I have a raccoon dried and ready to be finished. The nose on the animal has shrunk up alot. has or does anyone rebuild the nose with epoxy sculpt. The nose is not as full and plump and round as I would like it. Do you guys leave the cartilage in the nose or do you turn them. I left cartilage in, could this be my problem.
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but it may not have been good enough-- i still get some shrinkage and i think it's inevitable... and that everyone finishes noses to look right.
if that seems too time-intensive or too difficult, suppliers sell replacement noses for a low price. i haven't used them. perhaps someone could tell us what the finishing requirements are?
I remove ALL cartilage from noses. Also, I watch my noses as they dry, and apply oil to them as they are drying, I really think that helps them from shrinking up so much. I touch them up with apoxie sculpt when they are dry, let THAT dry, then paint. I rarely have to use much of the epoxies.
I clean all the cartiage from the nose and when I mount I put a small ball of sculpt in the nose b4 I put it on the form........when mounting I just work the sculpt around the nose and finish mounting as usual ..........no shrinkage then. I especially do this with coon their noses are kinda like a little bulb and this helps alot.
Good Luck
I will try some of the ideas mentioned they all sound good. Thanks alot.