I have a crappie and a pumpkinseed mounted and dry and I just recieved flex eyes for each and they do not fit.I measured the eye socket and they are the right size.What do I do.Are these eyes supposed to go in before the fish is set aside to dry.Am I going to have to get regular glass eyes.
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You can trim them you know. Also, not sure of the P-seed's eye off-hand (I'd have to look at some reference, don't do many of them), but MANY species-specific flex eyes can be used for other species as well. Manytimes the differences are SO subtle that you and I wouldn't even notice (w/o yanking out some close-ups) let alone a customer. The Flex Eyes btw are suppose to include the scolateral band as well - so this would explain why they might be bigger. Quite frankly, I don't pay that much attention to the sizes other than making sure I'm stocked and I use whatever looks right (I typically don't measure the real eye, sometimes I'll grab the Flex Eyes and match them right there though). I realize Slick that as a beginner you don't have the luxury of keeping hundreds of eyes in stock though, so...
Typically the eye sockets dry LARGER than the original eyes so you may need to re-order one size down? But see if you think they can be trimmed down a bit and then you can also squeeze them ("Flex" them) to get them into the tight holes. You can also grind down in the lower, inside part of the socket to set a lower, more aggressive eye-tilt too (to gain some space) I still build up the scolateral band as I don't think the included s.b. looks very realistic as is. Lastly, look CLOSELY at some reference and make sure you set the eys deep enough. AND (Again) make sure they're not too big. A typical beginners mistake is using eyes too big and also not setting them dep enough - cretaing that "bug-eye" look...
The flex eyes are supposed to go in BEFORE the eye dries. They are put in during the mounting process. Once you fill the cheeks with papier mache, you put in the eye. The are supposed to be oversized so that you can FLEX them to fit in the eyesocket. You adjust their rotation while the mache is wet. You do the same thing with Matt Thompson's Eye Sockets.
If you have the John Rhinehart supply catalog on page 50 it says to put the eyes in after you fill the cheeks. This is from the catalog word for word what it says to do: 1) After you have filled the cheek with Rhinehart's Smooth fish fill, clean out the Smooth fish fill in the eye socket area and begin inserting the eye into the socket cavity. 2)Push the eye down into the cheek area until the upper edge of the Flex Eye Drops into the socket cavity. 3) Usiing a modeling tool, pin, etc.-position the angulation of your eye to your desired rotation. Hope that helps!
I guess you DO learn something new every day! Never knew that. Seems logical to me. I guess I'll have to try it next mount. I'll have to talk to a few of my taxi friends and see how they do it. I was taught doing it after everything was dried. But I suppose that is residue form the glass eye installion of years ago? Interesting...