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Description
This is Leviathan, presumably a coyote-wolf hybrid. But I didn't post him as a topic for that discussion, why I believe he's a hybrid etc, but for the purpose of following topic of 'Franken-fox' instead. "Building a "Wallhanger"
And honestly, I wasn't even going to post pix of Levi because he is not a good example of something I would want to present in my portfolio... no matter how much I love him... anyhow, this is why I am posting the image of him here.
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The question posed to me:
"I have a taxidermy style question. Just how mountable are pelts? You've said here and there and I've seen many others do "rescue" and touch up work, fixing holes, tears, turning lips and such. I do believe I've seen and read here and there about people adding a tail or feet to pelts as well. Would it be possible to collect different parts if your pelt isn't completely whole and have it bound together for mounting?
I'm asking because I'm very interested in searching for a red fox pelt for a soft mount, but I don't particularly approve of many methods of acquiring furs. I know a pelt can be found from a creature that died completely of natural causes, but it's not often and it would be unlikely the pelt would be in perfect condition. However, maybe some legs from one animal, tail from another, etc. would be possible?
So, to sum it up... Could zombie, or Frankenstein rather, soft mount be achieved? XD"

My opinionated Reply:
"Hi yah! &, in theory, ...yes!! [link]

...however, you may not be all that happy with the finished results. The fur will NOT cover most seams in the feet or leg areas. ~Ok, here in the above image link is my Franky. My (Frankenstein Fox) Franky has new legs made out of closely matching rabbit fur, and a new shaved down rabbit fur chin, and LOTS of well sewn holes. And hand made socks to cover/hide the 'new' legs.
~ It's up to you to try, but by buying a mask/face, a back plate, a tail, feet, etc. you are promoting the sale of parts and bits from a whole pelt(and they are expensive, when they should be available for pennies on the dollar) because they are only PARTS, & by buying them, your making them more desirable, and allowing trappers, hunters, etc. to believe that IF they choose to remove part or whole areas from pelts/and from perfect carcasses(due to laziness) your promoting wasting parts of the animal, sending a message that no one 'really' cares about the whole pelts anymore ...& that they can still make a LOT of money off of the partial pelts. This is NOT always the case, but it covers 60% of what's available on e-bay. And that is what we all want to avoid. That's why I personally stopped buying them legless, & stopped buying the 'fixable' wallhangers to mount, because I can get a whole pelt for the SAME price as rebuilding the many 'partials' - that is, unless the 'wallhanger' is cheap. So, why buy an incomplete pelt that you'll ultimately have to put far more $ into?... unless the 'part' is going for a bag or blanket etc., or for the repairs to a whole pelt with a big slip or rub mark in/on it. But even then, I try to haggle the price to be low, or wait for someone here on dA to sell their 'scraps' as scraps, and they are usually the right price. Sooo, take my well intended advice here: And in addition, finding the parts you need, in the right color and SIZE, is not only difficult but can cost you far more in parts and shipping, then it would be if you saved up your hard earned $ and purchased a whole tanned wild red from someone you can trust here on dA, or from a place such as Idaho, Moscow Hide and Fur(Google them.). Then you can ASK them if they feel if something your looking at is fully mountable if it isn't already stated, that way if they tell you it can be mounted, and it actually can't be, 75% of the overall time you can get a refund from a seller if it's via paypal or someone on e-bay, if not from an outright fur dealer.
~Then there is the possibility that the replacements that you purchased from any place may not be of mountable quality, and tear or fall apart the instant they are hydrated. Then you've just lost your $ and everything that goes along with it. It's just is not worth trying to make a "Franken-fox" in the end. Been there, done that.

