I purchased the Dan Rinehart Bass mounting tape, the tape was well made but I've got a few questions for you guys.
1) On the tape he used a body larger than the actual fish, no problem, but when he mounted the skin on the form there was a large space between the skin flaps on the backside of the fish. He attached the skin to the form with staples is this a better method(I know it's faster)than sewing?
2)He did not explain how to cover this space, what's the preferred way to this?
Thanks in advance for your advice
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Ken, I learned from dan he's great at what he does I to use the staple method,about covering the back I use black felt cut out a piece to cover from the gill back to the tail and hot glue on gives your customer a beautiful finised back. Andrew
Though I hate to say it but this is the one reason I like to carve bodies no GAP.
But to answer you problem I would not go with felt. Sorry that was done way back when George was a little one. LOL Sorry buddy. But if you run into this problem you can do a much better looking job by doing a couple of different things.
One you can take bondo ( the fiberglass resin gel ) and spread this on thin. It will help seal the back and make for a better paint job.
If it's not to big of a gap you can take any kind of epoxy and fill it with that or take a good acrylic caulk mixed with silicone and spread this on to finsh the seam.
Although I do fill the gap. Sometimes I use Bondo sometime I use felt
I have also used sculpting epoxy. But who really cares what you use?
It is a personal preference with each different taxidermist. I have
yet to have a customer flip the fish over and say "boy I sure wish you
would have filled that gap with Bondo, felt or sculpting epoxy". Just
use whatever you would like. Give the customer a good quality fish
and excellent paint job and you will have a customer for life no
matter what you fill the seam with.
Todd B
If it's a one-sided mount as long as it holds up - who cares what you fill it with. Personally I use heavy duty paper towels and Elmers Glue. It's held up for 25 years and then some. I'm sure my customers would rather me spend more time detailing the show side than making sure the back (that no one ever sees) looks pretty!
The critical thing is getting your fins in the right position...don`t try
to make the fish look bigger than he is or you`ll have problems getting the fins in the correct loc.
I try to keep my gap withing 3/4`s of an inch...I have never had a customer not
look at the back of a fish...first thing they do is stick their
head in the mouth then they look at the back of the fish....tell them up front
that the backside of the fish will not be completed...that way ya don`t
have to explain it to them later...order a manikin closest to the size of the
fish and you`ll be glad ya did...good luck