Bob always admired the buffalo and would have liked to own one but he knew that his 15 acres couldn’t support one so he decided to build a life size statue of one out of cement. Since then he has built a number of other statues, all out of cement, including a few prehistoric animals, the largest being a 39 foot long T-Rex.

Step 1: Woolly Mammoth 1

At the beginning he says that he finds a photo or a drawing of what he would like to build, measures the dimensions, scales it up to the size he wants (usually life-size) and goes from there.

The first step, when working on a large statue, on site, is to mix some concrete and pour it in the ground with some rebar sticking up that he can mount four 4x4s. Then he builds the basic structure with 4x4s and uses wood lath for spacers.
He then uses metal lath (the same thing they make stucco walls out of) on the spacers to make the basic shape of the sculpture. (He tried chicken wire but found it didn’t work.

Step 2: Woolly Mammoth 2

Once he has the basic shape done out of metal lath he starts mixing his cement and applying it to the metal lath. The thickness of the cement is from 1/2-3/4 inch thick. He finds he can do the final detail with the cement as well.