Casting an Ant Hill on a Log with Aluminum (Cast #126)

This is an aluminum casting of a fire ant colony which was built around a log. The log can be partially seen on the left side of the hill but most of it is covered by the dirt of the surface mound. Aluminum was poured into two holes made in the hill on each side of the log.

I anticipated removing the log, which is what I did on my other video involving a colony on a log, but I took an informal poll of my Facebook followers and 99.9% said “Keep the log!” This added quite a bit of work to finishing the cast but I do like how it turned out,

The log is around 4.75” in diameter at the biggest end. One end of the log is in decent shape while the other was showing a lot of rotting, I coated the log with an epoxy made by Totalboat which is said to help preserve rotting wood (we’ll see).

The cast turned out 10.9 lb in weight, a max width of 15” and a depth of 11”. The base board is a 12x9.5” oak with a medium brown stain and polyurethane finish.