I have a question about patching holes in fish skins. Unfortunately as a begginner on fish my skinning skills are less than perfect and I have made a few holes in some of my fish skins especially near fin junctions. I am just looking for some methods to fix these. I just skinned a couple bluegills and plan on mounting them with the fish fill method. I did a couple perch with no holes this way and they turned out very nice but I am not sure what do to with the holes in the bluegills. also looking for advice on fixing holes in fish mounted with mannikins. thanks.
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I've made the same mistakes before as I'm sure we all have. Somebody will probably come up with a fancier method but I'll tell you what I've done before. Here goes. I dab dry the inside area of the hole put some super glue around it and put a small piece of wax paper over it. Make sure glue is dry before adding fill. The outside can then be leveled and blended with apoxy once the fish is dry. Don't laugh. It works! Jeff F.
Jeff's right, I've used it many times for small holes. I'll use a papertowel and make sure the hole is really dry before I glue. And do this right before you mount it, in other words don't re-soak in water or put but in DN. good luck
I cut the tin top of a pencil down in half. <the eraser metal>
I snipped it till it looks like a scale when i push it into the epoxy. Its no dandy scaler but will blend small repairs nicely.
Thanks alot for the advice! I think I will try the super glue/wax paper method. I had super glue in mind already but wasn't sure how to go about it exactly. Thanks again, I really appreciate the help!
Manytimes at the fin root there are no scales to rebuild anyway. I simply go ahead and mount it as I normally do (I only use styrafoam bodies though) even if there are scales where the hole now is. Back and peg your fin as usual. Close the hole as best you can by moving the skin where it should be - allowing the mannikin paste to keep it to the body. Let it dry. Then go back and use Apoxie Sculpt to rebuild the area (it's shrunken and has to be rebuilt anyway). Wait an hour or so for the epoxy to set up and sculpt in any scales that need to be there. Btw, the lip tucking tool makes for an excellent scale making tool...
Try the pencil and I will push the tucking tool around. Fair enough