Fox skeleton articulation (attempt!)

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MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
2,148
1,053
Surrey/Sussex
www.thetimechamber.co.uk
I have been trying to get a Fox skull for a while now, and this is my third attempt, both previous ones were either robbed or scavenged and I lost them. Probably because they were in a forest a walk away from my house so I couldn’t check them regularly.
However, one got hit by a car near my house, and crawled into the ditch alongside my boundary where I park my car, so this time i weighed the body down with old tyres and made sure the head was covered so it couldn’t be robbed. I then left it for a year, until it was just bones.

I then collected the skull, cleaned it with soap and water and then soaked it in a biological detergent and water mix for about 6 months to get the dried skin and grease out of the bones. Then they had about 12 hours in a 6% hydrogen peroxide solution. Before air drying them for a couple of days. I then glued the teeth back in and reassembled the skull.

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I was quite pleased with how it came out abs it got me thinking if I could rearticulate the rest of the skeleton, so I went and collected as many of the rest of the bones as I could fine. I hope I got them all (but probably not!)

this time they didn’t need the soak in water as they had been out in the open air for an extra 6 months are were completely clean and dry, so I just bleached them with hydrogen peroxide.


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all the key components appeared to be there (some not pictured) so I then started to assemble the spine. Took a bit of fiddling but the bits either feel ‘right’ and that they should fit together or they don’t. Sacrum is at the top and neck at the bottom of the below immage

CF949B1E-ABD6-4D81-AE2D-DB899AB685A6.jpeg

that’s as far as I have got for now, I am sure the small feet bones are going to be quite the challenge…..
This may take me a while…..
 
Last edited:

MrEd

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Feb 18, 2010
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Did a bit more on this today, properly wired the spine.

I drilled holes in the articulation surfaces and fed 0.8mm brass wire through them all, with a dab of glue gun glue between each one. Means it can be articulated a bit.
I have all the vertebrae but I am sure I am missing a few tail bones.

I also laid out and paired up the ribs. I have all the ribs and all the sternum bones except the small ziphysternum ‘nub’ on the end.

I then went through the leg bones, and I have all of those.

I have some of the hyoid bones.
I am not sure on the feet but I am certain I am missing some!

also an unidentified bone I have worked out aswell, it’s the penis bone so this was a male Fox.

Ribs - no idea if they are in the right order yet
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Pelvis in the right place
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tail - bit short!
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Adding the bones to the wire
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Through the holes I drilled
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Neck and thoracic vertebrae
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MrEd

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Feb 18, 2010
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Well that wasn’t as hard as I thought, wasn’t easy but wasn’t difficult - just a fair bit of trial and error but i have the foot bones organised into where they belong, and one foot almost assembled. I assembled the rear left foot and glued it together temporarily with a hot melt glue gun, once I have figured out the pose I will pick the glue gun glue off and reassemble the foot using milliput resin putty (maybe!)

I discovered I am missing:
1 x pisiform bone on a front foot which is annoying as it is quite big and obvious it’s missing (its where the dew claw mounts).
1 x 2nd cuneiform on the rear right foot (tiny)
1 x trapezium bone on a front foot (very tiny)

Quite pleased!


Laying out the rear foot bones, its fascinating how they all work together to give an enormous range of movement in multiple directions, at the same time.
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laying out the front foot bones
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assembled the rear foot and the metatarsals the toes 'hang off' - i will wire the toes so they can be posed.
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laying out the toes, the bones fit after i tried them all but interestingly the claws are all the same, and all the claws seem to fit all the distal phalanges in any combination. So not sure what to do about that, pribably jsut guess based on size to be honest.
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The foot glued together, look at how complicated and delicate that ankle and foot joint is!
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MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
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Damn. I need that book. What is it?
blooming expensive so dont tell my wife, but its part of this series here

this is the cheapest place i found it, the spiral bound ones are £75 on amazon, and the hard backs even more!!


i brought volume 8, but i can see me eventually getting volume 5 and 9 aswell.

and this is his actual website, a guy in the US

 

gra_farmer

Full Member
Mar 29, 2016
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Kent
blooming expensive so dont tell my wife, but its part of this series here

this is the cheapest place i found it, the spiral bound ones are £75 on amazon, and the hard backs even more!!


i brought volume 8, but i can see me eventually getting volume 5 and 9 aswell.

and this is his actual website, a guy in the US

I bought the entire national vegetation classification of the UK volumes....at £100 odd each paper back for my needs, so can see the pain here, for my sins realising that they could not be trusted, I had to re model all of the vegetation floristics from the start....not a happy chap.
 
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MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
2,148
1,053
Surrey/Sussex
www.thetimechamber.co.uk
Today’s efforts. Filled in some gaps where I have some bones missing, repaired the broken neck of femur and Built up the other foot….. and made a mistake. It’s to late to rectify though :(

I have made the left foot slightly inwardly rotated rather than parallel with the floor, hopefully when I pose it I can have it gripping a rock or something so it isn’t as apparent….

How it should be…
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And how I have glued it together :(
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damn!

I rebuilt the broken neck of femur aswell, using resin putty. It isn’t a perfect rebuild but that’s deliberate so it can be seen it’s beoken
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and the overview of what I did, rear legs are almost done pending attaching the toes.
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