What's everyone working on ?

[Manny]

Nice work everyone ! Doug I cant get over your skinmounts...
Here is a wholesale smallie ( First one ) With Flex eyes.. they were defiantly harder to set than Jeffs, but is what I was given.

Used Rick Kranes DVD... I did not have all the powders he used but had most.... Ill have to get an order together.

[winks33]

Here is an in progress photo of my first Brown Trout. My airbrush is acting up so hopefully I figure out whats wrong with it so I can finish this fish.

[Jimmy Lawrence]

custom mold/cast Wiper

Jimmy!

[copper]

Jimmy, how big is that hybrid "wiper" form you got there

[Jimmy Lawrence]

19''.  Small little guy.  but really nice detail. 

[Sarmite]

Bream Abramis Brama - in river Gauja this is typical brown coloration

[wishbone]

looks great sarmite!

[wishbone]

did the big SD walleye today,black dark canadian walleye drying....working on the others

[Sarmite]

almost finished, only biotope need to be insert

[classic tails]

Here's  a really large 24" rainbow not that common for these rivers in New England.... like out west, so jealous of your rivers.

[Jknuth]

Sarmite, I LOVE the display! I think the Bream are my favorite.

Here is a fun side project I have been working on. Ill update this later on but here are a few pics of it in progress.

A recreation of a Roundtail chub (Gila robusta) A Native species of the southwest. They grow to the maximum size of around 18" and thrived in the streams before many trout species were introduced. They are now endangered and will likely be no more in the next 50 years.
Because of this they cant be harvested so the only option is a recreation aka sculpted from the ground up.
Here is an example of the species in spawning coloration.



I started with a drawing using pictures of several fish. I did this so I could come up with a truly average specimen and weed out any anomalies.  From there I carved the foam body and began to coat it in resin to provide a ridged base for the sculpting.















I am currently mid way through the scaling process. Each scale is being placed by hand no rubber stamps or rollers since the scale size changes throughout the body.
Its a long process, but fun.

[Kerby Ross]

Josh, pretty cool.  Looking forward to watching the progression as I have something similar in mind, only not a fish. 

In Arizona the Roundtail Chub is not protected and you can harvest 1 per day.  The only restriction is that they have to be at least 13 in order to keep.  I never ate one but they are supposed to be good eating.



Kerby...

[7-Point]

That's awesome Josh! Your are a true artist. Can't wait to see it finished.

[ryanstraw]

Wow Josh that's amazing can't wait to see it.

[Brian W]

Very nice work posted to date.....cant wait to see your "project" fish completed Josh.....Doing my first brown skin mount....notice the first pic void of most of the spots...Ooops, I used a little bleach to lighten the skin and instant spot remover...what a class move there eh...lol......but I got the spots back on using the pics as reference....I kinda like the coldwater fish.....dont have to mess with cleaning out the head for one.