This was my most challenging project for 2018. After reading about the New Zealand Fairy Tern decoys I was making, the Mangawhai Museum approached me to make them some replicas. As there are only 40 of these birds left in the world they were never going to be able to get a taxidermy one for an exhibition.
I was very ambitious and decided to create a feeding scene where the male is landing with a fish in his bill. This was very challenging and I really pushed my printer to the limits and discovered a few new tricks in the process. I think this kind of model making has advantages over taxidermy where the models can be designed to exhibit a wide range of behaviours. It will be interesting to hear how the public react.