# Green Wing Teal 101



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Tagmbagm posted up his first attempt at mounting ducks, a nice little GW teal.

I think his first mount shows some good potential and rather than hyjack his post I thought I'd start another one to try to help him and anyone else out there just getting started in this great art form of taxidermy. 

I mounted this little dumper today and I tried to do him up in the same pose tagmbagm was going for with his piece.

I used this reference photo. My intent was not to copy the photo exactly the way it is, but use the photo to get general shape, feather group alignment, posture, balance and attitude.









This is the end result of my study of the reference photo. I also tried to come as close to tagmbagms teal as I could and get the same basic pose.









Tagmbagm, I hope this helps you out. I know if I'd had guys showing me stuff like this when I was young and learning it would have made the learning curve a lot smoother. Good luck on your next bird and we'll hopefully see you at our taxidermy show in May. 

Cheers,

Tex


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## Dark Cloud (Dec 17, 2007)

Looks like you forgot something in the picture? His bill is open slightly :lol: Just kidding looks good. Keep up the good work


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## coolgunnings (Sep 8, 2007)

Tex that is a fine looking teal, need to visit you for the next bird I put on my wall.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Dark Cloud said:


> Looks like you forgot something in the picture? His bill is open slightly :lol: Just kidding looks good. Keep up the good work


*Duuhoo!* I knew someone would see that!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Tex, I agree.. that is an extremely nice looking teal. How do you do Mallards?? 8) Got a website? I like how your duck is very clean looking, smooth, no roughed up feathers, looks like he just preened himself, making it all pretty. Good job... thats way nice of you to try and help Tagm out so that his next bird gets better. Hopefully soon he'll be pulling off really great mounts as well.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

His web site is http://www.birdfishtaxidermist.com/pages/Links.htm

I think he's the best bird taxidermist I've ever seen but I'll let the pictures on the website speak for themselves. I can't wait to see my cinny teal.


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## Stuffinducks (Sep 19, 2007)

Nice job Mr. Pres! Glad to see you give something back in a nice simple way. 

Look foward to seeing you at the show this year. Game on.

SD


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## TagmBagm (Nov 4, 2007)

That actually helps a ton tex. Thanks. I am doing a pintail this weekend and will post it up once I am done to see if I have fixed some of the problems. So looking at mine compaired to yours, it looks like a put too long of a neck on mine. Plus, with my birds legs I have them attached to the body to far back. Does your bird have shorter legs than mine or is that something I need to fix and how? What are the pins in his speculum for?


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Stuffinducks said:


> Nice job Mr. Pres! Glad to see you give something back in a nice simple way.
> 
> Look foward to seeing you at the show this year. Game on.
> 
> SD


Does this mean yer gonna knock the dust off something and actually compete this year? :shock:


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

TagmBagm said:


> That actually helps a ton tex. Thanks. I am doing a pintail this weekend and will post it up once I am done to see if I have fixed some of the problems. So looking at mine compaired to yours, it looks like a put too long of a neck on mine. Plus, with my birds legs I have them attached to the body to far back. Does your bird have shorter legs than mine or is that something I need to fix and how? What are the pins in his speculum for?


I dont think your neck is too long, I just think the neck feathers could be taxied up toward the head and the head feathers taxied up where they should be. Look close at the feather groups and where they start and terminate. Ducks legs have very little bend in them, they stand more "posted" than most birds. The attachment is more centerd for puddle ducks and more towards the back for divers. Look at reference photos very closly and they'll tell you where the legs need to be. Also, study the carcass of the bird you're doing and take accurate measurements of all the important points. Legs, neck, wings, tail, etc. Monkey around with a carcass long enough and soon you'll be seeing the bird with feathers on him and the mounting job just gets easier. One more thing, if you feel yourself getting frustrated and nothing is working out, LEAVE IT ALONE! Go in the other room, watch TV or something. If you try to muscle through the frustration and MAKE it work, you'll end up losing it and skipping the thing accross the shop floor. Plus, doing taxidermy with a crappy attitude will produce crappy results.

Before you start your Pintail, get good photos and pick one you want to copy.


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## TagmBagm (Nov 4, 2007)

Man tex now I feel like I am highjacking your post, but I tried to get his head feathers to puff up but everytime I treid it just seemed like it put them in the wrong spot. I am not sure if I was doing it right. What is the best technique to get the feathers on the head more puffy and not so flat?


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

TagmBagm said:


> Man tex now I feel like I am highjacking your post, but I tried to get his head feathers to puff up but everytime I treid it just seemed like it put them in the wrong spot. I am not sure if I was doing it right. What is the best technique to get the feathers on the head more puffy and not so flat?


It may be that your skin was freezer burned or you did'nt get all the flesh cleaned off around the base of the quils. If you don't have a nice clean, fresh, supple skin, those feathers will NEVER puff up for you. Also, skin that is fit to tight to the form or stretched to tight around the neck will always lay flat and won't fluff up nice. There is a very fine line between to lose and to tight a fit. Try some calk or Noxema skin cream to mosten the skin and help with the fit. Just be carful not to get calk or skin cream on the feathers! :x

Clean skin, supple moist skin, proper fit, good quils,(no pin feathers).

Easy squeezy!


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## TagmBagm (Nov 4, 2007)

So basically if I get it not to tight but not to loose on the form I should be able to run the feathers against the natural grain of the feathers and they should puff up better.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

TagmBagm said:


> So basically if I get it not to tight but not to loose on the form I should be able to run the feathers against the natural grain of the feathers and they should puff up better.


Bingo! Basically a looser fit is always better. You can ad fill or calk to take up the slack and the skin will always be lose and moveable.

Remember "Taxi" move "Dermy" skin :wink:


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## duck slayer (Sep 25, 2007)

Is that a swan that is a swan i can see behind the the teal a nice mount


TEX-O-BOB said:


> Tagmbagm posted up his first attempt at mounting ducks, a nice little GW teal.
> 
> I think his first mount shows some good potential and rather than hyjack his post I thought I'd start another one to try to help him and anyone else out there just getting started in this great art form of taxidermy.
> 
> ...


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Yup, that's a swan.

Kinda cool, the biggest waterfowl and the littlest waterfowl. 

Here's the finished piece.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

> Kinda cool, the biggest waterfowl and the littlest waterfowl.


Substitute waterfowl with archer and you would have elk22hunter and epek. 8)

Nice work TEX, when I get my turkey in the spring, I'll be making a visit up north. :mrgreen:


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## TagmBagm (Nov 4, 2007)

Hey tex is there a web site or something to find out info on the taxidermy show, and is there an amateur category.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

TagmBagm said:


> Hey tex is there a web site or something to find out info on the taxidermy show, and is there an amateur category.


Just keep in touch with me and I'll let you know everything youn need to know about the show as I get the info myself. We have three divisions, Novice, for the beginning and youth taxidermist. Professional, for the practicing more advanced taxidermist. Masters, for the advanced taxidermist who has competed and won at other shows.


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## Ryfly (Sep 13, 2007)

Am I the only one who can't see any pics?


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## 2labs (Sep 24, 2007)

Nice birds Tex!! 8) I can't wait to get my goose back from you!


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## captain (Nov 18, 2007)

Tex could you pm me with your prices for ducks and upland? Just curious.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

captain said:


> Tex could you pm me with your prices for ducks and upland? Just curious.


PM sent.


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