this tiger is finished!

Tiger's done!

tiger is almost finished

Replica claws - painted and ready to glue!
Finished! Now for the felting.
I need felt. Rawr.

tiger update - 2010

Examples of tests - gluing, color matching with airbrushing, creating perfectly-shaped fills.
Water damage removed, some examples of holes.
This hole took me a day to fill.
The result - can you see it? (hint - near the left of the tail)
Take a closer look.

Tiger is looking beautiful! The fills look good and the airbrushing is really challenging but rewarding. The old felt has been removed and some preliminary lining has been glued into place around the fills that are completed.

February entails: (haha) more fills, more airbrushing and gluing, lining, re-felting, claw replacement.

tiger rug repair 12/3/09

Tiger repair update

This is a photo of the head before I cleaned it or did anything else to it. I dusted using a rubber dust pick up and an air hose. I cleaned all the sculpted parts with alcohol.
Next, I used a dremel to get rid of the sculpted parts that were breaking, cracked, or sticking out in weird ways. I also drilled out new nose holes. Not too deep, of course!
I then sculpted with magic sculpt around all the sculpted parts to give everything a very thin, even coat. Making sure not to add too much material. The photo above shows that stage.

Then I airbrushed everything I re-sculpted. I tried not to take away too much from the vintage look of the rug, so I didn't do major surgery on this guy. I didn't want to have to take off the nose or mouth or eyes completely. I think that the look and feel of this guy is important. He had crazy eyes to begin with, so I just made sure to make them a bit more even, but not change them entirely.
A 3/4 view. All airbrushed.

Today I found fur that I believe will work for the reconstruction of the ears and for the fills in the hide. Onward and upward, Mr. Tiger!