It’s been a little while since the last update, which is largely because while the ducks are pretty quick to do individually, there’s still a fair bit of work in each one – mostly the basing, waiting for materials, losing my tools somewhere in the house, and so on. Anyway, there’s been some great progress.
First up, the whio now has its stream:
Next up, a base for some torrent ducks, which are really cool ducks – they live in South America, hanging out in white water ravines and generally being pretty badass. They also have very cool markings.
I’m not completely sold on the rocks yet, but that may sort itself out once the ducks are on there and there’s some torrential water in place.
Next, some scaups, which are diving ducks. Ducks basically fall into three categories: dabbling ducks, which feed on the surface of the water like mallards, diving ducks, which feed below the surface (funnily enough), and perching ducks, which are often arboreal and may get a lot of their food from the land rather than the water, like muscovies. Anyway, I decided to convert one of the ducks to be diving and rummaging among the rocks under the water. It doesn’t really come out well in photos, but the water is much more translucent in the hand.
You may also note a couple of wee scaup ducklings. My wife and I once watched a family of scaups in a lake in New Zealand, and it took us a good fifteen minutes to count them all because it turns out scaup ducklings learn to dive very, very young and, like most children, don’t like to sit still.
Also recently completed (just this evening, in fact) is this ruddy duck. Ruddy ducks have larger bills and distinctive tail feathers, and the males often appear to have horns because of the slightly different feather structure on their head. I couldn’t reasonably sculpt that, however, given the size of the model. Ah well. I still managed the bill and the tail feathers, and I’m especially pleased with his base (slight fogginess in the water still, as the last bit of it is still setting):
And this, of course, now begs to have a full family photo, demonstrating progress:
BEHOLD MY LEGION OF QUACKERS.
Anyway, up next are the torrent ducks, a base for a couple of mallards, and then perhaps a muscovy or two, some comb ducks, silver appleyards… I’m sure you get the picture.
As a final query – does anyone know of a good source of 1/32 or 54mm scale bottles and other detritus? I had some that I used in the WWI chap’s wine and cheese shop, but I have no idea where I got them…
Fet Paints 