Finishing up first paddlefish

Lucky you. I have tried for a few years now to get one of these to do for my own collection. Even went and paid to have a cooler shipped to someone on here who said they had a big one to give me. Kept the cooler and that was the last I heard from them. Those look really great in a black lined shadow box. Nice job with that. Did you use beetles?

 

Amazing!

 

Interesting pattern. I think there's a name for that and it's found throughout nature. I believe it even involves an algorithm.

 

Fractal?

 

That's it!

 

Isn't Mother Nature amazing.

 

Sure is! Of course if one believes in evolution (which I do) it gets millions of years to get it right. And the penalties are severe when it doesn't as in extinction, which is 99 percent of all species that have been on this planet.

 

Beautiful!

 

Now that's cooler than the other side of the pillow! AMAZING. Thanks for sharing.

 

I’m doing my first paddlefish euro now. The Beatles are on it and I’m building a shadow box today. My question is, did you put anything on it to harden? I bought some spray on polyurethane and was gonna hit it with that.

 

I am currently working on my first paddlefish European mount. The beetles are on it now and I’m building a shadow box today. My question is what can I put on the skull to harden it after the Beatles have their way with it? I bought some clear polyurethane and was gonna give that a go, but thought ide check on here to make sure I don’t shit the bed on this one

 

If it is the spray poly, make sure it states "Non Yellowing" on the can. I have yet to do one of these and want to. I would be soaking it in paraloid B72 but that is only because I have it on hand to use. If you have it sealed in a shadow box, I would think you could get away with not sealing it at all. Keep an eye on the beetles and pull it out before they start munching on the finer bone. You can also put it in a separate container and hand select small larva to work on it. ... As for Photobucket, if you are paying their evil ransom fees to put up pictures, postimage.org does the same thing for free. In addition, you can show your full size pictures on here.

 

Anyone ever have the bill split apart? I noticed mine had a duck bill when it came out of the beetles after degreasing it was floppy enough to push together and glue it but after pulling it out of the whitener it is split apart again and now it’s dry so I’m afraid to try and bend it? I was thinking I might boil some water and hold it in the steam to loosen it up?