Painting the Mount 115 



point, a medium-sized air gun may be used. For the finer paint- 

 ing required in doing the fins, jaws, cheek and body markings 

 such as spots, bars, or lines, a small airbrush is required. When 

 the paint job is completed, apply a couple of coats of clear 

 varnish. Do not use lacquer for the finish coat because there 

 is danger of the colors running. Lacquer with as little thinner 

 as possible may be used, but still the colors underneath may run 

 or soften because the heavier lacquer has time to affect them. 



Painting the Glass Eye 



Painted glass eyes can be purchased from most commercial 

 taxidermy supply houses. Unpainted eyes are less expensive, 

 however, and can be painted to match your fish with more ac- 

 curacy. The blanks or unpainted eyes come with a dark pupil; 

 therefore, only the iris requires painting. 



Pour a bit of lacquer ( not thinned ) into the tin cap of a jar 

 or other receptacle. Dip a small (Ys inch) brush, which has stiff 

 bristles, into the lacquer, then into a silver or gold powder, and 

 dab the underside of the glass eye. Hold the eye along the 

 edge, bottom side down, and dab the silver or gold (or both) 

 from beneath so that you can see the results. Add more silver 

 or gold as necessary. If the iris contained dark specks in life, 

 include these with another small, stiff brush dipped in lacquer 

 and touched to a dark oil pigment such as Vandyke brown. 

 When satisfied that the paint job looks convincing, pour a few 

 drops of lacquer (not thinned) over the back of the eye. Do 

 not brush the lacquer on as the speckled effect of the iris might 

 be softened. If fresh plastic is used to set the glass eye in the 

 mount, drop hot wax over the lacquer for additional protection. 

 Do this by holding a piece of beeswax over the eye and then 

 touching the wax with a small hot tool. The wax will melt and 

 drop over the eye. 



