This message is not for those who want to refure me elsewhere, its for those who would be willing to tell me how they paint. My question is what steps does one take in painting a replaca for a small mouth bass. Paint tons of real fish just not a replaca. have customer who whants one doen. Help please
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I have and can tell you there is now real difference in painting a skin fish to a repro.
The only main difference is that I sometimes and only sometimes paint the fish with a brown and black mix first and using fine steel wool or a scotch brite pad scub of most of the paint. when this is done the fish generally looks just like a dried skin fish.
The only difference is the painting after that. Paint does go on brighter and stronger than that of a skin. So becareful here when painting them. To much paint will make it look to fake. Otherwise paint on.
Ps don't forget reference, reference and more reference.
Get a hold of New Wave taxidermy in FL and ask for one of their paint schedules .They have got to be the best in color preferences ,easy to understand ,and results.Normally I make my own paint schedules with skin mounts but when it came time for repros I thought I'd try theirs.They start the painting with a spray all over of burnt umber wait to dry then steelwool off so that the depressions of the scales hold the color. hit it with a light sealcoat and resume painting as a regular skin mount only as stated before,hold off on the color intensity a tad.Use transparent colors instead of opaque so all the details and pearls,metallics,etc can be presented effectively.