Faux animal trohpy wall mount project
When I warned last post this was going to be very photo intensive, I meant it.
Photobucket clocks me at least 47 photos and I still didn't get every picture of the progress I did, which I'll mention in the steps.
Also, as a Jak and Daxter fan, I really want to find a screenshot of the front interior wall of the Hig Hog Saloon from Jak II. I'm thinking of making some Metal Head wall mount trophies. I can build the structure out of chicken wire and paper mache, but I'm thinking of doing resin work for the eyes and skull gem.
So here's the process of everything I did plus tons of photos under the next cut:
Step one: I bought a change out head from McKenzie’s Taxidermy online store. They have two different change out hyena heads that you can get around $32.00. The eyes are from Van Dyke’s Taxidermy (Coyote's) and the jaw set is from Carnfx for reference later.
I could have bought a wall mount, but that would cost around $50.00 and up for a hyena one. I later got a Leopard wall mount since Van Dyke’s sells them around $20.00.
Ignore the stuffed animals in the photos..
Here you can see different side views and what it looks when you put in the eyes temporarily. Make sure the eyes fit! You don’t want eyes that are too small or too big for the eye sockets. Use calipers to measure so you can get as close to the right eye size.
Being the resourceful person that I am, yes, those are shapes cut out from paper. I don’t need to spend money on earliners, plastic, or that plastic fabric you can heat. If you were doing wolves, coyotes, or small cats, the ears should be cut to a triangular shape.
Step two: With some yellow masking tape, the ears are now attached. Depending on the material the taxidermy form is made of: You may also want to use pins and glue to get the ears to stick. The ears should be the same length, make sure one isn’t smaller or bigger than the other.
If you look closely to these images, you can see I made sure to match up the line of the ears around the oval circles on the sculpted head. You can see the line a bit in this photo above and I mark it in this photo as well.
Step three: Next, I insert a very heavy wire at the base of the skull and use glue to make it stick. You can get the wire at any craft or art store.
Step four: Then I make a temporarily base for the end of the wire to stick to. This will help in building the chicken wire frame for the neck and chest. Later on it will be removed and a wood base will be placed for backing.
I trace the shape of the head on some tracing paper and from here figure out the shape of the base. I cut out the paper and place it on Styrofoam. The Styrofoam pieces will be cut and glued together. WARNING: Superglue eats away at Styrofoam, don’t use it. I learned that the hard way.
Step five: Using a stuffed animal for support, I figure that I want the head looking sideways off and down. That way he can be placed up high on a wall and have him peeping on people who would walk by. Chicken wire can really poke you, so use gloves when you are cutting it with wire cutters and bending it with pliers.
Step six: Ah, done with that. But since this is a closed mouth form, I want his mouth open! So, how to do that? I knew saving onto these files would come in handy someday again. For the record, I had to buy these for a 3D design class for doing stone carving (Zuni animals), something I never ever want to do again. Using a Xatco Knife and the files, I get the lower jaw off. I should have also cut off a bit extra for the hinge of the mouth, but I do that later on. With the piece off, I take off the extra foam so I can fill it with teeth and gums later. I also file out a bit on the roof of the mouth too. Using this method I take out the foam in the Open Mouth Leopard and file down where I want the gums on the lower jaw for the upper teeth to be.
Step seven: Having worked with paper mache on chicken wire before: It’s best to make a cover of newspapers taped with masking tape. Otherwise it’s really hard to get the first layer on the wire and it tends to want to sink in the holes of the wire.
Step eight: Taking him outside
Now it’s time to remove the temporary base. For paper mache and celluclay, you want to make sure to start early in the day, as well as that the weather is very hot and dry. It makes for a quicker drying time and less worry for mold spots to grow into the celluclay. If the weather is less than ideal, add salt to your mixture of water and celluclay.
I use Liquid Starch and a bit of water for my paper mache, it’s stronger than the flour-water combination and less icky than using wallpaper paste. You can find Liquid Starch usually in Smart and Final stores.
You should do at least five layers or more of paper mache.
One of the mistakes here was that I coated the paper ears with Elmer’s glue and did one layer of paper mache. There is nothing wrong with the glue setup, just do tons of more layers for the ears and make sure to it’s super dry before even using celluclay. The celluclay warped on me when I was making sure the inside was drying too, by having it upside down. I later fixed it with using paper clay. By the time I did the Leopard‘s ears, I had learned my lesson , and I used paper clay.
After the paper mache has fully dried for a few days, you can now add a coat of celluclay. Come back later in the day to keep smoothing down the celluclay, even then, you are still getting a rough texture with this material.
As for the inside, stuff it up with paper mache, however, make sure that the head and the neck are glued very tight as to prevent leakage of any glue or Liquid Starch as you are drying it upside down.
Step nine: Because I was running out of room on my camera, I don’t have a lot of pictures left to show my progress. Another thing I noticed was that his neck/chest was too long for my liking, so I marked where I wanted to cut the excess off. I cut away a good chuck of him with wire cutters (Celluclay is tough), pulled out some of the paper, and cut out the chicken wire in the way.
