So not much fishing for me so far in 2025 because I’m serving as my wife’s constant helper for total knee replacement in both of her legs. I’m glad I can help her and proud of her drive to recover! However, I’m pretty bored staying home so much so I’ve been looking for projects. I got my hands on a couple of older fish mounts to try my hand at sprucing them up. My question to those who may have experience is, is an airbrush worth getting to refinish them? Also, what price point do I need to consider to avoid junk? Is bondo a good option for touch up where there are damaged areas of an old mount? Any suggestions are appreciated.
Sounds like a fun project. Can’t offer any help to your questions, but I sure would like to see your finished mounts. Good luck with it!
I carve fish mounts from wood. I use acrylic paints by brush, sponge etc to get my results. I find if you look at the mount as art then from a distance the fish can look very satisfying. I feel the hand painted method can give a nice feeling of the fish.
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Very nice work Chris!
Here’s a LMB I restored by hand and a sail I’m working on now. I’m considering the airbrush for larger mounts.
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Very Nice! I am impressed.
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My buddy worked for a taxidermist back in our 20s. Cool job, and he gave me a behind the scenes look. He showed me how to mount some myself- pretty easy overall.
Never repaired any, but gel coat and glass seem more the sort vs bondo, but I can ask him for you.
I went with an air brush (this is 20 yrs ago so not able to give you good details and what brand). Hand painting would be really hard to nail right. You have to have.a pros hand to make brush work look as good as @Chris_Morejohn
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