I am a novice to taxidermy and have mounted a deer head successfuly and couple squirels, pheasant ,duck pine ,marten and so forth
I usually wrapped my own body for marten and squirrel,however it was my first time trying to mount a fox skin on a manekin and was frustrated because I could not fit the rear legs in the form.
The form was the correct size I believe. Do you have any tip?
It was a walking fox
Thanks
Christian
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At times this is nothing unusuall. This is one reason I'll always say if your new to this and even experenced to save the carcus. When the form comes in check and see if it all measures up to the carcus you have. Most of the time you'll find out that the form is way to much bigger than the hide you have.
Now if you don't have the room not a problem either. You'll have to learn on taking different measurements or trace out the body parts on paper. Then you can transfer them to the form.
Even besides this we don't even know what type of tan you used where it could not have been stretched out etc.
All that has to be done is for you to take a rasp to it and reshape the body to fit the hide.
Christian, I'm well familiar with this problem. Frank gave you great advice to compare the carcase with the form but you must remember to slot the legs as necessary to allow the skin to fit up behind them or there will be a mess. Often the fit is there but the form is not prepared properly. Sometimes you can shorten the main body an inch or so and gain more stretch in width which might take enough pressure off of the hip area to allow it to fit. If the legs on the form are just too fat you will have to shave them down. In my area the legs of bobcats are especially a problem-I save the bodies most of the time to adjust the forms by- works best for me. Enjoy, Aaron H.
Its almost impossible to test fit a skin without tanning oil or hide paste.....trust me.....IF the form size is all correct, once you use hide paste it'll slide through easily. Good luck!
Thanks
Christian