I recently bought a lying down fawn manikin from Van Dykes. Several of the legs are only embossed on the form....especially the hind leg tucked underneath the stomach. What is the proper way to get the leg skin attached to the leg? Am I supposed to carve out the leg to get the skin all the way around? Since that does not look like an easy thing to accomplish, I am hoping that I am missing a trick here. As always, any help or advice is most appreciated. Thanks Bill
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That design is as old as I am (or worse) in that many commercial guys would simply cut the leg slots out and cut the hide to match, tuck and pin the hide into place. The BEST way is to completely remove the entire leg from the mannikin, cut it into separate pieces, mount it, fold it back into place and either pin or wire it down until the hide dries. Thankfully many of the more modern mannikins are sculpted in pieces that can be worked more easily than this one.
in danger of sounding "taxidermically incorrect" If the leg is going to be totally hidden and under the body why mount it at all? IMHO if something is going to be hidden on ANY mount why bother? Even on many competition mounts I have done this and won plenty of blue ribbons on them to boot. To many of us forget that the idea in business is to make money. When a customer approaches me with a "lying down" lifesize I am overjoyed because that means 75% less sewing.