I measured a red fox with skin on from tip of nose to front corner of eye at 2 3/4". I measured without skin on the dorsal side which came to 23"; the belly circumference at 12". I would use a McKenzie form. Will a form 2 1/2" x 11 3/4" x 23 1/4" work? The fox was measured with skin on at 13 X 24 when I bought it from Northcountrytaxidermy. I don't want to have to buy another form because the form is too big.
Secondly, do I need to tumble the fox or can I blow dry it on hot after it was tanned with liqua tan?
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When you do you loose the ability to taxi the skin. This will also lead to the seam pulling, not being able to line up the hair patterns and the head will never fit. Sure you can make a larger form smaller but its a lot of trouble. I would order a form the same girth and 1 1-2 to 2 inches shorter in length. You will find it much more fun to mount on a critter this way.
Your form should work fine. It you want you could cut an inch or so from the lenght and bondo it back. That will give you some room to taxi the skin to fall in place...Paul
Fox skin has mucho stretch raw and a good tan will retain it.Wet tan liquatanning(with the pickle and neutralizing-pickle of ph 1 sets the fox fur nice) is fine.A quarter inch is not going to be any big deal here! Now if the measuremnts were 1 1/2 to 2 inches more on the form,you bet there will be problems!
As for tumbling,if you have a tumbler,use it and get the main moisture out and start the fur fluffing.Shake the sawdust or cob grit,whatever you use,out real good.You do not need to fully dry fur to mount,it will dry after you mount the skin. Don't use the hairdryer too much though,let it dry on its own,but do backbrush fluff the wet fur up so it dries better and faster.Make sure hair patterns are in the right spots anatomically too.