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This post is long overdue, for that my apologies. This concept started a couple of years ago when @AZDAVE went on an epic leopard hunt. He and his lovely wife had a fantastic Namibian adventure. Naturally good ‘ole USFW held up progress on getting the cat in and it seemed forever before all permits were approved and the crate containing their leopard, ostrich, springbok, gemsbok, and Damara Dik Dik arrived. Once in my hot little hands I worked my magic for the USDA clearance and sent the hides off to the tannery with fingers crossed there wouldn’t be any major cape issues as they had sat dry salted for eons.
Now a little preface, I have mounted all sorts of cats from mountain lions to servals. I do not claim to be a cat guy, I mount a good enough cat but this leopard! Omg, it is dang near 170lb cat and I have a ton of responsibility on my shoulders with it. Luckily, I had the opportunity to meet Daniel Ming a few years ago. He is a world champion taxidermist and won his championship with a leopard. He has mounted more leopards and lions probably than any other taxidermist in history. I had taken a leopard class with him and had visited with him about this leopard in particular. He graciously offered to help me with it and so once the cat was back from the tannery I was South Dakota bound.
Daniel recently went out on his own mounting animals for private customers. He has a cozy little studio in the absolute middle of nowhere South Dakota. This was the first time I have been to SD and I have to say I was very pleased. It is a beautiful state and the little town Daniel is in sits right on the Missouri river. Absolutely stunning view!
Anyway, I had ordered a form that we could use as a starting point. The thing with this leopard is that they don’t make a leopard form in this pose on a left turn. There are oodles of right turns but alas no left turn. So, what to do? Well, you start with a form that is as close in size as you can get and hack it all apart and completely rebuild and resculpt the entire cat. This isn’t a bad thing though as rarely are the forms actually anatomically correct anyway so since we are building it essentially from scratch we can correct these issues. Daniel was absolutely instrumental in helping me with this. His knowledge of big cats is truly amazing. He has probably forgotten more about big cats than any of us will ever know. Despite his incredible knowledge and unequalled skill as a taxidermist he is incredibly humble and very soft spoken. He is also a fantastic teacher and I have to say I learned more from working with him on this project than I ever learned in all the other schools I have ever taken combined.
I had sent the skin to him a few weeks earlier, the tannery did a terrible job of fleshing it and it had to be re-fleshed. When I received it from the tannery this 170lb monster with a 30” neck looked slightly bigger than a large bobcat. No worries, Daniel; had it re-fleshed and appropriately stretched by the time I got there. Huge, help!
So, we took the original form that was facing the wrong direction and used it as a test fit to see where at.
Us test fitting the cat, notice the direction.
Cat fits reasonably well for the most part. The head was way wrong and the neck was entirely too small. We start cutting it apart and flip the torso the right direction. We use one of Daniel’s custom heads that he has personally sculpted. His largest head is still way too small for this kitty so I cut the back of the head off. It needed an inch in length and width on the back of the head, face looked good and eye to nose is spot on. I saw the back of the head off and pin it an inch back and the two pieces an inch wider. I foam it in and wait for it to set up. Worked like a champ so I clean it up and sculpt it to proper width and shape. I cut the nose off of the head as we decided it would be best to go with an artificial nose. The cat’s nose was completely trashed thanks to a careless flesher at the tannery. Not really sure how that happened considering it had hardly been touched and had shrunk up like crazy when they sent it to me. Ah, one of many frustrations as a taxidermist. On the bright side, considering the tannery had done a half ass flesh job there were only a couple of fleshing holes and a trashed nose. All things considered not too bad, especially in comparison to the absolute hack jobs I’d have to deal with when I got back. (More on that later)
While I was doing this Daniel cut, foamed, and resculpted the neck. As I said earlier, this cat has a 30” neck. That may sound like just a number but think about this, that’s the same size neck as say a 3 year old elk or in African terms a rutted up kudu!
We get that all completed and start working on the front legs and shoulders. We were able to leave the back legs as is which saved a bunch more time and modification. I take one side and Daniel takes the other. The cat’s front legs needed to swap directions. I took the left side and started cutting away as he took the right and straightened that leg out. Daniel noticed the left humerus and ulna were too short so he had me lengthen them. The front legs are structural so we took some heavy rod and bent it to shape so I can put the arm pieces on it and foam in the gaps. Once that was done I could sculpt the muscles and the Olecranon in.
A lot of modification later and the form is just about ready to mount on. We hadn’t attached the head yet as it is an open mouth pose and had to install a jaw set. Surprisingly, McKenzie makes a really good leopard jawset so I had ordered one when I ordered the form and tail. We cut the jaw out and installed the jawset then attached the head. Ready to pre-fit!!!!
