shoveler duck miniatures....

[twitcher]

all carved out of Jelutong...painted with acrylic paints....

[Terry Murphy]

Those are awsome1
Thank you for sharing.

[Orygoner]

Naturally, I'm loving your miniatures.

Not sure if you've elaborated on the "engineering" of constructing these multi-bird pieces. The right angle connection of the drake wing-tip with the hen tail feathers looks especially delicate.

[twitcher]

thanks Terry, Randy...Its not that hard to construct these, Randy.. the hardest is finding
something strong & thin..I mostly use spring steel or needles, the only thing with needles ,
is they do intend to be brittle...mark

[Bob K.]

Awesome job! They're just ducky!

[Orygoner]

Regarding the connection... I am still focused on the drake/hen connection method. Does the "pin" come straight out from the hen tail feathers and then straight into the end of the drake's wing? My first thought was that this would need to be a sharp angle (90 degrees) in order to give it strength against pivoting of the drake on the pin. But, maybe these are light enough, being miniatures, that it's not really a worry.

I've not done a piece like this, but have gathered some info on attaching some fish via their fins (one or more). These would be full size fish, so quite a bit heavier than your miniatures. That attachment mechanism needs a "squarish" insert coming off the fin into the body of the fish next to it. The fin and insert are aluminum and the form fitting hole is formed with epoxy putty stuffed into a drilled hole. The insert is wetted and stuck into the putty, then pulled out leaving a custom fitting "squarish" receptacle. I've seen other methods used with square tubing and using a very hot "squarish" insert to burn a custom fitted slot into the critter being attached.

Anyhow...just wanted to make sure I understood your approach.

And, thanks! :-)

[twitcher]

Originally Posted by Orygoner

Regarding the connection... I am still focused on the drake/hen connection method. Does the "pin" come straight out from the hen tail feathers and then straight into the end of the drake's wing?
:-)

yes, its what you say, its bent up into the males wing feather,because the pins ground on one side it stops it from turning...and i fixed this with super glue...if it was a bigger bird then i would have used epoxy resin...mark

[Josef]

Beautiful job on all aspects. I too was wondering how strong the connection would be. Thanks for sharing, Joe.

[fly fisher]

I love your work Mark its fantastic.

[twitcher]

Originally Posted by Josef

Beautiful job on all aspects. I too was wondering how strong the connection would be. Thanks for sharing, Joe.

its quite strong...not going to bend or twist it, to try it out ,..
thanks again all...mark