Having put a few deer together today, I felt like complaining about something. I have a few customers that like certain poses and these poses are only found in McKenzie. I have used hundreds of McKenzie forms in the past with the same results everytime, problems. Sure the mounts have all turned out beautiful, but more work was applied to get them to that stage. I have always found that no matter what series I have used, there is always some bunching of the skin around the chin or on the back right in front of the shoulders. I eventully work them out, but I shouldn't have to spend that much time in doing so. To this day after switching to Research Mannikins, I have never had this problem, and on average have saved about 40 minutes on each mount. We all know time is money, average that out on about 200 heads a year and you could go on a nice vacation on that "wasted money". Honestly, I don't think I am doing anything wrong. I attended a seminar along time ago by Mike Frazier, which is what made me try Research, and he had some interesting findings on today's deer forms. After applying some research to his research I can honestly say he absolutely is one of the best sculpters I have met. The first honest whitetail is just that. OK, I'm done so now the critisism can start.
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You're entitled to your opinions but I'd think it's a problem with either your technique or your tanning methods. I've used thousands of them and never had the problems you complain about. The more sculptors change the mannikins, the more they stay the same. No mannikin fits "exactly" as a live deer is anyway and every deer is slightly different from the next. There are about two dozen other deer mannikin suppliers out there who won't agree with your logic either.
I have had the same extra skin under the throat problem with every upright McKenzie form that I have ever used. But not since I have switched to the Joe Meder Forms. I will also agree with the fit of the Research Whitetail forms, I just don't like the face on them. They could be a lot heavier(deeper) for the deer that I have to work on.
Heck, if we mounted deer with the head straight up in the air, and no turn, we might get one WITHOUT WRINKLES! And easy to mount fast, too! All my live deer have wrinkles ahead of the shoulders in the upright pose, and at the throat. Buying a form thats smaller and less accurate so it goes together easier isnt my idea of a solution. Ill stick to the form that looks best to my customers as a mount, and learn how to use the natural wrinkles. I recognize Matts name, hes the guy who mentiones RM forms any time anyone mentions deer forms. You gotta like his loyalty!
sounds like you need to learn to measure instead of downing the form company. I have used McKenzie for 12 years and I can't remember ever having that problem.
Matt,
The first whitetail mount I tried was a McKenzie. That was 9 months ago. I used a 9700 and I had a lot of bunching under the chin. I sent a picture of it to Bill Yox and had him critique it. In my blurry picture he could see the wrinkles (unbelievable man ;) ). My next 20 or 30 attempts were all on McKenzies. I learned to measure better and use a tool to bring the skin into position. 2 weeks ago I purchased 2 research FHW forms for competition mounts. I had never considered using these forms, but since there is prize money involved and McKenzie doesn't offer prizes at the shows, I went for it. I mounted a buck and a doe on the FHW forms. They went on super easy and the only wrinkles were the ones I added. I did have to do a good bit of work on the faces to get the look I wanted, but they were really nice forms. Just my 2 cents.
I finally tried a Coombs form the other day and really was impressed with how easy my facial features went into place. Nice fit for our long faced Indiana deer. Very prompt delivery to. Jeff F.
Is it me or have some of McKenzie's forms coming out sloppy?The last year or so I have noticed a real difference in the craftsmanship of the form making. Very messy seams...not just flashing but poor fitting of the left side to the right side of the molds. In return not only is there a ridge that needs to be sanded but sometime you have to really re-work the nose pad and bottom lip area. In my eyes some of these molds need to be remade or the production team needs to pay more attention to quality control.If I remember right as more and more pours are made the quality slowly starts to suffer on molds. Maybe I am wrong with that but if thats the case re-do the molds. Some in my eyes are clearly "2nds"....which I have been told by top McKenzie folks that "they do not sell"..."they get thrown out". Well I think I am paying full retail for seconds.
I ordered the first 25 forms this year from McKenzies. probably 5 of those were like stated above. I also had one that was busted up around the brisket, armpit area. there wasn't any foam in the box, so I think it was this way before shipping. I would like to add, I like there poses. My costemers like the poster of there different poses.
I also like the mussel detail. all the clients like the steriod neck look! The deep muscels may not be correct, but thats what they want!
Tony
I have the exact same problem with skin bunching at the chin area. A friend of mine who knows Joe Kish says that he told him the reason for this on the McKenzie forms is the head itself is too tall.