Hi. I ordered the Van Dyke's catalog from the internet and I am needy to know what items I should get to make sure the mount would be perfect.
I am gunna buy the duck mounting kit for 11.99, but it doesnt come with feet, and some other stuff.
So like which products should I get. Like to make sure the feet dont shrink. which eyes, which head... Things like that. use real feet or fake.
I dont have the kind of money right now for a flesher. Can I use a knife? Or is there a special tool?
Your help will be greatly appreciated.
-Nick
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I don't know what the kit comes with exactly, but I'm sure it's just about everything you need. If you want to make sure the feet don't shrink, you can order this stuff called Preservz-it which I'm sure is in the Van Dykes catalog. All you do in inject it under the scales in the feet at various places and leave the needle plugging the hole until it dries. About the head, my advice is to use the real head. You just get all the muscles and the brain out of the head and replace it all with clay. It looks just as good with the real head. I'm glad you're getting the kit, it will explain this all to you. Good luck.
thing you can have is a detailed instruction. either a book or a video. This will help walk you through from start to finish. i dont know if the kit comes with one. try the library if you dont have one yet. and yes you can flesh with a knife, spoon, and scissors. that process will be explained in your instruction book. and it is extremely inportant to remove all of the fat that you can. If you dont, the bird might look alright for a while, but you will have problems down the road, either when it dries, and the feather tracts shrink with the dried skin, or you will get grease bleed through the incisions. I can stress enough how importatn haveing instructional material is when mounting your first few birds. Good luck
I have some preservz it, and it does a lousy job of plumping up the feet. It preserves them, but the feet still shrink anyways.