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Here's a big canister of colored Zip Ties. A few of these colors WILL glow under UV
(blacklight) so be weary where you use 'em. I bought these at Home Depot a few years ago. Back then they were goin' for $15.00
or so. I thought that was a bit steep, but I've changed my mind, now that I've used them on so many projects. Now I think
it's well worth the money.
Another tool in my arsonal is the electric carving knife. If you tried to cut foam
rubber as thick as a couch seat cusion, you may realize that it's no job for a razor knife or a pair of scissors. This little
puppy will slice right through. But a word of advice...
Don't try to force the blade through the material. Let it cut at it's own speed. Cutting
foam rubber is a tedious chore if there's a lot of foam to cut & trim off, but let the tool do the work. Your arms won't
get so tired trying to force the blades.
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ALSO: BE VERY AWARE THAT THESE THINGS DON"T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
FOAM RUBBER AND HUMAN FLESH!
PLEASE BE CAREFUL!
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It's quite easy to cut yourself while working with this little monster.
When you start using one. Be aware about where you're holding the foam
rubber. How, and in what direction the blade is travelling, and make sure the power cord is not in the path of the blade.
I used to have a lot more foam than this. I moved from a three bedroom house (with
LOADS of attic space,) to a single bedroom apartment. So my storage went to the size of a walk-in closet. But for this project,
I don't think I'll need very much foam. Just enough to make the upper chest area, is just about all I'll need. So the
gray bit of foam is actually all I used.
The Scene of the CRIME....
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Between my desk, (to the left) and a white bookcase is a space for my dummy. I plan to use
a vampire mask, (donated to the cause by my good neighbor Rick, (also a displaced home haunter, like myself.)
The mask has a top hat, long scraggly hair and looks pretty gruesome. It also has a collar
and a bit of a shirt. It sort of looks something like a bust, of a statue. So considering that it's a bit "taller" than
the average mask, I have to keep that in mind as I build.
Also, if it turns out to be too tall, it's no big deal. This project is adjustable in height
to compensate. Notice the wooden clothes hanger, standing on the desk? Yeah, I like to make sure that this project doesn't
sag, as it's still a few weeks before the party. (At this writing, today is September 3rd. 2007.)
I really didn't like seeing the multi-outlet adapter hanging on the wall here, so I simply
placed some white cardboard and stood it up against the wall, to cover it up. You might say, "Well, so what?" But I like to
make things look nice. Less "fallout" exposed, the better. Even though it's a scary prop, doesn't mean you can't be neat and
clean about things. (Which reminds me... I have to empty out my electric razor.)
Here's the Artist's Easel. You might notice that I didn't open it fully. I wanted the front legs
to stand as far apart as a normal person's legs would be. The back leg of the easel has an aluminum cane attatched to it at
the top, with a couple of orange zip ties. These were tightened down fairly well, but the cane can still be adjusted, up or
down, if the cane is twisted back and forth while doing so.
Here's a closer view of the cane, easel and the location of the orange zip ties. In this project,
I used different color ties for different jobs of the project. I hope this makes it easier to see where the ties went for
each application.
My easel had a bit of a flaw in it. The hole in the end of the center leg had lost the wood
at the tip. (Probably why I found it in the trash in my parent's neighborhood.) But I wrapped it tightly, with some white
electrical tape. Don't know why I got white tape, but it's not going to be seen anyway.
Here's the cottage cheese container. It's about 5" across, at the opening. I used a razor
knife to make an octagon hole in the center, to fit over the cane tip. This is roughly the size of a human neck, so we'll
see how this works out.
The cut upening was just the right size. It took a slight force to push the cane through,
but there's absolutely no play or "wiggle" between the cane and the container. Very snug. Besides, it it didn't work, I could
always trim away a bit more. It's "replacing" the plastic after it's cut, that's the tough part.
Hmmmm... A little wonky at best. The container is sitting crooked. But like everything else,
I have a solution...
Taking advantage of the super snug fit (I was so lucky enough to end up with... It's
sic!) I tightened a blue zip tie around the cane, to act like a support collar, so as to hold the container up a little higher from
the inside.
(Wolfie doing his "spot-on" Maxwell Smart imitation...)
