Wildebeest Mount-a-Long
Contributors to this thread:International
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
This is my son's last African trophy from our trip a few years back. Like most the form required some modification, but luckily, just the head needed a bit of reduction in size. The cape as usual, was a mess and needed repair and a lot of thinning. This shows one of the eyes and how it was damaged and needed to be sewn.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
Here is one of the ears that had been ripped and sewn with a ski rope. I cut the it out to re-sew using spider wire.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
This is one of the ears after it had been repaired.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
Now to the nose and lips. These had way to much flesh that had to be removed and all thinned down.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
This after thinning and trimming.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
The rest of the cape had probably 8 or 10 holes that I had to re-sew and more thinning and trimming. The what I will call the arm pits were very short and the right had barely enough to make it. Now for the form and reducing the size of the head. The center section had a inch and a half in circumference removed. Than I foamed it back together and reattached.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
Now the head was blended and sculpted back, the rest of the form prepped and horns fitted.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
One more test fit just to make sure all will align and fall into place before I start the mount.
From: BO-N-ARO
23-Mar-14
Here he is after it was sewn up, tucked and pinned and the finish work complete. I ran it up to my sons and we got it on the wall.
From: JW
23-Mar-14
Nice work. Looks great!
From: Peyton in Fairbanks
23-Mar-14
Awesome!
From: AZ~Rich
28-Mar-14
Great work as usual BO-NA-RO ! What did you do to revitalize the horns?
From: BO-N-ARO
31-Mar-14
Thanks for the kind words folks! AZ, I use Antler and Horn Conditioner from Research. I have tried everything from furnisher polish to WD-40 and this stuff works for me. Its a paste and I apply it with a tooth brush.
From: badlander
01-Apr-14
Of everything I did after my Africa trip, my only regret was not mounting my Wildebeest. I planned it as a euro skull and a flat skin, the skull looks good but I just really don't have much use for the flat skin and its too big to display well.
Your mount looks very good, well done!
From: AZ~Rich
01-Apr-14
Thanks, I know I sure put some time into revitalizing both mine and my buddy's WB horns. I used a number of treatments including motor oil, furniture oils, soft beeswax**, fire clay powders, shoe polishes, dirt, tree/bark/sap, paints, Axpoxie sculpt and masonry pigments to fill in the cracks ,recreate receded horn bases and give it a certain luster which looks like it's living horn not old, black, dried, cracked and full of fissures. To accomplish this it takes a much longer time and more effort than most taxi's are willing to put in for their commercial work. Nice to see you went the extra mile!
