Mounting a bobcat on a carved body

This is a pretty little bobcat that I bought from Mr. Mark (Texascritter), and I wanted to do something unique with it because this was my first bobcat and I wanted to enter it in the World Show.

I started by skinning it out, making only a ventral incision down the belly from the chest to the base of the tail, and keeping the body in one piece.

Then I wrapped the branch I wanted him to hang on in plastic wrap and posed the carcass on it and froze the whole thing.

Once the body was frozen, I removed it from the branch and cut the legs off. I put them back into the freezer and carved the head and body out of some spare foam.

I then added an artificial bobcat nose to the head and began working on the legs.

 

Because I knew the back legs would not have much support, I decided to carve them from 8 lb foam. I made a wall of clay around each leg to form a simple mold to pour the foam into.

 

The front legs were just carved from scrap foam.

I first traced them with a magic marker, then cut it out with straight vertical cuts to form a 2 dimensional copy before carving it into a 3 dimensional foam leg.

 

Once I had the legs matching up with the body, I attached them with drywall screws and tested the body and legs on the branch to see how they would fit.

 

I made several adjustments until I was happy with the way it looked and it somewhat matched my reference picture.

I then used bondo to attached them more securely. I could have used foam for this part, although I don't know if it would have worked any better.

 

Checking all the angles really helps.

 

Here is a comparison of the original and copy.

I moved the head around quite a bit, so to stabilize it in it's final location I sharpened a threaded rod and, using my drill, ran it through the head, neck and into the body.

 

I needed a way to strengthen the arms so that I could screw them to the branch later and yet still be able to make them detachable for the mounting process.

So I decided to use some wire, it's not very fancy, but it worked.

I used my dremal to make a grove in the foam, then a bent the wire to match and hot glued it into place.

I made a small loop in the paw where I wanted to attach the foot to the branch later.

 

By attaching all the legs with the bondo, I could now sculpt some muscle back into the form to tie the body together again.

I used Plaster of Paris mixed with coarse vermiculite. The vermiculite strengthens and lightens the plaster.

 

I then smoothed the plaster after it had dried and checked the fit to the branch once more.

The form is now ready to use

 

Now I get to work with the skin which is in great shape, no slips, no rubs, no bullet holes, no skinning or fleshing cuts, just a perfect skin. And doesn't that tan look nice? lol

After prepping the face, I bondoed the ears.

 

Some close up pictures of the THIN ears ;D

And it's always good to use reference...

 

The final step on the body was to cut the legs off.

I then clayed the toes, applied hide paste to the legs and slid them into the skin.

 

Another view of the back legs going together...

 

Then the front legs...

And all 4 legs in place.

 

I then cut out holes in the top of the head for the ear buts, filled them slightly with clay, smeared more glue on the back of the neck and body, and then proceeded to slid the skin on.

It looks great doesn't it? ;D

Once the front legs were pulled down to the shoulders, they were glued and screwed back to the body in their corresponding slots/wedges.

Then hide paste mixed with fine vermiculite was used as a sticky, light clay to blend the leg to body junction all the way around.

 

I forgot to mention that I first installed the tail. I just cut a flexible squirrel tail to match the real tail.

After the back legs had also been attached back to the body, I sewed up the belly incision.

I don't normally set the eyes after the skin is on, but I thought it would be easier on this one.

 

I rough set the eyes and added some extra clay to the face to make it softer.

By this time, I had finally decided what to do with the whiskers and removed them.

I placed them in their correct order on some foam for ease of reinstalation once the face had dried.

 

I put glue on the face and chin, then tucked the eyes and lips.

I trimmed the inner nostril skin to the edges and glued the nose pad skin over the artificial nose.

That way I could just blend the inside edge of the nostril openings down into the plastic nose.

Once the face was rough set, I attached the cat to the branch by making two tiny cuts in the paws were the wire loops were and installing a couple of screws through the loops down into the wood.

 

Because the clay was so soft, I let the face firm up a little before making my final adjustments to the ears, eyes and nose.

I also continued to check the toes as they dried to make sure they kept their shape.

Once the cat was dry, I installed the wiskers, fluffed him up really well, did all the finish work and then built the base.

I got a first place at the World Show in the professional division so I was very happy to say the least.

Here are a few more pictures. I hope this helped some of you, and maybe you'll try to carve your own form as well.