Northern Flicker new model

[birder]

Feet and perch coming shortly

[mbauer]

Wow Glen!

Really knocked it out of the park with the 3D designing.

Beautiful!

Mike

[birder]

Originally Posted by mbauer

Wow Glen!

Really knocked it out of the park with the 3D designing.

Beautiful!

Mike

Thank you Mike!

I had some nice reference material although the modeling was pretty much just from my ideas of what a flicker looks like, they don't act very woodpeckery most of the time ...hopping around on the ground so much and eating berries in the winter in their favorite bushes. This is one favorite experience though, i was driving to work and this fella was sitting in the road, not knowing how badly injured it might be I picked him up and took him to work with me, hoping he would improve as he was very drowsy and I worried might have too much injury, however, after spending the morning in a desk drawer he perked up and flew off strongly, nice opportunity to examine his markings...

[Don Boose]

Birder: what woodpeckers do you more commonly see? Red Bellied or Downies?

Year round: hairies, downies, red-bellied, and sapsuckers. In the summer: red heads. Eery now and then a pileated.

Don

[birder]

Don I guess I'm surprised you don't have more flickers, of course the "yellow shafted" type in your region, maybe a recolor in those colors would be fun if only for more time....

Moving to the finish of this model, the feet are cut out, woodpeckers like parrots and owls have 2 toes forward and 2 toes rearward, they have good sized claws for clinging to vertical surfaces that they prop themselves up against with very stiff central tail feathers. When the toes are cut out they are rolled 1/2 way, I used the bamboo skewer that is used to make up the legs, and the claws glued together. it looks more realistic if some curve is added lengthwise to the toe, as can be obtained without damaging the paper. The toes are glued 2 forward and 2 back but when the legs are on the base later. The small part is rolled and slipped down over the legs to the toes after the toes are attached to the legs, so will turn to making the base.

[birder]

The base is built by rolling the main cut branch, and the ends are added after backing with a piece of thick card. They are added from the inside and glued to the inside, a dabs of ca glue added from the inside works well. Check the fit of course to be sure is proper. the bottom part has a hole to move it into place and glued. Then the legs are inserted without glue, and leaned back a bit as close to the edge of the top as possible, into holes made in the top, note is on the side as the seam., then the toes can be glued on, with the shorter toes to the inside and the longer toes outward. the little part can be slid down and glued. marking with a pencil on the bird where it looks best holes are made into the bird through the paper of the belly but also through the inside part of the tail cone. You'll have to look and see how it is sitting and do adjustments to look correct for the amount of lean of the bird, I found it helps to turn up the tail tips to get the lean I like.
The toes can be then glued down better to the perch, and the bird to the legs.

[birder]

Some pictures of the model, in a couple very different lighting views, unfortunately not much sun to show a better lighting

[Michael Mash]

Great work with nice photos Glen.
And this is a scratch build . . . correct?
Mike

[Tapcho]

Beautifull result Glen. I was happy to follow this creation. Seven species of peckers in Finland, I've spotted all but one - Jynx torquilla. Maybe someday.

Tappi

[birder]

Originally Posted by Michael Mash

Great work with nice photos Glen.
And this is a scratch build . . . correct?
Mike

Thanks Mike It is a build from scratch and with some instructions and organization of parts I hope to upload to Ecardmodels for anyone to have a go at this Norther Flicker