Stricken at Nightfall

I thought this picture turned out kind of cool. I took it while laying on the ground, looking up at the prop as the sun was setting behind it.

Lost on Halloween Night

This one fooled a few people... my mom came up and helped pass out candy on Halloween night, and she even talked to it a few times forgetting that it was just a prop I had placed there. Later on in the night, I moved it up closer to the road where all the parents usually stand. I saw a few of them try to have interactions with it as well. The kids reactions were the best though, when they realized that this was no ordinary kid they were talking to.
As it appeared Halloween night.

Grim was popular this year

Here's another Grim prop that someone just sent me pictures of...
Nice work, Teresa!

Yet Another Grim Relative...

Another one of Grim's relatives celebrated its first Halloween this year, this one is carrying skulls and appears much taller than the one I built.
Nice Prop, Brian!

Grimvisions Scarecrow

I have always liked the look of scarecrows with burlap covered heads. It was this scarecrow head, made by Grim of Grimvisions, that really gave me the urge to make one (or three) for myself.


See this and other wonderful props at the Grimvisions website.

Grimvisions.com

The missing are found...

This is the scarecrow lineup for Grim Hollow, 2009. This year's theme is "The Darkest Hour".

Straggler

Strain

Strawman


Stricken


Strife

More pictures to come...

Sad Face

"Stricken" Preview

New Prop: Stricken

"Strain"

Preview of the latest prop for Grim Hollow 2009...

More Strife Pictures

The Watcher

Looking through some pictures tonight and came across this picture of "The Watcher". I think this was the first "real" Halloween prop I ever made a few years back. He was made from wood, burlap, chicken wire, monster mud, and an old mask. I usually put this guy in a dimly lit place where people have to walk right by him. In the dark it's hard to tell if it is a real person or not, and you are expecting him to grab you at any moment.

I should point out that I used the Home Haunter's Prop Building Handbook, from Terror Syndicate, while making this guy... Here's another picture of him in "action".

Strife

Strife Pics

Here are a few more pictures of my new Strife prop. I re-used the head and hands from the first groundbreaker corpse I ever attempted to build, which didn't turn out so hot. Actually, they are from this guy. The rest of it is made from a skeleton made from rolled up newspaper, which was covered in paper mache'. Most of the branches I used are from Mountain Laurel, which I have a ton of growing in the woods behind my house. I'm looking forward to building a few more of these this year to line each side of my driveway. Should be a pretty spooky walk for the kids to get their treats this year...

Strife Video

Sorry it took so long. Hope you like it...



More pictures to come.

Cloaked Ghost's Hand

I have gotten a few questions about the hands on my cloaked ghosts. Here is a picture of them close-up, with another use that I found for them while they were hanging out in the garage. Made an excellent MP3 player holder. This picture shows more detail of the hand and the look that the construction adhesive gives it. I probably could have made it look even better if I had taken my time, I kind of rushed these. I think this one was also painted with some flat tan spray paint.

Cloaked Ghost Step By Step

When I first saw Pumpkinrot's Cloaked Ghost, I knew that I had to build one. Or two... or three. Since then, I have gotten a great response from the two I built and lots of questions about how I did it. So... here are a few pictures I took along the way, and a brief description of how I made them. I don't know how Rot made his, but I really owe him credit for the idea for this prop that I put my own spin on.


I started with a piece of 1 and 1/4" pvc pipe that was probably close to 5 feet long. The little device it is standing on is a thing I made to put my tombstones on while I was painting them, that I have found comes in handy for several other uses. I went ahead and painted this pole black since I didn't want it visible and I figured this would be the easiest time to paint it.



Next I made a piece for the shoulders out of a 1X2 and arms out of 1X2's as well. The one arm has a piece of pvc pipe for the forearm... I'm not sure why I did that. I might have run out of 1X2's. I also made a hood out of chicken wire and used a wire coat hanger along the front edge to give it more support. My plan was to use monster mud covered burlap over this so I needed all the support I could get, as that stuff can be rather heavy.



I made the hands out of two different sizes of glue sticks that were cut and glued back together. I could have done this a lot simpler, but I had just learned this method and wanted to try it out. These turned out to be really strong, especially after I covered them in construction adhesive and dipped them in liquid latex for extra support.



