Giant Stag Beetle – 7 Feet Long!

A taxidermy/insect themed store in Phoenix contacted us to make an enormous, seven foot long stag beetle! Quite a unique project. We decided to make it from EPS foam for the body, HDU for the pincers,  and all-thread rod legs reinforced with epoxy clay.

I laminated the pincers and started roughing out the EPS block.

Next, I added the legs…

I sculpted over the all-thread rod legs with FreeForm Air, an epoxy dough.

I reinforced the middle legs and the pincers with fiberglass, then moved on to give the whole piece a coat of polyurethane foam coat. It dries into a hard shell, sealing all that foam and making it weatherproof.

Next, I moved on to painting. We used All Surface Enamel from Sherwin-Williams.

We couldn’t resist having some fun with such an unusual sculpture!!

 

Thanks for looking!