Very cool, JJ, and that is a great hog too!

Nice looking boar! You can tell from the pose and camera angle you're a bear hunter.

OK the hide is on with ears and eyes, It's got a few dozen pins in the cape to help hold it in place until the glue dries and I have to paint around the eyes and the thin part of the hair near the front legs. I also have all the detail work around the mouth and lips to finish. However you can see it's really come together nice and in about a weeks time it will be dry enough to paint up and hang up.

One eye was cut when I skinned it making for a real pain to sew up perfectly and the nose was as usual beat up from his lifestyle, skinning, tanning and pulling and stretching. I used a cast nose on my last one but this one I worked at getting the nose to fit properly. It will look much better once painted black.

Excelent! I've saved the photo's as a reference for when I get mine done, hope you don't mind.



Mate could you post the process of casting the teeth? Did you use the real jaw bones as well?



Bakes

This is much more difficult typing out then it would be actually showing you. However since you're not gonna be able to come over and see, I'll do my best with my writing skills here.

You need to get some liquid latex rubber. I have used Silicone rubber too, but I prefer working with the latex as it's water soluable. You will need a few small paint brushes and some small thin medical guaze wrap as well.

Remove and clean the teeth the best you can. Then rub in some paste floor wax into the teeth. Absolutely no extra residue. Just get then smooth and leave a very slight waxy film on them.

Then paint them with the latex. Leave it really thin just as if it were paint. Set aside to dry for a few hours. Then paint them again set aside to dry and continue this process for about 9 coats. Then with the tenth coat wrap them with gauze that has one fresh coat on them. Then another again right over the top of the gauze. It's OK if they look awful and lumpy from the gauze. You are far enough away from the inside surface that it will not matter. Give 3 more coats without gauze and then another wrap of soaked gauze. Leave them dry out solid for a few days.

Ok now the hard part. You will need to pull them out of the rubber. It may require you to cut the mold a short way to get a good grip on the tooth. Cut the mold on the back edge of the tooth where there is no chance you will see it on the finished mount. The tusks on my hog were about 7" long but only 3.5" is out side the gums. I cut the molds about 2" and folded the latex down until they finally slid off and came free of the mold.

Once this is done on all four, you should use some instant bond cement to stick the mold back together where you cut it. It will only require a drop or two in a couple places. Then use a little painters tape, (we call it masking tape here in the USA) over the seam you made. Now poke a tiny pin size hole in the very tip of each mold. The rubber will want to seal back up so make sure it's a good clean hole the resin will leak out just slightly. With out this hole you will trap air in the mold and have a deforemd tip on your tusks.

Now mix equal parts of resin. I use white polyester Resin for my tusk molds. This stuff is hella expensive and sets up fast so you gotta work deliberate and pay attention. I do only one tusk at a time. Mix it really REALLY good and pour it into the base opening. Fill the tooth and hopefully you will see a little bit ooze out the tip where you made the hole. Hold it in your hand for the 3-4 minutes it will take to set up. You will notice the base resin has a yellowish tint while liquid. The mold will also be warm to quite hot from the chemical reaction occuring. Then all at once the yellow colored liquid will "pop" into a white color. It's OK to set down when it turns this white color and you can do the next tusk.

When all four are finihed you can set them aside for about 2 hours or longer. I would say Minimum a couple hours though. Then the anticipation of your perfect cast teeth!

When you take off the mold remove the tape, use a razor to seperate the instant bond cement you used, and begin to peel back the rubber. It should be tough for a while and then pop right off. What you have made will blow your mind. It will be a 100% exact duplicate of what you wanted! Then a bit of artistic coloration and you are ready to mount the hog with his ***real*** tusks!

I hope this was written to allow you to take a stab at it. It's faster and easier then it seems. Especially after you have done it a few times. I'm gonna guess that it will take 2 hours of total labor and about 30 dollars to make one set of teeth like this. However the results as you can see from my boar are outstanding and 100% accurate in the mount.

Good luck and post pictuers of yours as well. I will have mine pained up and on the trophy room wall by the end of the week. I'll post a couple finished pictures then.

Yep understood, thanks for that.

Jim, that may be the most realistic pose I've seen of any animal. My main beef with taxidermy is that, as you pointed out, most poses highlight only one feature of the animal and consequently do not look natural. My father had a javelina done in the 50's, and you could see every tooth in his head. To a small boy it was scary as hell, but he always told people that they don't look like that in nature.

On a slightly different topic, do you know where we might find a picture of a hog skull sectioned fore and aft so we could see the exact placement of the brain? Or could you describe it based on the mannequin here?

Thanks, Okie John.

Very interesting to see the process! How much did that beast weigh?

Whitworth

We had a 300 pound scale at the skinning area one of the fellas brought along. It was the scale Cabelas sells for deer or other big game. I'm not certain of the exact accuracy but it does not matter as the scale was pegged to the bottom when we hoisted the chain pully up to get him off the ground. I cannot say for sure how much but it was 100% over 300 pounds. My guess after weighing 100's of black bears would be that this boar was 320-340 pounds. Maybe more but without some official backup I'm not gonna exaggerate the size.

I dropped a glass eye and it cracked yesterday. Now there will be a delay to get the new eyes. I will update the assembly next week for you guys. (and you too Anne) I have filled in the seams and bonded the jaws and lower jaw together. It looks like a one piece solid form now. The hide is in really good shape too so the rest of the assembly is the fun part for me. Just need the new eye!