I've been doing gameheads for many years, but continue to have one nagging problem which I haven't found addressed in Breakthrough or Taxidermy Today, finishing whitetail ears on deer that have very thin ear hair (like early bow season deer). I skin out ears, removing the cartilage, and use white earliners, white silicon caulk for adhesive and card the ears. I've always been satisfied with my positioning of the ear skin and hair and the appearance of the ear after drying. On heavily furred deer, there is abundant white hair on the inside of the ear, and I haven't seen a need to do anything more than brushing after taking the cards off to have it look good. But on the thin haired ears, a lot of the interior skin shows and after drying it is brownish and not naturally colored. I've not been very satisfied with my airbrushing of the interior of the ear, using acrylic paint. I have had problems with the paint beading up on the skin surface (with or without using a sealer), and also with getting total coverage, with the hair blocking the paint in some areas. Also, the paint beads on the hairs themselves Can anyone direct me to an article that addresses painting the inside of deer ears, or tell me about alternatives for assuring that the inside ear color is good. Thanks in advance for the advice.
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Bill,
If I remember right there was an article in one of the Breakthrough issues that not only addressed this but the entire deer finishing process. I'm going to have to see if I can find the article and let you know.
Keeping in mind that for every taxidermist there is a different method, here is one that I like on "short hair" ears.
I use either Brad Epply's pink ear liners or the Natural Ears from Van Dykes. Being pink in color allows the color to come through if you remove the cartlidge and makes it a little easier to finish.
I use a red "Sharpie" pen and draw in veins (a Glen Conley trick). Because I use Epo-Grips Liquid Fast Set, which is clear, on my deer ears the veining and pink colors show through well. I usually tone them down a bit using Polytranspar FP72 Sahara Tan (I use lacquer) and brush the inner ear with a tooth brush after it has dried.
My customers love the veining and it only takes a minute to do. Remember though you will have to use something CLEAR as an adhesive for this to work.
Hope this helps
Mark
but how I do mine is first make sure the inside of the ear is clean as possible using laquer thinner (sounds like you might have some leftover oil or moisture causing some problems. Then spray pure white all over inside and use a tooth brush to brush it off , next use bright flesh lightly all over moving any hair out of the way. Use the tooth brush again to brush off the hair. I've never had a complaint. John
First start with a eppley ear liner pink then tone your adhesive to color fleh or pink . When the ear drys the color will show thru and no need to paint.a
Here's a trick I learned, after I pull the ear cartilage I brush the inside of the ear with a mixture of red food coloring and water. Then I use a brad epply liner. This color shows through a bit darker than I'd like on early season deer, so I just tone it down with a bit of white laquer based paint from the outside once the mount dries. On late season deer the color seems to be just about right without toning it down.
Hope this helps.
I've appreciated the response of everyone. I have been using Liquid Tan for my scalps and do believe that I've left residue on the inner ear skin that has contributed to my problem. I'll try a few of these suggestions and see if I can improve my results (I'm still working on last fall's backlog, so have plenty of opportunity to try things out)