hi to all i shot a big old 10 point sika stag he is well into a gold ,but his top tine is broken ,i have been trying to come across a peice to go into it with no luck .can i cast one and what would i use .all help welcome and thanks

broken or missing tines are easily repaired, using wire and apoxysculpt, go to taxidermy.net and look it up in the tutorial section

In a nut shell I will spell out the highlights and you can go from there.Make one from the other side tine. paint on some rubber latex on the tine--many coats,remove and make a mother mold around the rubber latex and pour in fiberglass or ? with a wire inside the mold. Remove and place on the damage side and paint to match...At the studio I always charge 50.00 and up for this to hasppen...Good luck...

www.african-montana-taxidermy.com

Casting one from the other side is always best for a good match but not necessary (you can find close matches from other tines if need be). You can use a tube of 100% clear window and door silicone to cast the tine(wear a rubber glove as you smooth it over the tine). Always put a release on first or you will never get your mold off of the tine (Chris uses Dawn dish detergent). Wait 24 hours between layers (we put on 3) and let it set for a week. The silicone dries firm enough where you do not need a mother mold to stabilize it. Chris uses a two part liquid plastic to make the repo tine. Threaded rod is inserted into the repo as it allows a much better hold when attached to the rack with two part apoxy (wire can spin as it has no threads for the adhesive to hold). A dremel tool or fordom should be used to shape the reproduced tine to match the antler it is attached to. A taxidermy sculpting compound is used to bridge the junture of the two meeting and a split silicone mold of a tine is pressed into the sculpting compound, before it hardens, to accurately texture the juncture. After all is set you are ready to paint. Chris finds oil paints work best to match. Really not as quick and easy as one may think, if you want a quality end result that cannot be detected as a reproduced tine.

Below are a few pictures taken for an article we are currently working on for a major taxidermy trade magazine on this very subject. Hope they clarify the process a bit for you.

(There is accurate texture on the reproduced tines, we need to retake some pictures as the flash of the camera washed out the texture.)

Silicone mold and finished hard plastic reproduction tine with two treaded rods.


Apoxied repo tine ready to be lightly dremeled to match original tine.


Apoxie sculpted juncture ready to be textured. After that dries it is ready for the oil paints to match.


Krueger's Creations Taxidermy
Chris Krueger

Kind regards,
Mary

Damn, i love this site. the freely given expert advice is beyond compare!

thanks guys you make it sound so easy ,many thanks john