No. We did that stuff with mild steel cut with a plaz, then heat & beat until it looked right. That snake was a 5 foot pipe, textured with a homemade chisel/punch, and heated with a torch & bent by hand. The texture on the coral/shark was simply mig weld with the gas shut off... Every bit was done by hand. I got photos of whatever animal, like the fish, then cut a flat piece of mild steel, 1/8 inch thick, textured it with a punch, and dished it with a hammer. Left & right sides welded together. Fully 3D, as lifelike as I could make it. Lots of sculptures went into new Bass Pro stores nationwide, in gates, hand rails, etc. We did a lot of large copper lanterns decorated with animals, vines, flowers, etc. that went on stone columns at BPS stores. We did fireplace doors, chandeliers, etc. and decorated them all by hand. Nothing was ever cast, except for some resin cast deer antlers. But usually we had pallets of real antler, either whitetail, mule deer, elk, or moose and we used that a lot. It was great fun and I enjoyed the creative experience immensely. The boss would suggest something to us, maybe sketch something with soapstone on the welding table, then go piss off for half a day. He'd return, suggest something else, then gradually we'd get where we wanted to be, visually. He used to say, "Heat it & beat it 'till it looks right!" or, "If ya aint havin' fun, ya better go to the house!" He also said, "If I could suck my own dick, I'd never leave the house!" (Maybe that's why he was never around much?) Fun times. I worked with some very creative people, and a few assholes. As usual, to some of them guys... "I" was the asshole.
Bass Pro never paid for shit, tho, all the while telling us we were "world class" craftsmen. When I returned from a year's deployment with the Missoui National Guard, I asked for a raise & they didn't say yes, didn't say no. They just f'ing IGNORED me, so I said I'ma make some real money, and went back to fixing Army helicopters, this time as a contractor. I went from working 40 hrs/week making about $20,000/year doing something I really enjoyed, to working 84 hrs/week making $120,000+ doing something I was Army trained to do & never realized I could make that kind of money... I worked off & on for 10 years years, mostly 12 hrs/day/7 days/week with never a day off in places like Bagram, Afghanistan, Taji, Iraq, etc.
Then I got on a State Dept Air Wing contract and what a sweet deal THAT was! 8hrs/day/6 days/week, 90 days on, 30 days (paid) off, with travel paid, per diem, etc. I even had my own room with my own bathroom! Anybody who ever went to Afghanistan or Iraq knows what a luxury this would be. In Kuwait I lived in a GP Medium tent with 7 other guys for a year. First two years at Bagram we lived in plywood shacks. But I found myself getting homesick and tired of having major birthdays alone in shithole places... Everything is a trade-off. But money is money and I made my retirement so now I live with it.
Curiius thing, tho... I used to be able to count six or eight guys off the top of my head who went off & spent 5 or more years working 12/7 84 hrs a week in Afghanistan and suddenly their wives back home said, "Thanks, asshole!" and emptied the bank account & filed for divorce. And some guys who started making $10-12,000 a month who bought big houses, expensive toys, etc and had no financial discipline. Just because somebody makes a lot of money, doesn't mean they manage it well. One guy I knew bought a BIG HOUSE and in 2009, after working all those long hours at Taji, (which is the definition of shithole) couldn't afford to quit & go home because he owed more on it than it was worth.
I could go on & on about this, but TLDR.
