Submitted by Tim on 8/21/99. ( twil1@bellsouth.net ) 207.69.11.52
Recently finished mounting my first fish. I used a Matt Thompson form because it was the closest to my measurements. I had problems getting the head to fit. I think I might not have trimmed the backbone close enough. What forms do you guys recommend. Anyone had a similar problem . Is it better to round down or up on your measurements if you can't find a form that is exactly the same as your measurements.
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This response submitted by frank on 8/21/99. ( basswtrout@aol.com ) 152.163.189.194
Yep I never had a problem with fish forms. Ok why you ask? Simple I carve my own. By carving out my own I can save myself a lot of headaches, but you can get a lot of them trying to learn on how to carve a fish body. Also by carving I can get a perfect fit every time I do one. I do this mainly because some of my clients bring in fish with weird and I do mean some weird bodies. Mainly cause by radiation I think. But really some fish will have a different girth or shape than you can buy. I do this for my own personal reason ( better quality ) not to say Matt selles or anybody else bad bodies. I've seen them but never liked to use them. I can give my client exactly the fish they caught.
But to answer you question yes you do have to trim to get a better fit. And make sure the you can see the the form behide the fishes eye. Hope this helps.
This response submitted by Kenneth on 8/22/99. ( bauman@caddoelectric.net ) 206.103.97.226
Tim,
You picked a great mannikin to start with. I have done commercial fish and competition fish for years and have had my best luck with Matt Thompson's bass bodies. It sounds like you might not have got enough bone out of the head region. I clean the head as thoroughly as possible and have never had much problem with head junctions. Like Frank said, you should be able to see the point of the form through the eye socket. If you are looking for an exact fit, you may want to look into plastering a cast of your fish and shooting it full of foam. There are a lot of tricks to this and it needs to be explored more before trying. This is the way I do the majority of my competition pieces. I have used Matt's bodies in competition and won Blues and Categories. Good Luck in you fish mounting.
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