Lion Sentry Upgrade

The wife had bought two lion sentries a few years ago and they got damaged from the weather so I decided it was time to refurbish the lions since they sat in front of our gate. The lions were an off light blue aqua color. The first thing I did was patch a big hole in the back side of the pedestal using expanding insulating spray foam. I stuffed the hole with broke bits of Styrofoam and then sprayed the expanding insulating spray foam till it came out. I scrapped the excess as it came out ensuring it all was level. I waited a few hours and then came back with a sharp knife and started to cut and trim the excess till it was level. No sanding was needed as the pedestal the lion sits on is stone looking so the spray foam matched perfectly.

I started spray painting the lions with black Rust-o-leum paint and hit the hair, eyes, mouth, paws, in between the legs, curves and anything I thought needed to stand out. I did this with both lions flipping back and fourth in order to give the paint time to settle and dry some. This helped me see if I missed any parts of the lion as well. As you can see I ensured I hit the lions back ribs and spine so that it would standout more and all the shadow areas as well.

I moved the lions from where they were sitting up on the saw horses down to the grass so I could hit the top of the heads better. Once the black was dry I started with a metallic silver also Rust-o-leum spray paint. I sprayed and tried to hit the areas that stuck out versus the cracks and shaded areas. As needed I touched up the black to ensure the highs and lows all blended in.

Here is the after photos of the our lions. The entire project took me a day because of the sun shine which helped dry the spray paint very fast. The lions turned out a hole lot better after I was done and now sit proudly guarding my gate as they should be.