Here is a SUPER example of what I'm talking about. ~I JUST finished a 'coyote' (above image) I got off of e-bay. I've been working on him for 6+ months!! And only because I purchased him from a man on line who stated, after I asked him about 10 relevant mounting questions that he answered YES to, that I shelled out the 65$ for.
~Then, WHEN I GOT THE COYOTE IN THE MAIL: he had -0- palm pads on any of his feet, NO bottom jaw, no genitals(they were cut off at skinning), and 4 HUGE rub spots. You can imagine, I was PISSED. He was basically NOT mountable. And In the end I had to MAKE him new pads out of fabric, clay, and leather - but I had to make the mold first! Then I had the irritating task to find matching scraps from someone I KNEW who very generously GAVE them to me to patch his rubs, and even so, I could only do 3 of the 4 areas, THEN find a LARGE coyote mask that matched, so I actually purchased 3 of them from 3 diff. sellers just so I could choose the best overall color and bottom jaw from the 3, and when I finally hydrated his head for mounting, I found out that his ears and the rest of his face weren't even turned out like the seller had promised! In the end, I was in love with the coyote and went through with fixing him up. But not before I complained to the seller, & got an agreed $25 refund which is what we both had concluded was a fair price for one mask, and for fur scraps to replace the rubs. And that didn't even include the genital region I wanted to replace, OR for 4 feet to use the pads from. But, like I said, I got the scraps for free, and made my own paw pads. And spent 1/3 more of the $25 for the total 3 masks. But I had NO intentions of go through any of that when I was promised a totally mountable coyote for $65.

And as far as the methods that require taking and animals life for fur, you can never REALLY know how, when, or why an animal was taken, or even how it died, unless that animal had clear signs, such as a bullet hole. And as far as getting ur hands on a fox or coyote that died naturally, your looking at 1 in 10,000 odds if that. Even then, a fox that 'died in cage' may be a generalization, where the details of the death are unspoken, just to get the fur sold off. If you get my meaning. And even then, I know many of us still purchased pelts, just to 'rescue' them. But I am now avoiding that myself.

Anyhow, Good luck in your quest. I hope you ultimately get & find what your looking for. And I hope this info helped you and everyone out. Try not to be impulsive. A wallhanger is a wallhanger for a reason."

images of the accompanying part two of this 'tutorial;'
[link]

Description
This is Leviathan, presumably a coyote-wolf hybrid. But I didn't post him as a topic for that discussion, why I believe he's a hybrid etc, but for the purpose of following topic of 'Franken-fox' instead. "Building a "Wallhanger"
And honestly, I wasn't even going to post pix of Levi because he is not a good example of something I would want to present in my portfolio... no matter how much I love him... anyhow, this is why I am posting the image of him here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The question posed to me:
"I have a taxidermy style question. Just how mountable are pelts? You've said here and there and I've seen many others do "rescue" and touch up work, fixing holes, tears, turning lips and such. I do believe I've seen and read here and there about people adding a tail or feet to pelts as well. Would it be possible to collect different parts if your pelt isn't completely whole and have it bound together for mounting?
I'm asking because I'm very interested in searching for a red fox pelt for a soft mount, but I don't particularly approve of many methods of acquiring furs. I know a pelt can be found from a creature that died completely of natural causes, but it's not often and it would be unlikely the pelt would be in perfect condition. However, maybe some legs from one animal, tail from another, etc. would be possible?
So, to sum it up... Could zombie, or Frankenstein rather, soft mount be achieved? XD"

My opinionated Reply:
"Hi yah! &, in theory, ...yes!! [link]

