top avoid a mess while sewing and rough adjusting..A simple T pin will hold the tube on the syringe.The nice thing is the lenght of tube can vary and it allows you to reach areas IF you forget to...Thin vinyl waterline is cheap and easy to get...
I especially like Chunky's advice "...get more ducks." Thanks so much. You all are a valuable resource and should receive many kudos for your patience and mentoring to the taxi world.
Happy Holidays,
Bill