Over time the dragon's right claw had fallen out and broken in half. I was hired to recreate a new claw for the piece.

This was the state of the original claw I would be replacing.

First, I glued the original claw back together.

I knew the claw would be more structurally sound if it was one whole piece. So I began prepping to mold the original claw.

I found a piece of PVC tubing to fit around the original claw to create mold walls.

Since I wanted to cast the claw in a rigid material, I knew I wanted to use silicone for my mold.

Claw during silicone pour.

Pouring silicone over original claw.

Here is the finished mold with the original claw removed from the silicone.

I casted a clear resin into the mold, resembling the original claw. New claw pictured on left, original on right.

Newly casted claw.

The newly casted claw was then lightly airbrushed to match the paint scheme on the original claw.

The original claw is on the left, while the new finished claw is on the right.

The new claw then had to be reattached to the dragon. I used a small amount of expanding foam to set the new claw back in to the dragon.