Hi, Iv'e been interested in taxidermy for some time now and recently decided to try mounting a squirrel. I ordered a kit from WASCO along with the manikan following all directons I got the squirrel skinned and fleshed succesfully. Before going any farther I decided to fit the hide on the mannikan just to make sure (keep in mind the mannikan ordered was just slightly smaller than the actual squirrel). The thing that gets me is the hide will not strech over the mannikan,the squirrel was skinned using the ventral incision and the mannikan position was running down a tree with a slight left turn. is there a trick that I am not aware of yet to get the hide to fit. Im still learning! any suggestions on this or other tips that you may want to share (feel free) Thanks A Bunch
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Gary-
Assuming that the mannikin is the proper size, I can only guess that you're having problems due to the placement of the legs and head. With a climbing squirrel, you may have to cut the head off of the form and on some other poses, you may have to cut one or more limbs off. Once the skin is properly positioned on the form, you can then bondo the cut sections back together before sewing. When cutting a form, always use a "V" cut. Don't ever cut directly through in a straight line. Using the "V" cut will assure that the sections go back together in proper alignment, and will strengthen your bond once you put it back together. After gluing or bondoing back together, you may want to put a pin or sharpened wire through the cut sections to strengthen the area further.
One further tip... Once you skin and flesh an animal, the skin is going to be stretched a good bit. When you test fit it on the form, it may seem way too big! Don't be concerned. If you taxi the skin around and work with it awhile, you'll get it back in place and it will fit perfectly. Oh yeah, you also need to make cuts in the form wherever there is an "armpit" or "legpit" (if there is such a word). On a climbing squirrel you won't have to do this. But if you have a sitting squirrel, where the legs are formed next to the body, you'll have to cut between them to get the skin to go competely up the leg. If that doesn't make sense, the best thing I can tell you to do is to get a book or video that explains this and other techniques, or ask questions here on the forums.
Hope this helps!