Mounting

[willum]

I have a carved figure of a Swallow and it is to be mounted on a
piece of old fence post which looks like an old roof beam what is the best way of sticking the feet onto the wood, I think hot melt glue may be unsightly and spoil it , and have yet to sort out the painting.

[Wildbirdcarver]

Willum, You could mount the swallow with it's breast/belly touching the beam and insert toes between the bird and beam. You could make the toes out of wire and epoxy paste, carve them out of wood, or trim the toes off a cast foot.
The mounting depends a lot on how the bird was carved. Hope this helps. dick

[willum]

The body is carved with wings folded as perched , legs and feet made of copper wires soldered then toes splayed . First problem is how to hold it while I do the painting but looking ahead, many thanks BW

[Wildbirdcarver]

Put a small hole in the belly toward the rear of the bird. attach a dowel that has a screw in the end (home-made holder) and when finished painting patch the hole with plastic wood or similar material. Paint the patched hole to match.
Hope this is clear. Dick

[Wildbirdcarver]

if the foot of the bird has a post to mount the bird into a mount, you can clip a vice grip pliers to the post and use the pliers as a handle to hold the bird while you paint it.

[mobjack68]

When taxidermists do smaller birds (smaller than a wild turkey) a wire is inserted thru the bottom of the foot, placed along the bone and then wrapped and tied to the leg bone. The wire protruding from the bottom of the foot is then inserted into a drilled hole in the mounting piece (driftwood/built up base/manufactured mounting plate/etc). It's a shame you didn't add another wire when you soldered the pieces together, that wire could have been used the same way as the taxidermy wire....is it possible to drill up thru the wire bundle that makes the leg and epoxy another wire in the drill hole????

[willum]

Went for broke and used hot melt and it has been very successful , now have to get the colour right ,need to get the steel blue with Black, Blue and Green combo. Looks nice , I am pleased at this first attempt .