Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
" ... Two for Joy ..."
Being extremely pleased with myself for managing to produce something that (to me at least) looked like pheasant, I decided to see what else I could produce ...
The outcome is a pair of magpies !!! Once again, the core of these is a piece of brass wire, this time a piece of 0.3mm with some much finer wire wound around to bulk out the body. Once again, solder is used to blend in the body to the bare wire necks. Once happy with the general shape, a bit of bending and careful filing produced a body, head and beak. A small flat was filed on the rear of the back and a tail was added from a short narrow strip of green Rizla cigarette paper. Once happy, the birds got a wash of white enamel all over, then a blue-black was mixed and applied to head and neck and tail - the tail being slightly bluer. A hole drilled in a couple of fence posts at the front of the layout (near a pair of cows so that the public can be more easily directed as to where to find them), a touch of canopy glue on their mounting pegs and "Bob's your uncle!". Incidentally, I perhaps should mention that each bird is just under 3mm long (tip of beak to end of tail).
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Being extremely pleased with myself for managing to produce something that (to me at least) looked like pheasant, I decided to see what else I could produce ...
The outcome is a pair of magpies !!! Once again, the core of these is a piece of brass wire, this time a piece of 0.3mm with some much finer wire wound around to bulk out the body. Once again, solder is used to blend in the body to the bare wire necks. Once happy with the general shape, a bit of bending and careful filing produced a body, head and beak. A small flat was filed on the rear of the back and a tail was added from a short narrow strip of green Rizla cigarette paper. Once happy, the birds got a wash of white enamel all over, then a blue-black was mixed and applied to head and neck and tail - the tail being slightly bluer. A hole drilled in a couple of fence posts at the front of the layout (near a pair of cows so that the public can be more easily directed as to where to find them), a touch of canopy glue on their mounting pegs and "Bob's your uncle!". Incidentally, I perhaps should mention that each bird is just under 3mm long (tip of beak to end of tail).
Thanks for looking.
Ian
