Mounting an African Blesbok Sh Mt by John Griffith

[Big John]

We are going to mount a Blesbok shoulder mount here on the Taxi Net.  These are probably the easiest of the African antelopes to mount up.  The techniques used here are of my own liking and hopefully are simple and effective to do.  Also, if you are mounting up a Bontebok I would use the same process because there really isn't much difference in either of these.  Somewhere down the line many ages ago they believe due to climatic changes something happened in this species.  There is a color difference in them like the Blesbok lacks the purplish gloss of the bontebok and its white face blaze is divided by a narrow band reaching down between the eyes.  The bontebok also has completely white socks on all four feet, while the outer areas of the blesbok's limbs are dark brown.  But it is its bright white rear-end that best distinguishes the bont from the bles.  Oh, Well.  Lets just get started. 

On this particular blesbok I didn't have the entire skull to work with.  This was nothing but a horn mount converted into a Mount.  The first thing I did was separate the horn from its core using a hammer and a blunt screwdriver.  I was lucky because it was real easy to get off on this one.  The first thing I noticed when I popped the horn off was larvae around the base of the horns.  I immediately killed them all with lacquer thinner and then sprayed insect repellent up inside the horn.  I then took a handful of borax and put up into the horn and also rubbed the core with the borax.  You definitely want to watch for any insects or bugs being on any horns you do because if you don't the next thing you will see is bugs all over your mounts in your show room etc.  I have been very lucky because I have never had bugs before but a couple of my friends in this business have and it's something you don't want to have.  The cape was tanned by the Wildlife Gallery and only had a few minor defects that we corrected.

I will be editing these post for the next couple of days because I don't have time to do it all in one session.   Thanks  Starting below with these photo's it's very critical that you get that skull set just right.  You can see how I measured from the back of the eye socket to just were the horn begins.  Then just cut accordingly to get it just right.


O

[Big John]

I cleaned the core up really good with a dremel sander and then rubbed borax forcefully into the core.

[Big John]

Now it's time to secure the horns to the core.  I drill a couple 1/4 in holes into the core and then apply bondo onto the cores and slide the horns over the core all the way down to where they suppose to be.  Simple!

[Big John]

Here I cleaned the skull up and added a little more bondo to the back portion of the head.  I then drilled a 11/64 in hole directly into the center of the skull plate and twice in the rear to secure it to the manikin with one three inch sheet rock screw and two 2 in screws. 

[Big John]

Here I dremeled out the nose interior and set the eye with critter clay and then using my lip tucking tool I made the slot for the skin to be tucked into.

[Big John]

Here it was just sculpting the eyes and enhancing the facial glands.

[Big John]

Just defining those parts of the anatomy that stand out so to speak.

[Big John]

This is how thin you want to get that eye fleshed out.  Also when I repaired these cuts I used an interlocking stitch.  Works great for these types of cuts.  The thread I used was fireline 8# test and Mono fishing line 6# test for the top of the  nose.

[Big John]

Now it was time to take the cartilage out of the ears and replace them with fabric earliners.  I sculpted my own ear butts before I inserted them into the ear skin.  Then just apply plenty of adhesion and insert and go for it.

[Big John]

Here the earliners are inside the ear skin and then I created my septum using a septum tool and a milk jug for my septum.

[Big John]

The mounting process has now begun with the skin put on and the horns secured to the manikin.

[Big John]

Now sculpt out your head a little better with critter clay and trim any excess nose skin and lip skin before you tuck it into those areas.

[Big John]

I use super glue get to secure my nose skin inside the nose area.  Then it's just a simple task of tucking in the lip skin.

[Big John]

Now it time to work with the eyes.  I just trim my eye skin down to 1/8 in and using my eye tuck tool create a slot completely around the eye and just tuck the skin into the slot and arrange the skin accordingly.

[Big John]

Now it's time to secure the skin around the horns.  I use lots of magic smooth as you can see and this works really well to secure that skin up under those horns.