So this guy calls me to mount a hog. I say okay. His friend brings it by. And man oh man that hog was messed up in the ears. He had had some severe pre-existing damage done by a hog/dog fight from yester year and on top of that was the fresh hog/dog carnage. One ear was hanging on the side of his head by a 1/4 inch shread of skin and is torn up like it went through a meat grinder and the other is more attached but still went through the same grinder. I called the guy to make sure he knew what he was getting into (maybe he should have asked me that!) with the extra fees for stitching etc, and how it wasn't going to look very pretty even if I did a blue ribbon job on it. He said that he had tried to take it to other taxidermists in his area and when they saw it they refused. (I told him I would have refused it too if I saw it first before taking his deposit and having him do a contract by mail). But nevertheless he said he understood the situation well and expects to pay high end for a less than desireable hog. Now I just thought I'd mention this, but I'm not complaining per say. Well, maybe I am a little? Anyway, I plan on sewing the multiple rips and tears best I can and piecing the ears back together to it's first battle damaged state. Was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on making the best out of this? I would be tempted to do an ear transplant with ears from another hog, but this hog has unique coloring that makes it nearly impossible to find ears to match.
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And shave off as much usable skin as possible off the shredded ears. Epoxy this skin directly on the earliner. Then texture your earliner with Apoxie and airbrush it as close to a match as you can get. The remnants of skin and hair will camo the dissimilarities enough to pass. Then mount the boar. Before you glue the hide, however, mount the ears into the mannikin and then glue the "holes" in the hide around your installed ear/earliners. When dry, again, go to the Apoxie and airbrush. Charge accordingly.
Hogger, Id change my name to pheasant or duck, they dont have ears to wreck!
Thanks George for your endless wisdom. What makes this hard is I got more holes than ear! And Thanks Bill... I'll consider it.
Correcting my typo.