AHH! The old red lighbulb in the clear plastic milk jug, to light up the eye holes of a latex
mask trick!
Ok, enough Maxwell Smart...
I cut off the handle of the milk jug, and used the resulting hole to place the bulb a bit
higher inside the jug. I fed the plug end & cord out the neck of the jug, and used the clip on the side of the socket
to assist in holding the socket in place.
But there's MORE!
By positioning the X-mas socket first, I was able to determine where I can cut two small slits/slots
in the plastic milk jug, so as to run a white zip tie into the jug, around the socket and out again. Notice how the zip tie
also passes over the clip of the socket. I'd say this socket isn't going anywhere, too soon.
The bottom of the milk jug had to have a hole in it, so the end of the cane can keep the jug
from "flopping" over to one side, as an anchor. The cane isn't standing straight up and down, virtically. It's tilted forward
slightly. This is why the hole is off-center like it is.
Come to think of it... The bottom of the jug kind of looks like a face. Kind of spacy, don't
you think? Wonder if a coat of silver spray paint, and some well placed tape, might mask off the grooves enough to create
a weird alien face? Remove the tape, and the "eye slits" could glow if a green bulb was used instead of red. Cut out the corners
of the side of the jug, and fold the sides together and you got a creepy alien head.
Things that make you go "HMMMmmmmm".
I turned the easel around to show the wire ties that were used to anchor the wire cord from
the jug, down the back leg. I have an outlet right behind this prop, so no extention cord will be needed.
"It's not the size of your haunt that matters...
...It's where you place your monsters."
Two more zip ties were added to assist in "cord management".
Now, the coad hanger is put into the project. Here, the wire hook was secured with a blue
wire tie, beneath the cottage cheese container. The lower crosspiece of the hanger was also tied to the front legs of the
easel. This will help to make the easel a bit more stable and make sure the hanger is anchored securely.
You can just barely make out where the blue zip ties are along the horizontal part of the
coathanger. I guess now, is as good a time as any, to see if the filament in the bulb has survived up to it's final resting
place. I'm not too concerned with the shadow cast by the cane inside the milk jug, but I am getting a little concerned about
how tall all this is getting to be.
Keep you claws crossed.
I taped that gray piece of foam to the hanger. (the hanger is actually turned around backwards,
to help force the upper chest out a bit more.) Clear packaging tape, (the kind thats like an 1 1/2" wide,) was used to anchor
the foam into place. Fortunatly, I didn't need to use the electric carving knife to trim things down.
I criss-crossed the tape over the foam, so I can flatten the corners of the foam, back onto
the hanger. There's not that much structure for the tape to "land" on & stick to, so I cut it exceedingly long. I could
always cut off the excessive length. Packing tape is pretty strong and not as expensive as re-enforced or "strapping" tape.
Most of the times I have seen dummies put together at other haunts, and the corners are always
"poking through" the clothing. This sortta tells me that if the corners are cut back, or taped back, then the prop will look
a lot better.
If you have a good eye... or two... you may have noticed something protruding out of the curved
end of the cane. It was plastic jacketed wire.
Used in a home's electrical systems, Plastic Jacketed wire is pretty stiff, but it can be
shaped to some degree. In this case a length was bent in half, and both ends were inserted into the end of the cane.
The curved bend of the wire was inserted behind the foam, to push the bottom edge of the foam,
forward.
An old gray cotton shirt was selected to be used for this prop. I live in Florida. Long sleeved
shirts aren't really "the attire of choice" down here. So I finally made use of it with this prop.
This is about the point in the project where you stand back and try to convince yourself
that...
"Hey! This is actually starting to look good!
But I'm not all that positive. I much rather wait until I get that deep Navy Blue
Pinstriped 3-Piece suit I have waiting in the wings, on it.
Heh heh heh hehhh.
Well, what do you know? It's STILL in the dry cleaners bag, since my Sister's wedding over
eight years ago. I'm just about sure I'll be buried in this thing, so I better make some "good" use out of it, while I'm still
alive and kickin'.
There's even the bill attatched to the bag...
Ho Crap!
You won't believe what it cost to get this suit dry cleaned and pressed...
$13.13 !!!
Priceless!
