I have a snake that had the fangs removed before I got it and looking for ideas on replaceing them for the open mouth pose I am doing. I am using a cast replacement open mouth head.
Also looking for a somewhat durable tongue? I figure that will be the first thing folks will just have to touch! :)
Thanks in advance!
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Not trying to discourage your mount, but a rattlesnake does not sit in a coiled position with its mouth open and fangs exposed. That is 100% anatomically incorrect. The mouth is only open in an aggressive mode just prior to impact. That does not occur in a coiled position, but rather from a coiled position with the upper third to half of the body extended towards the target. Just prior to impact is when the mouth is open and the fangs extended.
If you still have the rattlesnake head you can take some tweezers or needle-nose pliers and pull fangs from the same place the originals were. Rattlesnakes can have numerous pairs of fangs ready to drop when they lose theirs when striking.
Also the tongue is used for smelling and picks up molecules in the air when extended out of the "closed mouth" and transfers these molecules to the roof of the mouth where the Jacobson Organ can compute these messages. Rattlesnakes do not stick their tongue out when striking (just prior to impact).
But if you are doing a closed mouth rattlesnake mount and want to reproduce a tongue and do not have the original tongue to shellac, then you can take a coat hanger, flatten it out with a hammer, split the end (fork tongue), grind the ends to a fine point on a grinder, and then add the indentation to the tongue, paint a base coat of dark purple at the base (near the mouth), then black.
:)
Kerby...
I have used the outter covering of a black hose from a auto parts store ( heater hose) .Take a razor blade and cut and trim the outter part the shape of the snakes tounge .If you need to you can run some fine sand paper over it to take out any ridges . the part you cut from the hose will have a curl ,so you can have the tounge curled down or up how ever you want it .You can put some mod-podge on the rubber tounge to give it a flesh look also.On the fangs I have never used them ,but I have been told you can use the bones from the rib of fish .