Carved Body Or Fill Method?

Your method, exactly! I haven’t purchased a pan fish body in over 30 years

 

I agree with your assessment of using the half cast method . Few scales lost that way. My problem was always being patient enough to leave that filled body alone to let the filler harden enough to handle it without causing cracks and such. I do not miss doing skin mounts at all.

 

I made several of my own body molds years ago,
The only thing I fill now are those gar.
They harden up like ball bats
I carve allot of bodies and come to realize, just make molds and keep on rockin

 

Glad you brought this up as I have a few questions regarding the fill method. Plaster will shrink as it dries out. It may take up to a month to cure. The fish skin on the other hand may dry out in a week. Given humidity levels. So, if the skin dries out before the plaster won't the plaster mold be too small? I've purchased a few older plaster mounts. The skin was loose but in good shape. I was able to pull the plaster out, carve a new foam body and remount the skin. I just purchased an old 5# largemouth bass. You can push in on the skin in quite a few areas. It's amazing how well it has maintained its shape without being in contact with the body. I had to do a double check to make sure someone didn't sell me a big mouth Billy bass. The skin is pliable like rubber.

 

Fish filler does not shrink, unless it is overhydrated. Water is added in increments just enough to make it bind. I place a fan in front of my fish after they are mounted. They are elevated on bread racks to allow for full ventilation. Additionally, my drying room has a dehumidifier running 24/7. Most are 90% dry within 48 hours. I keep them carded for about a week so the fins will remain flat.

 

Thank you Joeym. Is there adhesive in the filler?

 

I have always carved my own forms. Is the half cast method just for panfish mainly? Curious about S-shapes and stuff. I want to give this a try.

 

I’ll cast most of them but I carve all bodies just my way .

 

Yes. The one I use contains dextrine

 

I purchased this bass last year. It had a terrible paint job but I thought I could improve on it. You could push in on the skin everywhere and I thought it had come loose from the entire body. I decided I would try to remove it from the body and carve a new one. I dismantled it and here is what I found inside. As you can see from the expression on the face of the fish even he was surprised. The fish was mounted in 1985 and for the most part was in pretty good shape. Just a few low sunken in spots which is why I wanted to remount it. Stuffed with tow only it held up really well.

 

I remember in the early 80s we would put a mixture of plaster and dry wall powder, on the inside as a thin layer, put burlap over that then another layer of mud, then sew it up except bout 4” the fill with sawdust, when it was dry we would dump out the sawdust add a block and we was good to go

 

I was using foam forms from the taxidermy supply companies in 1976.

 

I know someone who fills sewn thin fabric the size of the fish and fills with styrofoam beads. Always wanted to see how he did that.

 

John rinehart,that's how I learned fish taxidermy

 

School of hard knocks

 

I tried half cast a couple of times and they were so heavy and I couldn't get a nice curve to it. I've been carving my panfish since. Also I've had the cast ones crack when I screw into them. I must be missing something. I'd really like to do it that way but am not confident to do it for customers

 

Some fish fillers are heavy as concrete. I used to get ff from VanDyke. It was heavy. The one I use now comes from Second-2-Nature. It's composed of newspaper pulp and some water soluble adhesives. It dries at about half the weight of the VD fish filler.

 

Shout out to Matt Thompson! I had one fish left from last year to mount and rather than purchase another large block of foam and have it sit around i decided to give one of these mannikins a try. This thing was phenom. The skin fit perfect in every way. No skin overlap and no over stretching. This was used as a pedestal mount and the seam pulled together exactly as needed and the head fit perfect. They may be expensive but something to consider from time to time.