M.M. I have to disagree with your advice.First of all your work looks very impressive but a piece of plastic is just that.Removing the head is the easy way out.Sure the last fish I mounted was a Tillimok King and it took 5 weeks to properly bleed the head.And no since it was done properly it didn't shrink or bleed.Sorry but you can't reproduce certain aspects of a fish especially in the head area(ie. teeth)The most important piece in any mount is the finish work/airbrushing.That will make or break any job.