I offer this in an effort to prevent those shrivelled,shrunken, NASTY looking feet on those beautifully feathered ducks. And yes it is a lot of effort. And please use PERSONAL PROTECTION (eye goggles and gloves).
1- Disconnect tibia at knee (between drumstick and thigh).
2- Skin drumstick almost to heel.
3- Remove meat and tendons from tibia bone.
4- With #11 scalpal, cut leg SKIN from tarsus (instep of foot)
at heel. (at feather border)
5- Gently pull out tarsus with tibia attached.
6- Remove marrow from tibia with wire.
7- Peel back heel skin and remove heel area tendon. Tibia and tarsus stay attached.
8- With small drill bit, drill a hole into tarsus to get at
marrow.
9- Cut a small vertical split at high end of foot pad.
10- With curved needle nose pliers pull out tarsus tendons.
11- Soak foot in coleman gas for 30 min or more.
12- Pad dry and clean with paper towel.
13- Soak foot in jar of pine sol or dawn until foot is well
hydrated and flexible.
14- Dry foot and inject with glycerine/ preserve it 50/50 mix.
Let soak in for 10 min or more. Time needed for skin to
toughen, not harden.
Use a 10 ml syringe with an 18 gauge, 1 inch long BLUNT
needle. (McMaster-Carr #7516A676)
Make hole with a upolstery pin first. Then stick blunt needle
in. (You don,t want to inject yourself)
Inject at several points. The tip of eack toe, at the heel
and through the slit.
15-Insert correct wire depending on mount position.
16- Pack the heel area with apoxie sculpt. Seal the wire and joint
in. The wire length needs to be the right length as there
will be no in/out movement after set.
17- Pack Apoxie sculpt into slit area around foot pad and toe joints.
18- Sew up slit with #4 lb Fireline.
19- Allow apoxie sculpt to set. (2hours or more)
20- Check over foot and seal any holes (except injection) with
zapagap glue. Get around apoxie sculpt borders.
21-Test a mix of Masters Blend for set time and benchmark. Times will vary with ambient temperature.
22- With timer ready, mix a batch of masters blend for injecting.
I save bottle caps for this.
23-Watching timer, fill syringe and be ready to inject.
24- At 30 seconds before set up, inject mix through pin hole. Allow syringe pressure to PUMP UP foot area and hold pressure. When mix starts to gel up (you can see it get opague in the syringe)slowly back out. Don,t pull needle tip out until mix has kicked. Keep pressure on until out. Do the tarsus section first, then the toes.
You will need multiple syringe set ups. Needles get one use. Syringes
get cleaned and used again.
25- When injected foot has firmed (30 min),position foot as desired. Contour foot as per mount requirements and card/pin as you like. Remove any waste masters blend on foot.
26- Place foot in freezer for 6 days to dry slow.(open to air)
27- Let sit for a day or so after taking out of freezer.
28- Fill in any void areas (if any) with apoxie sculpt and retexture.
29- Seal, prime and paint.
30- When putting mount together:
a- Wrap tibia and wire thinly. b- You can cut a slit to widen the leg hole to get tibia in easier.
c- Glue the leg skin to the tibia at heel line. I use zapagap.
d- Wires should have been sized for ease in bending and fastening to the body form.
e- Add to the drumstick before sewing up the breast.
The End
What questions/comments do you have?
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wow my head hurts! Im sure that you do killer work but unless Im going to show, I cant see the time/investment. Why not cast the feet of the ducks that you do and keep reuseing the mould or cast a bunch of feet at once? Or just by repo's? Not trying to be an a**. Just my thoughts.
quite frankly it seems that you are suggesting a process that requires more than twice the work needed to produce a favorable result. Cutting the feet, pulling tendons, sewing it back up, epoxy work, ect. ect. ect.. What gives you the impression that all of this is needed. You can obtain world class results simply by injecting the feet either on or off the bird and doing touch-ups on them for a few days---all of which will take less time than the above 30 step procedure?
Master Blend all the way, way easier.
man you got it bad
just a damn foot
how much time do you spend on important stuff .like heads and feather placement?
Man if i went through all that for a foot, id never get anything else done. Sounds like a good procedure though. However, i would prefer to cast.
?say what?