Guys...I'm taking bird taxidermy this summer at Montgomery Community College in NC.....I've mounted a mallard, wooduck, and bufflehead so far... and am about to start on a HUGE 25 lb gobbler come monday...my customer wants a freeze dried head as opposed to me painting him an artificial one(I'm a senior painting major at UNCG)....his mind can't be changed....what do you all think about the pros and cons of freeze dried turkey heads? shrinkage, having to paint over feathers etc, vs painting artificial heads and having to match color and transfer feathers over etc.....just curious....thanks

-Lee

"girls do it better."

LoveHuntN;
Your kind of asking if the cup is half full or half empty. Because everyone will give you a lot of different opinions on which is best. I've used both freezed dried heads and artificial heads, and both have their difficulties. On the freeze dried heads your best bet when it come to covering up the paint on the feathers, is to use some mascara to cover up the paint. And if the freeze dyer did prep the head right, then yes, your going to have rebuild the shrunked areas back up. And you do have to advise your customer, that no moisture, whats so ever can come in contact with the head. Or you're really asking for trouble.

Now with the artificial heads, you're going to have to deal with the absence's of feathers. I personally like the artificial heads better. Most of my clients that have turkeys mounted, I will pluck as many feathers as possible from the real head, put them in a marked envelope, as to where I removed them from, then replace them when the heads finished. This is where a good set of reference pictures come in handy. I use a needle sharp point on a wood burner, burn in a hole in the mannikin then hot glue them back in place. make sure you don't use a lot of glue, because then you have a real mess to clean up, and have the chance of ruining your paint job. Good Luck with the turkey, and have fun at school.

Thanks for your reply...I personally like the artificial heads better myself...when they are done right and the feathers are replaced....I think the only reason this guy wants a freeze dried head is because this is a once in a life time bird for him....HUGE gobbler and I think he's afraid of the mount being good and the head looking fake if it was artificial(which it wont b/c painting it my fave part of taxidermy)...but I think it would be even worse if the mount was good and the freeze dried head fell apart for some reason later on...I heard the mascara works well for commercial birds...thanks for the tips!....I'll post a pic when it gets all finished ....cheers-Lee

if the artifical head is done right the feathers will not have to be replaced. they will be on the form when it is removed from the cast block.

I always made my own molds and poured my own heads.that way the hairs and little feathers will come out of the mold on the head.

I have a book that taught me the waty to do this,I will look it up and post the name in a day or two.

my suggestion would be to show your coustomer a freezed dried head and a latex poured one.then let him make up his own mind.I agree that most of the artifical haeds I have saw don't look real[&:]. you can pour 2 sometimes 3 heads from one form befor all the feathers and hairs are gone from the form.
It is really not hard to make a mold and pour your own.it will be worth you while to learn to pour your own.it's easy and a lot of fun.as I said the little feathers and all the hairs will come off with the head when removed from the mold.
good luck with you schooling,I just wish I could still do my taxie work.

I still do reproduce a lot of the heads I use, But when it comes to doing 25 to 30 turkeys a year plus, buying the artificial heads is cheaper, and more efficent in the long run. And I do keep extra heads around just for that certain occasion, especially when someone brings you in a bird from the fall season, and it just happen to be a hen. Then I usually reproduce the head. Besides when pouring the casts, all the feathers will be in the first cast, so then you're left with a featherless cast on the rest. I am now in the process of having some of my freezed dried heads made into molds so I can reproduce my own heads. Then I don't have to worry about buying from the suppliers.

I odnt deal with turkeys a whole lot but I like the artificial heads better.They have made a lot of progress in the past few years making them look better.

hunter , your right. In the passed freeze dried was the realist head one could get , but with the productions that are out , no one not even freeze dried can beet them.

I would get one of each , paint them and before adding them to the mount , I would have him choose , you may say yourself alot of head ach down the road.

Turkey heads are the same as everything else ,,,,you get what you pay for...BT

freeze dried look 50 times better than fake ones. here is one of the birds i got done in full strut. the head looks awesome. i really like what the taxi did. thats why i keep going back to him!

here is an jake with a freeze dried head, this one is a little better