Pre-fit went well so I attacked installing the tail in, well…., the tail. You’d be surprised at how many stitches it takes to sew up a leopard tail but it’s a butt ton!
Ha! Got a leopard by the tail.
Too be continued…….
Now a little preface, I have mounted all sorts of cats from mountain lions to servals. I do not claim to be a cat guy, I mount a good enough cat but this leopard! Omg, it is dang near 170lb cat and I have a ton of responsibility on my shoulders with it. Luckily, I had the opportunity to meet Daniel Ming a few years ago. He is a world champion taxidermist and won his championship with a leopard. He has mounted more leopards and lions probably than any other taxidermist in history. I had taken a leopard class with him and had visited with him about this leopard in particular. He graciously offered to help me with it and so once the cat was back from the tannery I was South Dakota bound.
Daniel recently went out on his own mounting animals for private customers. He has a cozy little studio in the absolute middle of nowhere South Dakota. This was the first time I have been to SD and I have to say I was very pleased. It is a beautiful state and the little town Daniel is in sits right on the Missouri river. Absolutely stunning view!
Anyway, I had ordered a form that we could use as a starting point. The thing with this leopard is that they don’t make a leopard form in this pose on a left turn. There are oodles of right turns but alas no left turn. So, what to do? Well, you start with a form that is as close in size as you can get and hack it all apart and completely rebuild and resculpt the entire cat. This isn’t a bad thing though as rarely are the forms actually anatomically correct anyway so since we are building it essentially from scratch we can correct these issues. Daniel was absolutely instrumental in helping me with this. His knowledge of big cats is truly amazing. He has probably forgotten more about big cats than any of us will ever know. Despite his incredible knowledge and unequalled skill as a taxidermist he is incredibly humble and very soft spoken. He is also a fantastic teacher and I have to say I learned more from working with him on this project than I ever learned in all the other schools I have ever taken combined.
I had sent the skin to him a few weeks earlier, the tannery did a terrible job of fleshing it and it had to be re-fleshed. When I received it from the tannery this 170lb monster with a 30” neck looked slightly bigger than a large bobcat. No worries, Daniel; had it re-fleshed and appropriately stretched by the time I got there. Huge, help!
So, we took the original form that was facing the wrong direction and used it as a test fit to see where at.
Us test fitting the cat, notice the direction.
Cat fits reasonably well for the most part. The head was way wrong and the neck was entirely too small. We start cutting it apart and flip the torso the right direction. We use one of Daniel’s custom heads that he has personally sculpted. His largest head is still way too small for this kitty so I cut the back of the head off. It needed an inch in length and width on the back of the head, face looked good and eye to nose is spot on. I saw the back of the head off and pin it an inch back and the two pieces an inch wider. I foam it in and wait for it to set up. Worked like a champ so I clean it up and sculpt it to proper width and shape. I cut the nose off of the head as we decided it would be best to go with an artificial nose. The cat’s nose was completely trashed thanks to a careless flesher at the tannery. Not really sure how that happened considering it had hardly been touched and had shrunk up like crazy when they sent it to me. Ah, one of many frustrations as a taxidermist. On the bright side, considering the tannery had done a half ass flesh job there were only a couple of fleshing holes and a trashed nose. All things considered not too bad, especially in comparison to the absolute hack jobs I’d have to deal with when I got back. (More on that later)
While I was doing this Daniel cut, foamed, and resculpted the neck. As I said earlier, this cat has a 30” neck. That may sound like just a number but think about this, that’s the same size neck as say a 3 year old elk or in African terms a rutted up kudu!
We get that all completed and start working on the front legs and shoulders. We were able to leave the back legs as is which saved a bunch more time and modification. I take one side and Daniel takes the other. The cat’s front legs needed to swap directions. I took the left side and started cutting away as he took the right and straightened that leg out. Daniel noticed the left humerus and ulna were too short so he had me lengthen them. The front legs are structural so we took some heavy rod and bent it to shape so I can put the arm pieces on it and foam in the gaps. Once that was done I could sculpt the muscles and the Olecranon in.
A lot of modification later and the form is just about ready to mount on. We hadn’t attached the head yet as it is an open mouth pose and had to install a jaw set. Surprisingly, McKenzie makes a really good leopard jawset so I had ordered one when I ordered the form and tail. We cut the jaw out and installed the jawset then attached the head. Ready to pre-fit!!!!
Pre-fit went well so I attacked installing the tail in, well…., the tail. You’d be surprised at how many stitches it takes to sew up a leopard tail but it’s a butt ton!
Ha! Got a leopard by the tail.
Too be continued…….
