What did I do incorrectly? I used earliners correct for the species, perfectly positioned on the head, with the proper angle from front of pupil to front edge of ear, correct spacing from eachother, etc. The ear butt muscles were built to the same depth, angle, and amount as what was on the carcass.
When I went to mount the skin, the ears would NOT go on the earliners. Well, they did, but the earliners were WAY too small (they reached only halfway up the ear, the tips were completely unprotected), and they made the ears bunch up at the front of the face, and they looked just terrible.
I ended up jamming the ears full of glue/mache and setting them "manually", using the earliners just as supports for the ear bases.
So now the mount has questionable, at best, ears. The rest looks fine.
It's all waterbased adhesive so fixing is possible.
What was done incorrectly? Bad earliners purchased? Skin too big for form or liners?
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That is a test fitting would have shown you that the earliners were too small. Don't know what type of animal you were attempting to mount but when it comes to ears allways I mean allways test fit.
I did a test fit, 2 in fact - 1 wet, 1 dry - and the ear liners fit okay when they were not attached to the form.
Soon as they got on the form at the right angle etc - problems started!
I'm stumped!
I think the skin must have been far too big for the form.
Things turned out okay, passable at best.