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.

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

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

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Now it’s ready for fiberglass!!

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

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Next, we sanded it and used filler where necessary.

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Rebar was used to reinforce joints.

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

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

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To see more details, watch this video below!

 

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