:D
The pants were placed on the floor and the legs were rolled up, (more like "bunched up,)
so that you can look through the legs of the pants and see the floor. I then placed the legs of the easle through the
legs of the pants, so that the easel legs rested on the floor again. This prevented me from laying the entire contraption
on it's back as I tried to slip the long pant legs over the easel legs.
Remember?
I'm lazy?
I then pulled the wasteband up to the cane, and looped the wasteband clasp above the zipper,
around the curved end of the cane. This keeps the pants up.
Since this dummy will be standing behind a small table, with a floor length table cloth over
it, AND a large cooler chillin' about a case of beer, I doubt anyone's going to notice the total lack of feet.
This is what I had for the last 3 days. Somehow, my cellular phone and high speed internet
service got screwed over, and I had to place a call to AT&T Wireless, (as they bought out Cingular recently,) so it was
enevatable that the system was tweeked to their specs.
Of course, they neglected to inform wolfmen and other monsters in the calling plan, so I spent
72 hours pulling my hair out, and trying to figure out the settings. Today, I called customer service, and a right nice gent
helped straighten out the whole cluster*uck.
He also noticed I wasn't using three different services, and credited my account to the tune
of $150. Guess what? That's roughly the cost of a costume I've been jonesing for. Couldn't of happened at a better time if
you ask me.
}'-{D}
Back to Easel Eddie...
So the original plan turned out to be way too tall. THe cottage cheese container was cut
from the hole in the bottom, out to the edge and down the side to the lid opening. This allowed the removal of the container
without taking the whole thing apart.
It was STILL too tall, and I had to remove a bit of the milk jug. Just the opening and
the neck of the jug. This consisted of the threads that held the cap onto the jug, and a small bump that was just below the
threads.
The shoulders STILL seemed a bit "boney" to me. So I trimmed and shaped a few foam rubber
pieces and used clear packing tape to attatch it to the armature. This also lifted the shoulders another 1.5 inches, and it
started to look way better than before.
NOW it's beginning to fit. Since I don't own the mask that the dummy will be using, I
didn't have a reference in the height of the head. But Richard finally brought it over so we could work out the details.
Oh!
That's right...
You haven't seen the mask yet!
Well, hold onto your keyboards...
Here he is!
Oh, 'Scuse me, but you got a little something...
No, wait. I'll get it.
Sometimes it's great to add a little detail. Like this pendant. I bought it at Features
Costumes in Tampa about 5 years ago. I saw it, wanted it, but never found a decent USE for it. Finally, it's found a home
for the holiday.
Here I finally got things set up just about the way I want it. The cooler will be filled
with ice and about a case & a half of beer will be added. The Ol' Bloodsucker is going to stand guard over the bubbly,
with his hands on the handles of the cooler.
Richard has a red tablecloth is going to cover the TV Tables. I have an old shield
that I will hang over the tablecloth, just to classy it up a bit. I'm also going to cover the cooler with black
plastic. This aughtta look good.
The cooler has a white plastic lid that I don't want on the cooler for that night.
When I selected the cooler (Colman) I found that the hinges were attatched with screws. I thought that was a good feature,
in case I ever wanted to remove the lid for whatever reason.
This one uses 8 Phillips head screws to position both hinges.
I removed the screws that held the hinges to the body of the cooler. I then ran the screws
back into place, so I don't loose them. A good habit to get into, if you ever plan to reassemble things in the future.
I left the hinges attatched to the lid. If I didn't, I might misplace the hinges. But
it'll be tough to misplace a cooler lid of this size. So the cooler is in two pieces right now.
These are the glove/hands that the dummy will be "wearing". The fingers are pretty long. The
way that they'll be attatched to the cooler is by the thumbs. Since the cooler's handles slide up and down, I thought that
the handle could be slid up. Then the thumb placed behind the handle, then the handle slid back into position. The thumb is
then pinched, "clamp-like" between the side of the cooler and the handle.
Here's a close-up of the back of the hand. The next installment will be about adding the
arms and hands to the dummy. Hope to see you then.
}'-{1}
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Please be sure to visit "How to Halloween" A new up and coming site on building your own Halloween decorations for next to
nil!
The Halloween-L is a great website & forum. You should go there NOW! Ok, after you view my website. But right after that,
go there! (If you know what's "Boo" for you!)
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