Basic Fish Questions

Hey,
I've got couple of perch to work on and have only worked on mammals and one 8" perch back when I was a kid.

I have done quite a bit of research, but lack of experience always leaves questions.

I'll be carving the bodies before skinning, and I'm confident enough with that process.

As far as skin preservation, I have read that some use about a cup of borax per gallon of water, along with a shot of Dawn, soaking for a half hour or longer.
Then rinsing thoroughly before mounting.

Since I have the materials on hand and it sounds simple enough, this was my plan.

Next,
I have seen acrylic caulk thinned slightly with water used as a paste.
I am not sure why that was chosen rather than regular hide paste.
Is it because it fills voids with less shrinkage? I have Roman 555 .

Any preferences?

Then there are eyes.
I am going to be placing a Mckenzie order this week, so deciding on eyes/size.
I like the look of the Tyler Erickson perch eye.
I imagine I would measure the size of the entire eye (not just iris) before ordering. Some models seem to be just yellow /orange. That just doesn't seem right.
Any other suggestions on eye choice or sizing, are welcomed.

Just trying to avoid ordering the wrong size and having more shipping delays.

Also planning on ordering Silk span material as fin backing (seal fins first, then apply with Mod podge)

Any input is appreciated.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Do you use the caulk, or would you just suggest that I experiment with what I've got and see how it reacts?

 

I've got the white Dap. Sounds like it will work!
I carved the bodies from pink foam today. Bondo'd a plywood block in the back and made a couple of temporary stands. Will skin the fish tomorrow, test fit and place in the bath.
Think I will put plastic wrap over body to test fit, rather than fight the foam texture.

Thanks 3 bears

 

I had planned on using critter clay for any voids. , I guess Apoxy clay or sculpt would work also for fin or tail junctions.
I do have some mache but it is not a fast setting type.
Are you using mache in the cheek because it is easier to get in, or some other reason?
I would have assumed it would shrink more than the clay.
I'll do my best to get everything as clean as possible.
Heading out to begin,
Thanks very much for your advice.

I'll let you all know how things go...

 

I'll give the mache a try. Any clay will be white.
I had planned on only setting the eyes after the fish was dry.
I skinned and scraped the first one, about a 10" fish. Hard to tell where to stop, so there's not much left inside the head. I'll need clay to hold its shape.

Thanks again.

 

Thanks for all the responses.
I'll make some notes for future attempts. Is zinc sulfate readily available? Shipping is a problem with many chemicals it seems.

This has been a snowed-in week project.

Highways have all been shut down here for 2 days. Extra long Easter weekend.

 

Here is where I'm at now.
Thanks to everyone that replied and so much archived info here. It is really helpful.

I used the white Dap acrylic caulk that I had a home. It was too thick to spread easily on the skin, so I had to thin it down a bit with water.

I ended up only using clay to seat the heads, the mache is much easier to use to spread into voids and smooth out.
The down side is that it is a grey colour that really shows through the skin. That's what paint is for...

I do not have the fine plastic mesh, so I used a combination of milk jug plastic and cereal box cardboard. Actually used some sections of pop bottle for the pectoral fins. The bottle had a nice tapered, concave shape to add a compound curve to the fin.
I'll see how it turns out. Can't be any worse than flat I guess.
It would be nice to have longer pins for setting the fins. But luckily these are not large fish.

I will order some eyes and silkspan to complete.
I measured the eyes before skinning, the confusion was more about how each brand measures their eye - iris or over-all diameter.
I'll figure it out.
If I order 3 sizes I'll be covered.
Too bad the dorsal fin on the larger fish was messed up. Looks like old injury healed over.

I figured that mounting both in the same position would help with learning by repetition. The clamps are securing the tail to stiff wire attached to the wood stand, helping to hold them in position.

I imagine I should seal the entire fish before painting. Something like a matte lacquer?
I paint with acrylics, hand painting and airbrush combination.

 

After a bit of a wait , I got the eyes and silk span material.

These are the Tyler Erickson eyes. They're nice, though pupils were not in the same position on each eye. Luckily these 2 fish are wall mounts!

I previously sealed the dried fish with a couple of good coats of matte Lacquer spray.
I rebuilt the head with Magic Smooth in all of the smooth skin areas, then used apoxie clay to add to the shrunken cheek, since I could add scale detail.

I expected that the silkspan would soften and conform better to the fin rays, but it seemed to want to bridge over them and want to leave air bubbles.
I tried ModPodge, but it was to thin for my liking.
I ended up using Elmer's glue brushed on the fin, then I brushed/soaked the silkspan with glue and then used a brush to lay it on the fin back. One dried, I coated fins, front and back with 2 good coats of matte ModPodge.

Once the epoxy cures, I'll hit the whole fish with another coat of sealer before paint.

After about 20hrs, the magic smooth is rock hard, but still feels tacky. I gave it a light sanding, but after handling, it feels sticky again. I mixed a small amount, so maybe it wasn't exactly 50-50.

 

Thanks for looking in!

Do you mean the red areas or green?


The red area is already rebuilt with the magic smooth.
I actually drilled the "nostril" holes in , as there is about a ¹/32 or more of epoxy there. Green areas are not rebuilt. I worry about losing all of the detail if I fill in the lip area at this point. That lip edge does separate when mounth is open doesn't it?
The lower jaw is somewhat rebuilt also, probably not quite enough.

I'll go back and look at it before it's too late.