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Cougar Taxidermy Tutorial Pt 1

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This is the First Stage of making a Cougar (or any feline) headmount for use in a rug or plush.

By NO means is my way/skill absolutely perfect, as each person learns and performs differently. I suck as a teacher so there may be some loopholes to my methods.

So here is the series for FORM ALTERATION:

1.) Choose a form. One that looks anatomically correct and to the size of your animal. Look at the skin you have and make sure the skin's Eye-To-Nose measurement is close to the form.

2.) I loved the cougar head form I had, but the eye-to-nose measurement was WAY OFF! My skin was about 1/2" smaller than the form. So i took out a 1/2" slot of foam out of the head. Now the skin fits perfectly.

3.) I really want my cougar plush to be open-mouthed...but not roaring or snarly. So I would like to make the end-product have a slight, playful, relaxed jaw. To do that, I cut around the lips of the foam form to open up the mouth. Dremel out pockets for your cast jaws to fit inside!

4.) Once the mouth cavity is hollowed out, take your jawset and set it with Bondo (can be picked up at Wal-Mart in the Automotive section or at any Automotive shop sold as a body filler).
Look at a skull (as pictured in #3) to see how the teeth will sit inside the head. You dont want to set them in too shallow or too deep. Too shallow will make for an insanely angry mouth position whereas a deep set jaw will make the animal look kindof odd and you wont see the teeth.

5.) You will want to paint/airbrush around the jawset for a clean transition (also, when after the animal is done you wont be kicking yourself when you cant paint the inside of the mouth without overspraying all over the teeth)

6.) To assemble the jaw to the head, pin the jaw into your desired position of openness. MAKE SURE YOUR TEETH ARE ALIGNED RIGHT! Look at a skull and see how the teeth are positioned. Lower fangs on any animal will close in front of the upper fangs!
Apply Bondo for a quick set. Before the Bondo gets super hard, catch it when it is setting off (rubbery kind of cheese texture when you cant spread it with a knife but you can cut it. Cut off excess Bondo and rasp it down so everything is flush with your head. If you dont catch it in time, you will be kicking yourself and spending a lot of time with sandpaper.

7.) After the jaw has set, you can use more Bondo or Magic Sculpt (made by Wesco and sold by any taxidermy supply such as Vandykes or McKenzie) to make the connection of the jaw smooth. This will also make the form sturdier. And because this will be a plush taxidermy, I added onto the back of the form to round it out. I used Bondo for optimum strength instead of replying on the foam.

This ends form alterations.
Next step will be skin preparation and applying it to the form!

Thank you for using my tutorial, and as always, I'd love to see the end-product of any project someone does using this!

Questions on any unclear steps or things I didnt cover are welcome!

Visit Part 2:
Image size
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© 2011 - 2024 Zhon
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NaturePunk's avatar
Another question (sorry about asking so many!): What jaws did you use for this? I'm looking for small mountain lion jaws with little luck. Would large bobcat work?