Here is what the ghost was looking like after the monster mud covered burlap was added to the hood. I had to use another piece of wood to hold up the front of the hood while this was drying, as it kept wanting to fall and droop down too much in the front. I ran the wire to power the lantern (that this ghost would later hold) up the main pole and down the raised arm. At this point I had also dyed some cheesecloth a tan color, and wrapped the main pole with it to make it less visible in the finished product.


Here is the ghost, nearly completed with all the rest of the cheesecloth draped on it. I used some spray on glue as I layered the cheesecloth on to keep it from blowing away in the wind... this seemed to work really well. I shredded the ends of the cheesecloth and made some long stringy pieces to hang down and blow in the breeze. I tried to get rid of any "straight lines" such as the ends of the cloth or anywhere it may have folded over. I felt that any of these that were visible would take away from the creepiness factor. I painted everything inside the hood black at this point also, so that nothing would be visible inside the hood. This was what I liked most about this prop, the mystery of what was inside that darkened hood, which was nothing. I also added a Skull and Bone style flickering lantern to one hand.


Here was the finished product. Even though this picture was photoshopped a tad, the center pole becomes pretty much invisible at night and blends in with the other pieces that hang down. I painted the bottom of this black, up about a foot or so and blended it back into the tan color, which makes it even less visible. This is what gives it that "hovering" look. To stand the ghost up, I drove a five foot piece of conduit into the ground about two feet, which left three feet out of the ground for all of you mathematicians, and then slid the whole assembly onto that.

Some things I might have done differently if I were to build these again.... I might have used a paper mache material for the hood instead of monster mud, as this would have been much lighter, although the monster mud will hold up better in all types of weather (such as rain). I probably would use the thicker walled (schedule 40 I think it is called) pvc pipe, which would be stronger than the thin walled stuff I used. I didn't have any problems with it, I just like to be on the safe side. I think that about covers it, but if I left anything out feel free to ask... I'm sure there was something.

The Inspiration... Pumpkinrot's Cloaked Ghost


Photo From Pumpkinrot.com

Grim: Step by step

I have had a lot of questions about my "Grim" prop that I built for 2008. I plan to put a full blown tutorial on my website sometime, but for now here is a brief step-by-step tutorial with some never before seen pictures.


I stated with a basic wooden frame, made from 1X2's and 1X3's. I actually stood in the position I wanted "Grim" to be standing in so that I could get the angles of the arms and legs right. I wanted the legs and arms really long and the torso a little smaller.


I came up with this idea from seeing the three skulls on a rope decoration, and thought that Grim needed to be holding these as sort of his "captives". I wanted them to have rather happy faces, as they do not realize the terror they are about to experience. I lit these using three small candelabra sockets that I got from Lowe's, and 4 watt nightlight bulbs.


Next, I covered parts of the body in chicken wire to break up the blocky look, and made a few "thorn-like" projections. I made the hands and feet out of wire coat hangers, paper towels and duct tape. I also ran the wire at this point for the light that would be in the head, and the string of pumpkins that he would be holding.


I used paper mache for the skin, (paper towels, and an Elmer's glue and water mixture: mixed to about a 50/50 ratio). I used both brown and white paper towels... no particular reason, I just had both and was experimenting. The brown paper towels were probably stronger, but wouldn't stick as good as the white paper towels. I used about three layers of these all over the body. While it was still drying I dipped sections of different kinds of rope and cord in the Elmer's glue and water mixture, and wrapped them around the legs, body and arms randomly. I wanted these to have a vine-like appearance, and look kind of like they were just growing wildly. I also tore paper towels into long stringy looking pieces and randomly placed these around in different places.


Last, I painted him flat black as a base coat, then went back over that with a couple of shades of brown. I also added some cheesecloth that was dyed brown and shredded up. I put this around the torso area. The head was a foam "Funkin" that I carved and airbrushed. I lit it the same way that I lit the smaller pumpkins, with a candelabra socket and 4 watt bulb.

That's pretty much it, the total cost to build this was probably about $40.00, with the head being about half of that cost. (I had a lot of the materials on-hand though, if I had to buy everything to make just this prop, it might have been about $60.00.)

Sixth Groundbreaker Complete

Didn't have much time to make a post today because I was finishing this guy.


I would have posted a better pic, but I'm not 100% happy with the paint yet. I'll probably post a big "family picture" with what I have so far after I finish one or two more.

I'll probably be working 12 hour shifts all this weekend to earn a little extra cash for an upcoming trip, so I might not be posting anything for a couple of days... I'll try my best to put something up though!