I glued the jaw back in and use paper clay to help support it and hide the seam. I also used the paper clay to set the glass eyes in, make the eye lids, eye brows, gums, and expression for his face. Because it looked like his lower jaw was longer than his upper, I used paper clay to build up the muzzle around the nose.
Paper clay shrinks, so use glues to make sure it stays there once it dries.
For the teeth, use super sculpty and bake it. Make the gums of the teeth out of paper clay and press the baked teeth in there. I also make the tongue out of sculpty and place it over the lower teeth. Make sure to follow what the animal’s teeth structure and placement is. Find any reference you can online or from nature/anatomy books to make sure it‘s correct or close to being correct.
Step ten: For fabric fur, use the duct tape method. That’s where you use duck tape to make a accurate pattern to cut from to place on the form. Use pins to place the fur in place and use super fabric glues like Fabri-Tac (I love Fabri-Tac). Fold over the edges of the fabric where it meets a different piece of fabric.
Step eleven: Some of the pictures I don’t have is the wood base made for the hyena. Go to Lowe’s or Home Depot to get the wood as well as a coping saw. Use the hyena and trace around the shape he now has, using that you can then use the coping saw to get the shape of the base. Keep in mind, this takes a very long time to do. If you have it, a electric band saw is great. Drill two small holes that line up in the back. Use duct tape to attach the base to the form. Then use celluclay to cover up the duct tape. Leave a small hole that you will cover up later. Once the celluclay is rock hard, tape up the two drill holes and pour wood glue into the side hole that you didn’t cover. Let dry.
Step twelve: I have glued the fabric to the hyena, now to trim, paint, and all that detail stuff. To get a enamel look on teeth, paint them white, then use water mixed with light brown for a wash. First use a very watered down wash, and then a bit more paint at the tips for a blended look.
I use fishing wire for whiskers, paint them white for the leopard and black for the hyena. Buy hanging bolts, cable wire and metal epoxy for hanging the projects on the wall. I didn’t get to finish these guys for Halloween, however. Because my camera doesn’t take great pictures, I’ll look into getting a professional shoot of the two pieces later or a better camera.
By the way, plastic and miniature glues are awesome, you must get them if you want to try on a project like this.
The last two pictures are of the crocodile (Finished after these two pics) I made for Halloween. I used a mask for the head and made the rest of the body with chicken wire, paper mache, celluclay, gesso, and paint.
Photobucket clocks me at least 47 photos and I still didn't get every picture of the progress I did, which I'll mention in the steps.
Also, as a Jak and Daxter fan, I really want to find a screenshot of the front interior wall of the Hig Hog Saloon from Jak II. I'm thinking of making some Metal Head wall mount trophies. I can build the structure out of chicken wire and paper mache, but I'm thinking of doing resin work for the eyes and skull gem.
So here's the process of everything I did plus tons of photos under the next cut:
Step one: I bought a change out head from McKenzie’s Taxidermy online store. They have two different change out hyena heads that you can get around $32.00. The eyes are from Van Dyke’s Taxidermy (Coyote's) and the jaw set is from Carnfx for reference later.
I could have bought a wall mount, but that would cost around $50.00 and up for a hyena one. I later got a Leopard wall mount since Van Dyke’s sells them around $20.00.
Ignore the stuffed animals in the photos..
Here you can see different side views and what it looks when you put in the eyes temporarily. Make sure the eyes fit! You don’t want eyes that are too small or too big for the eye sockets. Use calipers to measure so you can get as close to the right eye size.
Being the resourceful person that I am, yes, those are shapes cut out from paper. I don’t need to spend money on earliners, plastic, or that plastic fabric you can heat. If you were doing wolves, coyotes, or small cats, the ears should be cut to a triangular shape.
Step two: With some yellow masking tape, the ears are now attached. Depending on the material the taxidermy form is made of: You may also want to use pins and glue to get the ears to stick. The ears should be the same length, make sure one isn’t smaller or bigger than the other.
If you look closely to these images, you can see I made sure to match up the line of the ears around the oval circles on the sculpted head. You can see the line a bit in this photo above and I mark it in this photo as well.
Step three: Next, I insert a very heavy wire at the base of the skull and use glue to make it stick. You can get the wire at any craft or art store.
Step four: Then I make a temporarily base for the end of the wire to stick to. This will help in building the chicken wire frame for the neck and chest. Later on it will be removed and a wood base will be placed for backing.
I trace the shape of the head on some tracing paper and from here figure out the shape of the base. I cut out the paper and place it on Styrofoam. The Styrofoam pieces will be cut and glued together. WARNING: Superglue eats away at Styrofoam, don’t use it. I learned that the hard way.
Step five: Using a stuffed animal for support, I figure that I want the head looking sideways off and down. That way he can be placed up high on a wall and have him peeping on people who would walk by. Chicken wire can really poke you, so use gloves when you are cutting it with wire cutters and bending it with pliers.
