I cut the head off a big snapper to send away to get it cast ,but it cost to much.So what i want to do is clean it out and mount it on a carved body. can this be done all i have to do is fill in the area on top of the head? thanks
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Well Tom for your information the price I gave you was more than fair as a matter of fact it was darn cheap to cast a head of that size. So let's be a bit honest here on what you say.
Now I have even explained on how you can cast it yourself and still I guess it costs to much just for supplies and time. Now going to try and use the real head. I hope you have more time than you have and to be honest I hope your time is less than $3.00 an hour. By the time you clean the head out real good, pack it with mache, let dry and then try and rebuild all the srunken areas with sculpt-all, you may have spent more money than you would if it was casted by any one.
The way I see it is you bit more off than you can chew and your in a bit of trouble and your now trying to get yourself out of it. You have to treat the head like a regular warm water fish. Clean out the cheek meat, there will be meat in the jaw bone that needs and should be taken out. After the head dries you will have to build out a ton of shrunken areas to make it look good.
As far as mounting it back on the carved body? yes you can just insert wires through the eyes to hold the head on the carved body. After it dries take the head of and then you can work on it till you fix the shrunken areas. Then just reattach it with the wires and epoxy.
Frank I would guess its like the low dollar taxidermist around the country. They learn slow, trunout crap like we see in some of EBAY sales. Then need help bailing thier collective rearends out of hat water.
Why would you or anyone take on a project that you do not have the knowledge to complete? I see a great deal of this on here and just cannot comprehend why that is. What makes it too expensive? Because you already gave the customer a price without fully taking in all of the costs? I am curious to see what the price is that you were quoted on the cast head. Do yourself a BIG favor and either have someone mold and cast it for you or pay someone to show you how to do it correctly. If you are smart you would learn how--it will return big dividends. I wouldn't do a head of this size for less than $125 closed mouth or $225 open mouth. I hope you qouted something along those lines Frank. Lesson learned(hopefully)=look before leaping.
Why would you or anyone take on a project that you do not have the knowledge to complete? I see a great deal of this on here and just cannot comprehend why that is. What makes it too expensive? Because you already gave the customer a price without fully taking in all of the costs? I am curious to see what the price is that you were quoted on the cast head. Do yourself a BIG favor and either have someone mold and cast it for you or pay someone to show you how to do it correctly. If you are smart you would learn how--it will return big dividends. I wouldn't do a head of this size for less than $125 closed mouth or $225 open mouth. I hope you qouted something along those lines Frank. Lesson learned(hopefully)=look before leaping.
and like Frank and Gary say there is some time involved etc. Shoot the head is the most time consuming part of mounting a fish!
But I cheated. I used only the area of the fish just behind the head and the pec fins and the rest was a commercial cast head. Didn't tell the customer, but he has no clue it is a cast head. No way no how will I use a real head on a trout or salmon and probably not any kind of saltwater fish.
Before you guys hang me out to dry.I will not pay 177 dollars just to ship a fish head.I more than thought the price you gave me Frank was fair, and as being honest ,i told you what was happening all the way along.Plus the fact that they told me at the post office that i couldn't get it there any faster than 4 days,and it would probably thaw out. It has to stay at the border for 24 hours, because of 9/11.So taking all this into concideration i thought it best not to ship it.I find it hard to believe that none of you ever took on a project that you weren't sure of.Living in northern British Columbia is a hard place to learn taxidermy,i have to travel over 2000 miles just to attend a show, the only one in the country.Just don't hang anyone before you know all the facts
You didn't say the cost of shipping was the problem or how long it would take to get here,or just that it costs to much, though you did keep in touch you kept going back on and on about how to do it every which way you can. I could have told you on how to freeze it so it wouldn't thaw and if it did it would be very little. I personal have help you through out this whole process and you didn't say you wern't going to send it. You did say the following week you would send it. Then you went back on the net here to start all over on how to cast it. Now you want to use the real head. As you can see here you really miss led most of us to what, we have no idea on what your trying to acomplish with this fish.
Tom we have written it so many times on how to cast fish heads in every manner that could be possible done. It's in the archives, I promise you it's there. Plus there are plenty of books or a few video's on how to do it. The videos may include carving bodies and all but you'll see how to cast them.
There's not much more anybody can really do here but if you fly me out there I'll show you how to cast them. My luck it'll be to expensive for me to fly LOL.
I don't hang anyone. I looked at my response as helping rather than hanging. Before giving a price on a job you should know all the costs involved. A possible solution for you would be to call a taxidermist that has molding casting experience closer to you. How about Fish Tales are they close enough to either do the job for you or possibly instruct you on how? I once accepted a fish that had a few surprises however I contacted the customer and explained the options. Good luck with the Snapper.