Rotoff the Deadnose Reindeer

Step 4 Step 4

Time to prep the frame. First remove the motor mechanism if it is an animated deer. The head will be too heavy for this motor so take it off so you can use it for something else. Next cut the head of the deer off with a hacksaw or your tool of choice, but leave the top piece of wire to slide the head onto. If it is an animated deer, you will also have to secure the neck to the body of the deer in whatever position you want. I used zip ties. Next cover the body with chicken wire so that when you go to corpse the body it does not sag in between the wire sections. You can either use chicken wire on the legs or go with the spray foam to give it more dimension. Take Styrofoam poster board and cut it to fit inside the leg areas. Now spray the foam to give it musculature. Take another piece of Styrofoam poster board and rap it around the underside of the midsection and use the spray foam to create a few ribs. Design something for a tail. I used a piece of chicken wire and attached it to the back end.
If you plan on lighting your deer, now is the time to do it. I used 2 strings of orange lights (replacing 2 with green for the eyes and one purple one for the nose) but I am sure that LED lights would be much easier if you know how to do them. To secure the lights in the eye sockets, I used rope caulk. I lined the eye sockets with a piece of a disposable aluminum pan to reflect more of the light. Leave the extra lights hanging out on both sides of the skull where it attaches to the body. Once you have any lighting you want to do completed, attach the head.