268 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



DIVISION IV 

 MODELS FORMED OF AN ELASTIC COMPOSITION 



It will have been seen by the preceding pages that a glue 

 composition is sometimes used as a means of making moulds, 

 into which plaster may be poured to make the resultant model. 

 The disadvantages of plaster, when used to represent a natural 

 object, are manifest, and have been commented upon at length. 

 If, however, the process is reversed, the plaster of Paris 

 being used as a mould and the glue composition as a finished 

 model, then the advantages are all on the side of the softer 

 material, owing to its elasticity and the readiness with which it 

 relieves from the most intricate undercuttings in the plaster 

 mould. 



Hitherto, the use of any glue composition has been limited 

 by the important consideration of its durability, and repeated 

 experiments with the ordinary glue — plasterers' modelling- 

 glue — composition have proved its uselessness. There are, 

 however, modifications of this which, in elasticity, definition, 

 beauty of appearance, applicability to almost any purpose, 

 adaptability to colour, durability, and freedom from shrinking, 

 are of the highest importance. Quite impossible, indeed, is it 

 to overrate any medium which will successfully interpret the 

 texture and matters of detail in such diverse objects as a 

 caterpillar, a slug, a cuttle-fish, any species of fish, an amphi- 

 bian, a reptile, the body of a bird and of a mammal, and the 

 internal organs of all. Such valuable properties are possessed 

 by some of the compositions which follow, the best being 

 probably Formula 96 or 97, which has been used in the Leicester 

 Museum, with the best results, for subjects ranging from a slug 

 up to a 12 lb. fish. 



Apparently the first, however, to recognise the valuable 



