The Oscars, fin-making and a special delivery

This is the start of a little project for my own amusement, an Oscars Statue. 

It's funny because this species of fish, Astronotus Ocellatus, is commonly known as an "Oscar".

Preparing for the Oscars

Some fins for a Barreleye fish (a little side-project) at 10tons

The fish also has that incredibly convenient black and gold coloration, similar to a regular Oscars statue.

The finished Oscar will be partly covered in real leaf gold, in my mind it looks amazing.

I'm using chavant clay for the fleshy parts of the fish, but I'll have to use a different material for the fins. 

I learned this really nifty fin-making technique at 10tons where you make the fin rays from greenstuff, press them halfway into a slab of kneading silicone and brush on a few layers of Split-Fin Repair (I love the fact that this product even exist, it's developed for taxidermy applications) to create the skin in between. When dry the fin can be removed, moulded and cast in polyoptic, and you get a thin, transparent fin.

I also received a bunch of materials today.

My lovely mother brough the family together to donate some cashmonies so I could buy a sort of basic starting-up-the-business-kit with various clays, silicones and casting materials, so I wouldn't be hampered by a lack of crucial but expensive materials.

<3

I don't know what I expected, I know cabosil (filler-material for silicones) is very light-weight but I still imagined 500g would come in a smallish bag.
Didn't expect a humongous 20 litre bucket. It feels like it contains a mix of air and nothing, but it is filled to the brim with what looks and feels like powdered aerogel.
Fascinating material.