Carcass casting small animals-by oldterryr

Some of us were blessed to have known Terry Davis both personally and professionally for many years, while some of us only knew him for a matter of weeks. In May of 2008 he lost his battle with cancer. There are no words to adequately express the grief many of us felt for Terry & his family. For many months we read his “Cancer Blogs”. Through the good times and bad, Terry tried to smile and tried to help. He gave his life, his family, and this industry that he loved so much, everything he could, until he could give no more.

I hope that in some small way, by putting the tutorials that Terry had on his website, here on Taxidermy.net, he will continue to teach, inspire, and watch over all of us. His beloved wife, Maggie, has given her blessing to this project.

I haven’t changed a word of the tutorials. The methods described within are entirely Terry’s. I made the pictures taxi.net friendly, but other than that, this is the exact tutorial Terry had on his website.

Enjoy, and God bless. L

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Carcass casting small animals
1) getting an extra large animal is quite a treat until you try to find a form to fit - this animal is a ringtail cat and is almost twice as big as any other one i have ever seen - i knew how to do it i just hadnt ever done it - figured this was as good a time as any to try out these 'book skills - first thing after skinning i am doing is strengthening the ball joints for freezing and trying to get them to hold rough positioning as they freeze - i wanted animal coming down a rock so i held him up and sized up where his legs needed to be

2) same thing here

3) put him in freezer and checked every 30 minutes to see what changes i needed to make - after 2 1/2 hours he
was setting up good and i left him overnite to freeze solid

4) frozen in position

5) take the screws out now

6) i am going to cast the legs and body separate - this is by far the easiest way to do small mammals - i have marked
where i will cut

7) cut off the first leg......

8) ..... and all the rest

9) this is a view of the rear end of carcass where legs have been cut off - the beauty of this method is the cuts are an exact match when they go back on

10) get 100% silicone - this will cure in 48 hours

11) get a piece of plastic paper and put a think bead of silcone down - this is the tail - i am only casting the front 2/3rds cause there is nothing to the very back

12) imbed the tail in silicone and then cover over the top with some more - messy crap at best

13) do the same things with the legs

14) i am now going to make a mold of the carcass itself - ream and the eyes and fill with clay –

15) i have put two screws in the bottom of carcass to help hold it level as we pour the plaster on it

16) here is the carcass getting ready to be worked on

17) you are looking straight down on the carcass and i am building a base of clay at the centerline - make sure and puts some keys in clay

18) build a dam around animal

19) spray mold release on everything and cover with plaster

20) flip over and do the same thing

21) here is the mold - fill with 2 part foam and cast the body

22) here is the body as it came out of mold - from half of head broke off - i had planned to resculpt face anyway so it
was no big deal

23) cut the top off of the tail (leg) and pull out the raw part

24) insert a wire for reinforcement

25) spread mold open and fill with bondo - some people use hot glue for the filler in mold

26) here is tail section cast and out of mold - like a reject i forgot to have the wire come out of the front to go into body -
when i installed the tail on the animal i drilled a hole and bondoed in a wire

27) nose was broken off so i epoxied a piece of foam on it

28) with calipers i checked length

29) drill holes to reinstall legs

30) put them on and see if they fit like you want them to - if they dont fit well just grind some of the body off

31) not bad so far

32) i spray paint everything - this lets me see defects quickly

33) this picture could definitely be clearer - after i have the legs the way i want them i put at least two marks to realign when i reattach for the last time

34) I put him on my mounting wall the way he will be posed in the end and give it a final check - i have resculpted the face

35) i should have countersunk holes earlier but i wasnt thinking ahead

36) bondo and screw the legs on body

37) another view

38) final chance for change

mounted and ready to dry
39 & 40)

 

I'm sure Terry says:

 

Thanks for the heads up Sarge. I'm trying to get it fixed. I'll redo them all if need be.

 

We know the photobucket pictures are down. I've done what I can to fix it. I am at a loss for anything else I can do. Ken Edwards & Patrick J are working on it and I am very grateful to them. I am hopeful that Terry can continue to teach future generations of taxidermists for many years to come.

Thank you for your patience.