Altering a Straight Form to a Turn-Tutorial

[Jim B]

I'm not advising people to alter deer forms to get one that is turned.There are enough deer poses out there that you shouldn't need to.However,it often happens with African,Asian and exotics,that you may find the right size form but only in straight.In this case,I thought I'd be OK with a straight on this one but I was wrong.It's a long story.Anyway,instead of throwing it in the back room,I altered it.

[Jim B]

If you cut out wedges on an angle,as you turn the neck,the head will end up tilted.There isn't enough distance between shoulder and head,to do horizantal cuts,as that would only turn the top part of the neck.That is why I used the compound cut.The horizantal part of the cut keeps things level.Here the cuts are layed out.

[Jim B]

This is a top view.I've cut my neck sections.Now I'm laying out the wedges that I will remove in order to achieve the turn.I want the point of the wedge to meet the centerline.Keeping the centerline intact,insures that I don't shorten the neck length.I turn the first piece that connects to the shoulder section and draw the wedge to be cut out.Notice My cut line is parallel to the cut shoulder section,with the point of the wedge meeting the centerline.The shaded area is the wedge to be removed.Once the wedge is removed,I temporarily screw that piece to the shoulder section and then do the next section and the next.

[Jim B]

Here is another view of that,from the side.This is still before the shaded wedge portions are cut out.

[Jim B]

After cutting out the wedges,I used a claw hammer to pick out some foam on one side of each section.This just makes it slightly concave so that when I reconnect the pieces,there will be a space to pour foam in.

[Jim B]

The parts are reconnected with 6" screws,3 to a section.The neck is wrapped with shrink wrap and funnel shaped pour holes are cut in three places.

[Pever]

Thats cool!  Can you finish the process for us?

[Jim B]

Here,the foam is poured and expands to fill the space between the section plus any voids.

[Jim B]

After that it is pretty straight forward.Wait 30 minutes for the foam to cure,then remove plastic and screws.at that point it's just a matter of rasping to even things out and smoothing plus filling some small voids with mache.Here's the finished form.

[Lazarus]

NICE! THANKS.

[Monkey Man]

Nice work, as always.  Thanks Jim.

[ed150]

neat

[ccook63]

Thank's for sharing.

[ChipD.]

Nice work Jim B.

[rc5211]

Excellent work Thanks......Rick