Most people do not know what goes on
behind the closed doors of a taxidermy shop, so I am going to take you
"behind the scenes" and show you a large project from start to finish.
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First, A Little Background ...
My good friend and taxidermist,
Mitch Cain, and I were on the phone together talking hunting and taxidermy
projects we were doing, when he started telling me he wanted to do an awesome
custom mount for the SCI show in 2002.
He said he had a life-size
Zebra and maybe a Warthog from a recent Africa trip he wanted to use. After
telling me he would take me hunting and fishing after we had worked awhile,
I agreed to help him with this project.
Boy, did Mitch sink the hook.
After 12 to14 hours every day, I barely had enough strength to eat dinner,
take a shower and crawl into bed. |
| Part 1: the Zebra | Part
2: the Warthog |
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Click On Pictures For Enlargements.
Part
#1: THE ZEBRA
First, the Zebra was mounted on an armature in the position we
wanted. Then out came the anatomy books. Bones were drawn onto the mannequin
legs that we were going to alter. We wanted this Zebra leaping into the
air off one leg and his head turned to the left looking downward.
We also wanted his front legs bent because he will be leaping over the
warthog. The legs and head were cut in the correct areas and repositioned
where we wanted them, then sculpted back into place with steel rods for
extra support. At this point the Zebra's back leg needed to be supported
with a piece of 1 1/2" cold-rolled steel. The area for the steel was marked
onto the mannequin, the foam was cut out and a template was made and taken
to the welding shop. |
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Here we laid the Zebra form onto the floor to
insert the 1 1/2" steel rod that will hold the Zebra in the air on
one leg. The rod had to go all the way up into the chest area as it is
going to be holding a lot of weight in an awkward position. Than we foamed
the rod into the mannequin. |
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This is the Zebra after we completely foamed it in and
sculpted back the detail. The blue area on the back leg is bondo.
We decided that that area needed to have some extra strength. If you look
at the right side of the picture you will see the warthog. Since this is
a custom, one-of-a-kind piece, we are going to cut him up and give him
a different, radical pose. Also take note of the table on wheels.
This is holding a lot of our reference material. If you have followed my
articles or Emailed me, you know I stress a good taxidermist must have
good reference to put things back the same as a live animal.
More on this later. |
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The open mouth on the zebra was my project. The mannequin
was cut and sanded to accept the jaw set. It was then painted to
match the reference pictures we had. You can see one of the reference
photo albums in the upper left corner of the picture on the left. Mitch
and I decided since this Zebra will be in a distressed pose that the tongue
should be raised to give that illusion. So the tongue was custom molded
into that position as you can see from the picture to the right. |
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This picture shows the mouth installed, all the finish
work done to the mannequin. I should note that the skin was test fitted
about 10 times and adjustments were made to the mannequin as needed for
the perfect fit. |
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Now that the mannequin is ready and after about 6 hours
of both of us sewing all the holes from the African skinners, tannery and
Mitch's not so deadly accuracy, we are ready to mount this Zebra. The picture
on the left is the start of the application of the special glue that was
mixed up for this project. The Picture on the Right is Mitch pulling
the head skin over the mannequin. Now you can have a feel for the
size of this animal. |
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Here the skin has been taxied to the correct position on
the mannequin. The eyes, mouth, ears, etc. were placed in the correct position
that we wanted and a plastic bag was placed over the head so the skin would
not dry out too fast as we will need to make final adjustments. You can
now see we have the right hind leg kicking outward and the left hind
leg will be elevated off the base about 10". The steel will be covered
in grass so it will give the illusion that the Zebra has left the ground
in flight form his attacker. More on this later as the
piece comes together. |
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The Zebra was laid down on the floor for easier access
to the sewing. The hide had to be kept covered and moist so it would not
dry out before we had everything in place the way we wanted it to dry.
The Zebra took about 14 man hours to sew. The picture on the right shows
Mitch sewing up the seam in the mane and me working on the mouth. |
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In this photo Mitch and I are working in the final detail
into the skin like muscles, wrinkles, etc. |
| The Zebra is now ready to sit and dry. Every few hours
the mount will be completely gone over to make sure the skin is staying
where we want it and final adjustments are made as needed. At night before
we closed up shop we completely covered the mount with plastic so that
it would not dry too fast overnight without us being able to watch it.
You can also take note of the amount of reference we used on this project.
The large table on wheels is loaded with pictures, anatomy books, charts,
etc. Also, the one in the far back corner on wheels also has our reference
material. There was nothing done on this Zebra that we did not study intensely
before we did it |
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NEXT: To
The Warthog
| If you'd like to see the completed mount in person and meet Mitch and
I, come to the 2002 SCI National Show March 20-23, 2002 at
Las Vegas, NV and say HI !
Larry C. Reese Wildlife
Artistry Taxidermy |
Part
1: the Zebra | Part 2: the Warthog
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