how do you reproduce rhino skin?
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Rhino are very endangered
You could try, and I say TRY... heat-shrinking some cowhide. You are looking for a certain rough feel, thickness, and wrinkle pattern. Use a heat gun for stripping paint OR a high heat hair dryer. You'll have to do this with the skin already on the form. Be prepared to use a lot of cowhide.
OR you could try and find a "detailed mould" of rhino skin, and use this like a Dandi-Noser on your repro mount. Put the pattern all over the skin.
Hope that helped.
and yes, duh, we know rhinos are endangered. That's why he's making a fake (a repro, or reproduction). He's actually helping rhinos when he does this.
The terms are different. To 'recreate' it - you can use techniques as suggested above, or use clay and simply sculpt the texture. To 'reproduce' it you need access to actual rhino skin - and make a mold off of it. Silicone is the best bet for this and if you gain permission from a zoo or something similar, you can use something like fast set body double silicone from Smooth-On and apply it directly to the skin of a real rhino at the same time they give it injections for example. If you know osmoene with a mount - you can reproduce it off of that as well.
I have mounted a lot of rhinos and there skin texture is different from any other animal I have ever seen. Nothing even comes close.
And By the way to the "anti poached moron" above only Asian, Indian, and black rhinos are listed as endangered. If you took the time to research before you open your mouth you would find out that the white rhino once endangered is no longer thank to managed hunting. There is a subspecies "the northern White" that is still endangered, Because that piece of S*&T Richard Leakie will not allow ANY hunting in Kenya and big surprise more and more animals are quickly becoming endangered in their little part of Africa because they have no value to the people. Every where else on other African countries they are thriving where they are hunted.
And, last The US has now agreed to start allowing limited numbers of black Rhinos in to the country "legally" in an attempt to save them just as they did the Southern white Rhino.
Can a black rhino shoulder mount be sold legally? It has been in a warehouse for the last 30 years. It is probably a good 50+ year old mount. Is there a way to deal with cracks in the hide due to weather fluctuations? Some of the cracks are up to 1/8". It is a plaster mount and weighs a ton. The horns are awesome.