pics of reptile mounts

[gator dun]

any body have any nice pics of any reptile mounts you can post,  I luv reptiles and I never really see an nice mounts  just alot of western dimond back in the strike position, is there any thing else out there?

[Jim B]

I don't have a lot of reptile pictures,but here's one.Its a spitting cobra from Africa.All I had was a New Method tanned skin,split all the way to the skin.I poured foam on the base and carved a form from that,based on skin measurements and reference pictures.

[Jims Wildlife Studio]

  Great Looking Mount, Jim B

[Jim B]

Here's a Savannah Monitor lizard,also a wild one,from Africa,mounted on a carved body.I posted another pic of it awhile ago.

[Wolf]

Nice work Jim.  I have a ton of reptiles to do, but most are mine, so they are on the back shelf...  This is one in the works, I'll post some more when I get them done.  This is a 24 in. coral snake, and under the blue-board in a bearded dragon.  To the right you can see part of a cast form for a copperhead.

[Wolf]

Ace man, I'll either e-mail you or post a separate thread on your question when I can scan the pics onto my computer, that way we don't hijack this thread.  That dragon was cleaned for a skeleton first for a client: http://www.wolfstaxidermy.net/SkeletonDragon.html
Then I mounted the skin for the heck of it.  If you look hard, he has no claws in the above pic... I had to sculpt new ones for the mount. 
Wolf

[Jim B]

Wolf,nice job on the coral snake.I know what you mean,I have several in the freezer myself.

[Wolf]

Hehe Jim, I have 4 Savannah monitors in the freezer and copied your mount pic the first time I saw it to use as ref; it is a beautiful mount.  I have a big Nile monitor too, and Lord knows what else... various snakes, turtles, lizards....  The only thing clients want is a set of N.America's venomous snake... coral, copperhead, cottonmouth and rattler for education.  In aquiring those specimens I get deals on all sorts of good stuff, like a gorgeous emerald tree boa I can't wait to work on.  Wish I had more pics to share.

[Jim B]

Wolf,that's a lot of cool stuff.I bet that Nile Monitor is pretty.I forgot to mention before,but the customer skinned that monitor himself and completely skinned out the head and did a beautiful job of it.I was always told that couldn't be done.I have what I believe is an Asian Water Monitor,several species of rattlesnakes and a real nice 4' Gaboon viper.I want to do the Gaboon next-whenever that will be.Post some pictures as you get some of that stuff done.

[Jim B]

This is a big Timber Rattler,55"x10".

[gator dun]

thats awsome thanks for sharing! !

[NOAH@aarrkk]

ACE, one of the taxidermy magazines had a great article 'recently' on the mounting of a bearded dragon by John Lager (I think)...............if you could find that it would be a great help for you.

Have any of you thought of doing reproductions of these reptiles?  Making plaster molds and casting in latex works great for reptiles.............unless of course you don't like painting!]

jerry

[Wolf]

Have any of you thought of doing reproductions of these reptiles?  Making plaster molds and casting in latex works great for reptiles.............unless of course you don't like painting!]
jerry

I don't use plaster or latex, but I make replicas of all the snakes and sometimes the lizards, depending on the species and condition of the specimen.



In that pile is: 3 cotton-mouth poses, 2 sizes, plus two different open-mouth change out heads, and a fluke head and neck for in a mud/water scene.
1 copperhead
2 corals, different poses and sizes (one identical to the mount pic I posted.)

The two dried carcasses are for skeleton cleaning, a big cotton-mouth and copperhead.  I cleaned two coral skeletons already from this lot.  Can you find all the snakes? lol 

[NOAH@aarrkk]

ACE, the John Lager article was in BREAKTHROU"GH Issue 83, Summer 2006.  It describes the methods used to produce the 2005 Best In World Reptile.

If you're not a subscriber(you should be!) copies are probably available from the publisher.

Hope that helps,
jerry

[Wolf]

Alginate mold.... resin thinned bondo (thinned to the point of a thin milkshake) cast.    If you want more than one repro, take the bondo cast, fix inprefections, and make a good silicone mold of it.  There's other ways, that's what I use the most.  Sometimes you can get two pulls from alginate, but I will cast a foam form second as I'm not after the fine detail.