...however, you may not be all that happy with the finished results. The fur will NOT cover most seams in the feet or leg areas. ~Ok, here in the above image link is my Franky. My (Frankenstein Fox) Franky has new legs made out of closely matching rabbit fur, and a new shaved down rabbit fur chin, and LOTS of well sewn holes. And hand made socks to cover/hide the 'new' legs.
~ It's up to you to try, but by buying a mask/face, a back plate, a tail, feet, etc. you are promoting the sale of parts and bits from a whole pelt(and they are expensive, when they should be available for pennies on the dollar) because they are only PARTS, & by buying them, your making them more desirable, and allowing trappers, hunters, etc. to believe that IF they choose to remove part or whole areas from pelts/and from perfect carcasses(due to laziness) your promoting wasting parts of the animal, sending a message that no one 'really' cares about the whole pelts anymore ...& that they can still make a LOT of money off of the partial pelts. This is NOT always the case, but it covers 60% of what's available on e-bay. And that is what we all want to avoid. That's why I personally stopped buying them legless, & stopped buying the 'fixable' wallhangers to mount, because I can get a whole pelt for the SAME price as rebuilding the many 'partials' - that is, unless the 'wallhanger' is cheap. So, why buy an incomplete pelt that you'll ultimately have to put far more $ into?... unless the 'part' is going for a bag or blanket etc., or for the repairs to a whole pelt with a big slip or rub mark in/on it. But even then, I try to haggle the price to be low, or wait for someone here on dA to sell their 'scraps' as scraps, and they are usually the right price. Sooo, take my well intended advice here: And in addition, finding the parts you need, in the right color and SIZE, is not only difficult but can cost you far more in parts and shipping, then it would be if you saved up your hard earned $ and purchased a whole tanned wild red from someone you can trust here on dA, or from a place such as Idaho, Moscow Hide and Fur(Google them.). Then you can ASK them if they feel if something your looking at is fully mountable if it isn't already stated, that way if they tell you it can be mounted, and it actually can't be, 75% of the overall time you can get a refund from a seller if it's via paypal or someone on e-bay, if not from an outright fur dealer.
~Then there is the possibility that the replacements that you purchased from any place may not be of mountable quality, and tear or fall apart the instant they are hydrated. Then you've just lost your $ and everything that goes along with it. It's just is not worth trying to make a "Franken-fox" in the end. Been there, done that.

Here is a SUPER example of what I'm talking about. ~I JUST finished a 'coyote' (above image) I got off of e-bay. I've been working on him for 6+ months!! And only because I purchased him from a man on line who stated, after I asked him about 10 relevant mounting questions that he answered YES to, that I shelled out the 65$ for.
~Then, WHEN I GOT THE COYOTE IN THE MAIL: he had -0- palm pads on any of his feet, NO bottom jaw, no genitals(they were cut off at skinning), and 4 HUGE rub spots. You can imagine, I was PISSED. He was basically NOT mountable. And In the end I had to MAKE him new pads out of fabric, clay, and leather - but I had to make the mold first! Then I had the irritating task to find matching scraps from someone I KNEW who very generously GAVE them to me to patch his rubs, and even so, I could only do 3 of the 4 areas, THEN find a LARGE coyote mask that matched, so I actually purchased 3 of them from 3 diff. sellers just so I could choose the best overall color and bottom jaw from the 3, and when I finally hydrated his head for mounting, I found out that his ears and the rest of his face weren't even turned out like the seller had promised! In the end, I was in love with the coyote and went through with fixing him up. But not before I complained to the seller, & got an agreed $25 refund which is what we both had concluded was a fair price for one mask, and for fur scraps to replace the rubs. And that didn't even include the genital region I wanted to replace, OR for 4 feet to use the pads from. But, like I said, I got the scraps for free, and made my own paw pads. And spent 1/3 more of the $25 for the total 3 masks. But I had NO intentions of go through any of that when I was promised a totally mountable coyote for $65.

And as far as the methods that require taking and animals life for fur, you can never REALLY know how, when, or why an animal was taken, or even how it died, unless that animal had clear signs, such as a bullet hole. And as far as getting ur hands on a fox or coyote that died naturally, your looking at 1 in 10,000 odds if that. Even then, a fox that 'died in cage' may be a generalization, where the details of the death are unspoken, just to get the fur sold off. If you get my meaning. And even then, I know many of us still purchased pelts, just to 'rescue' them. But I am now avoiding that myself.

Anyhow, Good luck in your quest. I hope you ultimately get & find what your looking for. And I hope this info helped you and everyone out. Try not to be impulsive. A wallhanger is a wallhanger for a reason."

images of the accompanying part two of this 'tutorial;'
[link]