I know ya'll will probably tell me to buy a form. But I have a red fox and I'd prefer to make an excelsior body. Not to save money or be cheap, but simply because it makes me feel more gratified to wrap a body instead of buy one. But my question is, is it really possible to make a good, anatomically correct excelsior body for an animal the size of a fox? I would be using the actual skull with clay for the head.
Amy
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You've got guts girl! This is by no means the easy way but I admire you for wanting to try it. You don't have to be anatomiclly correct because the hair will cover most of the anatomy. Just keep the proportions correct. Here are some hints to working with excelcior. Soak it in warm water before you wrap the body, let it dry completely and then shellac it. When that dries you can sand it down and make it "somewhat smooth". At this point I would probably use acrylic caulk to smooth it out further and as a hide paste, I normally will use the caulk for fish only but it might be a workable option here. Good luck and let us know how it works.
The WASCO mammal manual does too. Jim Hall wrapped a badger body in it.
Amy, another old way of doing this, especially on 'large' animals was to cut out a piece of (ply)wood for the center. Make a drawing of the carcass in the pose you want the mount(little or no side to side curvature in the body) You can drive nails partially into the edges and wrap your string around these. The wood centerpiece will be a constant reminder of two of the very important dimensions....it's easy to get the body too long and skinny. You might also want to use some type of tubing to serve as the bones in the legs so you can run the wires through them and they will bend ONLY at the joints....the cardboard tubes that were on trouser hangers from drycleaners worked well for this. Hope this helps. I've wrapped quite a few bodies in this size range, some worked out well, others not so hot......foam is a more efficient way of doing the job but wrapping certainly makes you more aware of the anatomy of the animal. IMHO. jerry
Amy, like Old Fart, I admire your attitude, but I'd caution you about becoming gratified with methods that were given up for a purpose. Excelsior was used because there WAS nothing else. Today's foam bodies don't shrink, rot, or provide a haven for bugs. The also invariably look lumpy compared to the foam skulpted bodies, especially in the leg and head areas. As you probably will have to wire the actual skull and leg bones into the body, and reconstructing the muscles with clay or plaster,time cannot be a consideration. It's gratifying to ME that someone would actually WANT to do it the old way, but as for me, I ain't ever going there again if I can help it.
This is a refreshing attitude! A lot of people posting here seem to be looking for a way for the skin to magicaly appear an a form with no work at all, I admire your enthusiasm.
Now to build a form yourself from blue foam is a little harder than carving a fish but will give you excelent results and you will know that your mount is 100% original. Trace and carve the body and neck as one peice, the head and the legs separately. then attach them with 2 part expanding foam. Add some leg rods and you are done. Good luck to you.
I carve foam heads for many small mammals and wrap the body, I make a wire armature for the body and legs . Its all amater of what you want to do!
Go for it AMY! as yo will not be limited to the commercail poses.
Now if it was stuffed full of sawdust I would complain about that technique.
You can actually stuff a skin with sawdust? Think of all the money we can save on forms!