Step six: Ah, done with that. But since this is a closed mouth form, I want his mouth open! So, how to do that? I knew saving onto these files would come in handy someday again. For the record, I had to buy these for a 3D design class for doing stone carving (Zuni animals), something I never ever want to do again. Using a Xatco Knife and the files, I get the lower jaw off. I should have also cut off a bit extra for the hinge of the mouth, but I do that later on. With the piece off, I take off the extra foam so I can fill it with teeth and gums later. I also file out a bit on the roof of the mouth too. Using this method I take out the foam in the Open Mouth Leopard and file down where I want the gums on the lower jaw for the upper teeth to be.
Step seven: Having worked with paper mache on chicken wire before: It’s best to make a cover of newspapers taped with masking tape. Otherwise it’s really hard to get the first layer on the wire and it tends to want to sink in the holes of the wire.
Step eight: Taking him outside
Now it’s time to remove the temporary base. For paper mache and celluclay, you want to make sure to start early in the day, as well as that the weather is very hot and dry. It makes for a quicker drying time and less worry for mold spots to grow into the celluclay. If the weather is less than ideal, add salt to your mixture of water and celluclay.
I use Liquid Starch and a bit of water for my paper mache, it’s stronger than the flour-water combination and less icky than using wallpaper paste. You can find Liquid Starch usually in Smart and Final stores.
You should do at least five layers or more of paper mache.
One of the mistakes here was that I coated the paper ears with Elmer’s glue and did one layer of paper mache. There is nothing wrong with the glue setup, just do tons of more layers for the ears and make sure to it’s super dry before even using celluclay. The celluclay warped on me when I was making sure the inside was drying too, by having it upside down. I later fixed it with using paper clay. By the time I did the Leopard‘s ears, I had learned my lesson , and I used paper clay.
After the paper mache has fully dried for a few days, you can now add a coat of celluclay. Come back later in the day to keep smoothing down the celluclay, even then, you are still getting a rough texture with this material.
As for the inside, stuff it up with paper mache, however, make sure that the head and the neck are glued very tight as to prevent leakage of any glue or Liquid Starch as you are drying it upside down.
Step nine: Because I was running out of room on my camera, I don’t have a lot of pictures left to show my progress. Another thing I noticed was that his neck/chest was too long for my liking, so I marked where I wanted to cut the excess off. I cut away a good chuck of him with wire cutters (Celluclay is tough), pulled out some of the paper, and cut out the chicken wire in the way.
I glued the jaw back in and use paper clay to help support it and hide the seam. I also used the paper clay to set the glass eyes in, make the eye lids, eye brows, gums, and expression for his face. Because it looked like his lower jaw was longer than his upper, I used paper clay to build up the muzzle around the nose.
Paper clay shrinks, so use glues to make sure it stays there once it dries.
For the teeth, use super sculpty and bake it. Make the gums of the teeth out of paper clay and press the baked teeth in there. I also make the tongue out of sculpty and place it over the lower teeth. Make sure to follow what the animal’s teeth structure and placement is. Find any reference you can online or from nature/anatomy books to make sure it‘s correct or close to being correct.
Step ten: For fabric fur, use the duct tape method. That’s where you use duck tape to make a accurate pattern to cut from to place on the form. Use pins to place the fur in place and use super fabric glues like Fabri-Tac (I love Fabri-Tac). Fold over the edges of the fabric where it meets a different piece of fabric.
Step eleven: Some of the pictures I don’t have is the wood base made for the hyena. Go to Lowe’s or Home Depot to get the wood as well as a coping saw. Use the hyena and trace around the shape he now has, using that you can then use the coping saw to get the shape of the base. Keep in mind, this takes a very long time to do. If you have it, a electric band saw is great. Drill two small holes that line up in the back. Use duct tape to attach the base to the form. Then use celluclay to cover up the duct tape. Leave a small hole that you will cover up later. Once the celluclay is rock hard, tape up the two drill holes and pour wood glue into the side hole that you didn’t cover. Let dry.
Step twelve: I have glued the fabric to the hyena, now to trim, paint, and all that detail stuff. To get a enamel look on teeth, paint them white, then use water mixed with light brown for a wash. First use a very watered down wash, and then a bit more paint at the tips for a blended look.
I use fishing wire for whiskers, paint them white for the leopard and black for the hyena. Buy hanging bolts, cable wire and metal epoxy for hanging the projects on the wall. I didn’t get to finish these guys for Halloween, however. Because my camera doesn’t take great pictures, I’ll look into getting a professional shoot of the two pieces later or a better camera.
By the way, plastic and miniature glues are awesome, you must get them if you want to try on a project like this.
The last two pictures are of the crocodile (Finished after these two pics) I made for Halloween. I used a mask for the head and made the rest of the body with chicken wire, paper mache, celluclay, gesso, and paint.
