Scott Brewer's "Winter Warrior" mount was the National Champion and Bruchac Award winning mount at the 1995
NTA Competition. This outstanding mount graced the cover of Catalog 21. Scott explains how he created
this stunning mount using an altered McKenzie form. The following alteration steps are very
close to those used for the "Winter Warrior".

The specimen was collected by a client who wanted a special piece for his collection. It had a
very stocky (21 1/2 inch) neck and short (7 1/8 inch), thick muzzle with a nice 150 class rack. The client also asked
that the head be slightly raised with the buck looking back over his shoulder.

Start with a McKenzie whitetail form (Scott used McKenzie form 6585).

Make cuts to remove 1/4-inch between the back of the nose and the back corner of the mouth.

Another 1/4-inch piece will be removed between the corner of the mouth and the tear duct.

While the nose is off, dremel out the nasal passages and install a septum. To get a flared-nose look, the lip line
in front should be brought up slightly. A slight depression was sanded into the nose at the areas marked in black.

Reassemble the muzzle pieces with bondo. At this point it is mandatory that the muzzle in put in straight.
Ensure with a a level that the nostril wings are level with the eyes.

Sand down the muzzle to even out the rest of the face. Notice the pie-shaped mark at the neck.
This is where the neck will be cut and turned around that that the nose will be raised 3/4-inch.

Make marks down the neck where cuts will be made to rotate the neck. Number the pieces, nine separate pieces
can get confusing. Carefully cut the sections along your lines, keeping the cuts straight. The surfaces
of each section should be as flat as possible.

When reassembling the neck, have numerous references depicting the pose you are after.
Use pins or screws to hold the neck in place and inspect it from all sides.

Once you are happy with the position, mark lines down the neck with a marker so that pieces
can easily be lined back up. Now, bondo it all back together.

This photo shows the form after the muscle groups have been roughed in. A two-part urethane foam
was poured over all the affected areas, then smoothed out with a rasp and sandpaper.

Note: Although the wrinkles on the inside turn look extreme,
they will be smoothed out with clay during the mounting process.

To hold the form up, use a 1-inch piece of aluminum tubing about 18-24 inches in length.

Note: Don't make it too short to attach to the base.

Drill a large, 1-inch hole up through the bottom of the brisket and into the form.

Be careful not to blow through into the area you removed in the previous step.

Countersink/bondo a block of wood behind where the tubing will sit then secure the tubing with lag bolts going through the tubing and into the wood.

Add two-part urethane foam to the upper shoulder area.

Rasp/sand the foam down to the desired height. After this step you may want to mix a bondo/resin mixture
and paint it on the addition made to the back of the form to add strength to this area.

This is the finished look. It's head is turned slightly more than the "Winter Warrior"
and the jawset has not been installed yet.

Although altering forms can be a little intimidating, use good references, study
your subject and you can create a really unique pose with a standard McKenzie shoulder form.