Last Friday night, my wife and I went out to dinner. We don’t go out much on any weekdays since we are so tired from work all of the time. But it was Friday night. When we got home, our polar bear that has been on our porch for nearly a decade was destroyed. Well, destroyed is a strong word, but someone had smashed it on the porch, breaking off a leg, fingers and toes.
I had just been talking to my wife this summer about repainting the bear, since it had been sun bleached, and the colors were mostly gone from him as it was. And when we would touch him, white paint would be left on our fingers.
So this was the perfect opportunity. Saturday morning I glued him back together. One problem. He was missing the tail. He had a big hole in his butt. What is going on here? I went out and looked all over the ground in front of our porch to see if it had flown off into the yard somewhere. No luck. I haven’t been building dioramas for nothing. I knew I had some skills in my back pocket I could use. I went down to Lowe’s, got me some bondo, and filled all of the cracks, missing fingers, and the tail.
By Sunday, he was dry and ready to paint. I had some outdoor paint leftover from a previous project, and it was the perfect color for this guy. All coated, he really started to look more like a grizzly bear.
The tail looked like it has always been there, which was the part I was the most worried about the whole time.
On Monday evening, after I got home from work, I added more colors to add depth to the fur. I repainted the scarf with colors of my college, Humboldt State University.
Yesterday he was ready to be clear-coated with a nice flat coat. I added some Super Gloss Mod Podge for the nose, eyes, and mouth, to give a bit of shine. And now he is back on the porch, looking better than ever, less than a week after he was smashed.
My Life in Scale 