I'm new at all of this and getting ready to move onto my next bird. I bought a flying mount for a Canvasback I'm getting close to finishing. Thought it would look pretty cool flying, but think I have now changed my mind. I'm curious to see what to do about changing/modifying the form without buying a new one? It's a Van Dykes flying form, Item no : 01002504. Trying to accentuate the birds colors and flying just doesn't seem to justify this. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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that are intended for both flying or standing. Unless you really have a large bird it wont matter. The form should be just a bit small so your not stretching the skin to put it on the form. Stretching the skin will cause things like down showing through on the back. On a a diver duck the fleshing operation is ussually enough to stretch the skin so it fits most forms loose. You may need to cut a bit out for the side packets to look natural but thats about it. If your looking for a low head pose you should be cutting the collar area back in the form so you have a place to put the neck and rest the head. Use the carcass and a caliper to compare for size, and keep the form just a little bit smaller. You can manipulate the carcas in the possition you like and go from there. I fill the neck base with synthetic cotton and if it needs more after the bird is stitched up I use a long section of wire and push more cotton down the neck through the bill until its full and even. If your using an artificial head obviously this needs to be done before glueing.
Good luck
After looking at the size of the form, I think I'll use it for the flying mallard that I'm doing right now. The forms between the mallard and canvasback are comparable within a 1/4 inch, the mallard being a bit larger. But compared to the carcass of the mallard I have, the form should work just fine. I think I'll take your advice, Larson, and use the ferebee for the canvasback. Thanks for the info.
A mallard form is different then a diver form. Those little divits in the form that locate the legs are too far back for a puddle duck. Also the breast, back, and thighs are all different. You can use if but you'll need to alter it a bit. Ya know what? Use a mallard form for a mallard. Its just easier. Now a redhead has pretty close to the same shape as a puddle duck but not a can. Put the form next to the carcass and look it over good before using it.
The primary difference is the location of the leg attachment. If you have a manikin that was designed for standing, the difference will be very visable. Because the legs and thighs change location when the bird is flying, you would need to remove some material from the thigh area of a flying manikin and identify the leg position a little forward of the flying form location for placement. Although it is not extremely significant, diving ducks leg location is further to the rear than a puddle duck. You can easily make the modification by using a dremel tool with a rasp bit or a file. While I agree with making sure to have enough skin to taxi into position as well as adding fill in the side pockets and leg area, I personally believe that making a manikin smaller that the original carcass is a mistake. Diving birds tend to be fat. When you skin the bird, you remove that fat from the carcass, When you wire wheel the skin there is some stretching of the skin as well. I have found that a manikin exactly the size of the original carcass is generally small in circumfrance as well as length. The issue of length results from the removal of the tail bone area during skinning. Manikins generally do not provide for the tail bone area, instead they provide a place to carve out a section to put the tail quills in. This inherently makes the manikin a little short in my opinion. Another difference is the wing attachment area - some manikins provide depressions for the attachment of the wing. If you remove the humerous head for a standing mount, you will need to attach the wing further to the rear to account for the absence of the humerous head. If there is a depression, it is frequently necessary to enlarge it to accomodate the actual size of the bone if you leave the head on. On a standing bird, the location of the neck is very important. If the desired position is head up and alert and the manikin has a notch for the neck, more fill will be required. If you want a sitting pose with the head back, the manikin neck area generally has to be carved out to accomodate the bend necessary to have the head back. This also reduces the ability to push filler down the neck so the size needs to be correct from the beginning. Flying cancass backs are spectacular if mounted in a landing configuration facing away from the wall. Good Luck
What I meant about the form being a bit smaller was it should not be tight in the skin. Some of the biggest problems a new taxidermist will have is that the forms they order can be a bit large compared to the real deal. I find that many of the Feribee forms are too large most of the time. Feribee pheasants, lesser snow geese, and ross geese, are much larger then the average real thing, and almost always need work.
As far as pushing fill down the neck I think its obvious that this needs to be done prior to final postioning. In other words when filling you dont need to stuff it too tight. You can always straighten the neck out and add more but it gets tough to take it back out. As clewis said if you can get the correct amount of fill in the first time your always better off, but I do find myself doing this quite often.
I never thought about the landing mount. When I was looking at the bird, I thought the breast feathers shouldn't be hidden, and that's when I thought about the sitting mount opposed to a flying mount. But a landing position facing away from the wall would be awesome. It would surely make the breast feathers easier to see and show off. Would there still be a little form modification as far as the thighs go? Or would the feet still be back? I'm starting to like the landing position more and more as I think about it. Thanks for the suggestion clewis, and thanks to the rest for the help.