An Unorthodox Halloween – Page 64

Yarr, prep the lab, me mateys!

Tharr be treasure.

From Lab

This truly WAS a treasure chest for most of my childhood. For, it held Christmas. It always seemed impossibly huge, and heavy. Holding all the Christmas ornaments, it was always good to see the treasure chest.

From Lab

My parents were tossing it out, after it had gotten caught in a flood. I just couldn’t allow that. I even had the initial thought of actually using it as a pirate chest….(Pirate lovers may wish to turn away now)

However, I also realized it will make a GREAT control panel for the Lab.

From Lab

Couple knife switches, some gizmos and doodads from a TV repair shop (that will all light up), I need a couple more gadgets to add to the thing, and a stand, but, it’s going to be a fine control panel.

Compared to last year, we actually had 1 switch. 1. This year, with 3, it’s adding to the show. The first will kill the lights and turn on the control panel and the blacklight. The second will turn on the Jacob’s ladder, and maybe some other doodads. The third will turn on Bob, THEN there’s the footswitch to make Bob sit up. MUCH more going on in the lab…

Speaking of, my Jacob’s Ladder:

The actual ladder is 3 ft tall, with base, the whole thing is 4 ft. Needs a stand, maybe a dial or something on the base.

And…Bob needs a new dentist.

From bob

Bob gets some color.

Finally got around to purchasing more latex.

And, that meant one thing. Finishing Bob’s torso (he’ll get legs later).

From bob

I’ve learned many lessons building Bob, and the corpsification process has been no different. Future Bobs will certainly have some improvements (we’ll be doing a Build Your Own Bob on the next one) as a result. And I was anxious to see just how this paper mache was going to stain…

Speaking of stain, Bob’s getting a coat of Red Sedona (sparingly, VERY red stain), Red Mahogany, and Ebony. Mostly because that’s what we have on hand.

One tip from me. Do yourself a favor and spend that little extra on these spray cans. It’s FAR less messy when staining these corpses.

From bob

An interesting note here is that straight laminate paper mache (just the strips of newspaper) actually stains and washes much like the plastic on a bucky.

From bob

The paper clay was much more fussy. Too much texture for the stain to hide in.

Bob needs teeth. I just couldn’t find our super glue to give him any yet.

From bob

I need some flash-enabled pics…(my DSLR is broken, so the photos just aren’t quite what I’m used to getting from it, and I keep forgetting. Originally it was just the auto focus, but the whole light meter is now totally messing up exposures…)

From bob

One area I was most pleased with is the hands. While most of Bob I compare to Fred, and easily find Fred superior by differing degrees, Bob’s hands are indeed superior to Fred’s. Fred’s had all those springs and wires and loops to contend with, and ended up a mess. Bob’s are just wonderfull.

From bob

Bob Moves!

It’s ALIIIIIVE!

While I did an initial experiment to prove to myself I COULD move Bob, the exact who’s and how’s, and whatsit’s have been a little trying, requiring a minor re-design and some creative implimentations of the bungies.

Following a request to get some more details on all this mechanism, I’ve got a bunch of photos.

First, the axis.

A PVC pipe inside 2 pieces of larger PVC pipe, bolted to the table. A hole drilled allows the EMT pipe up and through, to act as both Bob’s spine, and the activating lever. A couple of cauder pins help hold the EMT from sliding.

From bob

The EMT has a nice little “S” bend in it so that when Bob is flat, so is the under-side.

From bob

Photo of the gate latch, a re-designed bend in the pulling lever to account for needed lengths of the bugnies, and the temporary switch of a clothes hanger. I need some pulleys to install the final switch. I know the new bend is not pretty, but it’s what happens when I did not foresee it’s need…

From bob

And the guts of the mechanism.

The “top” bungie slides along the EMT to that new bend, preventing Bob from doing a face plant. The other is the driving bungie. Both hook to the legs of the table.

From bob

Finally, the long awaited video of Bob in action. (Bob is not fully corpsed yet, need more latex, waiting for payday. He’ll also scream…but that’s a ways off yet.)

Ignorance is bliss.

I’ve been designing Halloween since I was 8 years old.

Along the way has been a long and storied history of researching different styles and means of going about that.

It started long ago, I don’t remember just how young I was, but mom found some documentaries on how commercials were made. And, she promptly made us watch them. Attempting to drill into us not to believe what you see, or ask for every toy out there…

I watched them SEVERAL times. I WISH I still HAD that documentary somewhere. It opened the door in my mind. The heck with the intended message, it opened the doors of HOW one goes about creating those illusions!

And, as I sit here tonight watching the Pitchmen marathon (RIP Billy), I realize I’m going to miss this show. It was as close to those old documentaries as there is on TV. All the behind the scenes stuff, all the magic…And what’s more, for the eventual creation of the snake oil salesman, you HAVE to have Billy Mays in mind for the character.

From those first documentaries, it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, reading and watching everything I could on how they went about actually making the effects. Making those bugs do what they did. At one time, I actually wanted to be a bug wrangler…(not that there’s much market for that these days when they just CGI everything) And again with Arachniphobia.

As I’ve grown older, and more sophisticated in my ability to actually make these things I’ve only been researching, my understanding of all of this has only expanded to where now, I no longer see as others see.

I was watching America’s Got Talent the other night, and this magician was on. I recognised the contraption from the very get go, having built a model of a similar one before determining it would be too costly to make a full size one for Halloween. The judges were amazed, I could only chuckle.

Haunted houses, and the like are no different. I’m more interested in seeing how they do everything that sometimes the experience is lost.

A curious thing this year, though. Going into the year with our season passes at Lagoon, I enjoyed Dracula’s Castle more. However, now having been on both it and the Terroride about 50 times this year (they are among Talia’s favorites), I’ve come to REALLY appreciate the Terroride.

While Dracula’s Castle is filled with BIG props and animatronics, the Terroride is filled with TONS of SMALL things. All things us home haunt folks can build. A simple head turn, and people jump. A head turn…back to my roots…

Michael Jackson…

I’ll leave all the heavy comments to others.

One might expect on such a blog to go for the obvious claim of how Thriller is inspirational…

But, long time readers know about my fascination with a snake oil salesman theme. And, one has to love the set, lighting, and homage to guys and dolls that occurs here, in a theme that a bunko man would certainly fit right in…

Oh, alright, we’ll take the easy out as well. (hey, all the ‘real’ ones don’t allow embedding)