Hi, I am about to try to mount my first fish, a trout. I have a freezen bag of them to practice on. Anyway, I think I have all the stuff. But let me know if I am leaving out anything or doing anything unnecessarily.
Step 1 Measure fish, make templates.
Step 2 Carve body & compare to actual fish.
Step 3 Skin & Flesh fish.
Step 4 Remove head and cast.
Step 5 Degrease skin in Dawn detergent.
Step 6 Join cast head and body
Step 7 Apply hide paste and skin to body (is the borax needed?)
Step 8 Card Fins
Step 9 Mold head and skin together with (epoxy? sculpall? bondo?)
Step 10 Do finishes touchups and prepair to paint.
I know some small detail I leaved out, but i have books on molding and the such. maybe reverse steps 8 & 9?
Thank you very much in advance,
Ivar from Denmark
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Ivar,
Your list looks good to me. I would make sure that you soak the skin in a borax solution for at least a few hours before you put the skin on the form. And yes...reverse steps 8 and 9. Attach the head to the body with bondo. (I put the eyes and teeth in the head before I attach the head to the body).
Good luck,
Doug
PS Do you ever see or get any BIG european perch?
IVAR,
When using hide paste i have noticed that if you add a little borax it will slow your drying time down a little.Fish paste will dry slowly on its own without Borax.dont forget to card each gill,maby thats my prefernce but I like how the gills come out after drying with carding.GOOD LUCK YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK...
I wasn't sure if hide paste does anything to preserve the skin or if it is only an adheasive. I think to be safe I will try as doug mentioned to soak in borax solution, just to be safe. And doug, I'm not sure what you are calling a european pearch? But I live in the mountains of Georgia now, and I did catch a yellow pearch here but it was small. Tasted very good also, a lot of meat for such a small fish.