Monday, October 13, 2008

Hard Weekend

Since the winds were playing havoc on everything I decided to hang out in the garage and keep cranking away on various props. I finished cutting all the rest of the shapes for my tombstones, painted the backings for my skeleton sconces, and pulled out all the rest of the decorations. here are a few pics of the progress.


Spiders!!


So last weekend I decide to start putting up my decorations. Spent a whole day streching beef netting all over the house and it looked awesome. Well that was until this weekend when Southern California got blasted by some really strong Santa Ana winds. My webs have really gotten thrashed. I'm not sure if I can salvage them but tacking them back down or if they are just to shredded to look decent. The winds are supposed to be done by tomorrow. Crossing my fingers that the rest of the month will go by with no more winds. Here is a pic before the melay.

Monday, June 16, 2008

3-Axis Greeter

I have been super busy every weekend playing with my new toy for this year. I'm working a 3-axis skull to be used to greet the tots this year. I'm using HalloweenBob's basic setup with Gym_Ghost hardware kit for the parts. The skull consists of 4 servos for movements of tilt, nod, rotate, and jaw movement. I'll post some pix of the progress later but I think I have everything the way I want just need to work on the programing of the animation.

Mr. Reaper Part II

I have been so behind when it comes to updates lately! Here is an updated pic on the reaper. I purchased a new spray gun to hook up to my compressor so I can get ready to paint him. I also picked up a gallon of Dry-Lok to coat him with so he can withstand being outside and not turn to mush. I'm hoping this weekend I can get that done and then give him a final coat of paint. Also a guide is coming I promise :P

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Mr. Reaper

So I been working on my reaper here and there when I get a couple minutes of free time. Here is a preview of the shape and design. I still need to add the burlap around the body portion but I think I got the hard part done (head, arm, & hand shape). I'm hoping to have the monster mud applied this weekend and then I'll just need to do some airbrushing.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Blue Foam

I finally found Dow Styrofoam (blue) in southern California. If anyone is looking for this stuff check out Allied Building Supplies (http://www.alliedbuilding.com/). They have in 1", 2", 3", 4" thickness and are 2' x 8' sheets. I bought a bunch of sheets to help me get started on the Cemetery Columns/Fence project.




I'll be posting some pictures on my progress of all these projects. Right now I have the skeleton structure created for the Monster Mud Project and hopefully this week I can start the coating.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Monster Mud Madness

I have begun work on the Monster Mud Reapers I will be making this year. I'm going to make 2 that will be placed on the columns on either side of the walkway up to the front door. They will be holding lanterns to light up the walk. I have created the bases for them to sit on. Next step is creating the skeletal frame with PVC. I will post pix along the way and do a short write up once they are complete.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Gearing Up For the New Year!

Well...it's that time again. Halloween ideas are starting to swirl in my head again. I got a few ideas I want to implement in this year's haunt. I wanna start early this year and make sure I'm not crunched for time. Here is a list of some projects I would like to do:
  • Bucky's! Lots of Bucky's! Well as much as I can afford...lol -- I had none last year so I would like to get at least 3 this year. Hopefully we can start seeing some good deals for the forum members from skeletonstore.com
  • Bucky Greeter -- Some kind of animatronics
  • 13 Hour Clock
  • Graveyard Columns / Fence
  • Candles/Candelabras/Sconces -- Flicker effect from Jackson Manor
  • Monster-In-A-Box
  • Witches Potions/Bottles
  • Better Strobes
  • Monster Mud Sign/Grim Reapers
  • More to come I'm sure....