7 ft. Hippo Sculpture for the Toledo Zoo!

The Penny Machine Company (http://pennybiz.com/) ordered this custom hippo sculpture to surround their penny machine at the Toledo Zoo. It is 7 ft. tall and made of foam and fiberglass.

I started with a 15 lb. HDU foam board for the background and a 3 lb. density EPS foam block for the head, hands and feet.

Next, I began to draw on the foam and start carving!

After the saw work was done, I went to rasping and sanding…

Now it’s ready for fiberglass!!

We took fiberglass cloth and saturated it with epoxy to create a hard, durable shell around the foam.

Next, we sanded it and used filler where necessary.

Rebar was used to reinforce joints.

Then, 2 layers of epoxy gel coat were applied to smooth out the surface.

The final step was painting and clear coating. Here are the final shots!!

 

To see more details, watch this video below!

 

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