The sign’s back board is now routed and it is time to glue everything together.

We have also made good progress on the first bull's head. Note the heavy steel rod that goes through the head and into the horns to make sure they are strong and secure.

Next, we will attached the bull's head to the back of the sign. We will weld up a steel frame (to be laminated inside the sign) and then finish the sculpting in place. It is always best to sculpt “as it will appear finished” if possible to get the proportions right — even for cartoon characters.

You can see a small groove in the horizontal piece of the sign — this was a routing mistake. We accidentally called up the wrong file (it had a similar name) but no real harm was done and the top piece will laminate over it before we are done.

The internal frame is a 1.5" x 1.5" square tubing frame with some sturdy eye bolts on the top.

We will glue and screw scrap blocks of 1.5" Precision Board around it the frame.

Then we will attach the back side of the sign (with the second bull head). We will sculpt this bull once in place.

Because this is a dimensional sign — it measures nearly four feet thick! — we will take a little extra time and effort to finish the edges. We will create the woodgrain texture on the edges, by hand, with an air powered die grinder.

These little details add value to a project and is one more way we can separate our work from the pack.

The last thing we will sculpt is the bull’s nose ring. The ring wasn’t part of our original design but there is always room for improvement!

The sign is now ready for paint…