Category: Bob

We have arms.

Bob now has arms, complete with hinged elbows.

I was mentioning how the shoulders could have been easily hinged. And, the elbows prove it marvelously.

The secret? A couple clothes hangers, chopped up.

From bob

And, once again, relying on the tack of Power Grab to hold it in place while it dries.

From bob

We now need more paper clay. I got to tweak the recipe of that a tad, still. Started laying the ground work for the skull as well, but I’m not happy with it, so it will probably be removed.

From bob

So, skull, hands, some paint, and we’re ready to corpsify.

Yet more Power Grab

It’s rather strange, really.

Years ago, I needed to just add a little ridge to make that pelvis bone fit my head. Standing there in the hardware store staring at epoxy’s, glues, and caulk, Power Grab caught my eye, mostly because I had no caulking gun at the time, and it came in pressurized canisters…

Now, it’s become integral. From sculpting masks, to Paper Mache, we use the heck out of the stuff. To my knowledge, I’m about the only one out there really sculpting with the stuff, as well. Well, the blog does have unorthodox in the title…

Strong points of Power Grab being:

relatively high tack (though I’m not buying the commercial for a second)
Water cleanup
EASY manipulation
repositionable if you mess up
somewhat flexible when dry

Some weaknesses include:

It shrinks slightly when drying
can crack
Does not like freezing (while wet)
And it’s somewhat flexible when dry. (the higher the humidity, seems the more flexible it is. Have had some things tend to drift out of alignment if left for long periods in high humidity.)

We’ve learned, adapted, and come to love the stuff for both the strengths and weaknesses.

So, it should be no surprise that when it came to Bob’s forearms and hands, I’m relying on the old standby.

Cutting a quick and dirty template out of cardboard for the forearm, we arranged some pieces of wire hangers to make the fingers.

From bob

Of course, I needed “help”

From bob

Just squeeze out a little power grab into place, wet fingers, and smooth it out. Just getting a basic attachement at this point, we’ll mache the thing for the actual form later.

From bob

I did mention the water cleanup, right? It’s REAL simple to clean up while wet. Soooooo…I had ‘help’…

From bob

Rinse some hands, wash some table…

Anyhow, after about 2 hours under the cieling fan, they were dry enough to peel away from the plastic.

From bob

Currently, we’re out of Power Grab. Gotta run grab some more, then we’ll mache these suckers, make the hands, and attach the forearms. THEN we are ready to paint and corpse the torso, while starting on the legs.

Shoulders…

It has really been an interesting experience working on Bob…

One comes to appreciate just how complex the design of a skeleton actually is.

This evening, we attached the shoulders. An interesting bit of technical difficulty there.

The collar bone, shoulder blades, and humorous were all constructed of simple paper mache. But, to attach them, we have gone with full strength power grab. (remember, our paper mache recipe is based on power grab) I didn’t want the shoulders hinged for Bob, but that would have been a simple matter. We’ll get into that more when we do the forearms.

In case you were wondering, Bob here has, thus far, taken 1/2 a batch of the paper mache glue, and about a sunday paper’s worth of paper.

The high tack of the power grab enabling us to just slap the things in place with no reinfforcement. It will dry rock solid. And, the only thing we’ve done is prop the 2 humorous in place while it all dries.

From bob

Couple forearms, couple hands, and skulpting a skull, it might just turn out alright. Then we can corpsify it.

From bob

In some other news, for a planned project for next year, we found a little ‘table top fire bowl’ on sale at Wal-Mart.

It uses those 16oz propane bottles, and it’s all nice compact, and enclosed.

From Halloween buildup 09

I need another, possible 2 or 3. But, they are not exactly flying off the shelves at the sale price. And, only 1 local Wal Mart has started that sale price so far. I’m really not surprised. It’s not much of an actual firebowl…tiny little thing. So, we’re going to keep an eye on the stock levels, and watch the price points for now.

"Aren’t you starting a little early?"

One would think that, by now, the neighbors would be used to seeing me out working on Halloween stuff.

Apparantly not.

Having been chipping away on Bob this week has seen me out in the garage with the door open, music playing, and lamps shining on bob for about an hour each night after the kids have been tucked in.

Somewhat limited in my ability to do everything at once due to the delicate nature of that ribcage, it’s been a bit here, a bit there, mix a bit of clay, work a bit, do a bit of mache, let it dry, etc.

And, the parade of neighbors to pass on by cannot fail to ask.

“Starting already?”

“Little early isn’t it?”

“Why?”

“What is that?”

And etc.

As my wife says. Some people hunt, some fish, some golf. I Halloween. Not that anyone around here understands that.

So, progress on Bob?

Nothing blatantly amazing. The ribs are all mache and sturdy now. And, it wouldn’t be right to be talking to a ribcage all this time, so we had to give him a head. Oh, sure, it’ll all be covered up, but it will always crack me up knowing that grin is underneath. And, we’ve begun on adding the clay. This is a slow process, but, I think it’s coming along quite nicely.

From bob

In other news, we picked up our season passes to Lagoon (local amusement park) yesterday. We’ll try to get down there today. I’ll certainly be getting some pictures of Dracula’s Castle (1974) and the Terroride (1964), if not video… 2 traditional darkrides (a disappearing breed) right here in Utah that most assuredly shaped much of my obsession with this kind of stuff. And, of course, later in the year, we’ll be getting plenty of stuff from Frightmares…

Bob. The beginning…

As I was mentioning earlier, the idea for Bob was ORIGINALLY going to be Fred.

I even stumbled on the theme song for the idea, finding an old CD, and taking a listen to an old favorite tale of Uncle Fred…

But, Fred is heavy, and he really don’t bend all that well to make sit up to begin with.

Sure, one could go buy a bucky torso to make a new Fred, I really don’t have the cash to be doing so. And, despite my original intentions to keep to the naming convention, and name everything Fred, it would get REALLY confusing here for you guys.

And so, Bob was born.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Cole, Fred has his song, and he even has a song for this project! What about poor Bob?

Yer right…Bob needs a song too.

Bob has been in the planning since shortly after the fair last year. So much so, that I had gone out and purchased a $25 lifetime table at the Black Friday sales. The more I thought on this, however, the more it became apparant that those plastic table tops would not hold the mutilation I needed to impart upon them. So, I was forced to search out a wooden one.

Fortunately, I found them on sale at Staples.

Next, I salvaged some of that failed Charr prototype conduit for the primary mechanism. Some PVC pipe, a gate latch, and a couple bungie chords later, Bob was not only sitting up, but doing so on command.

Time for the hard part.

I really don’t know where I read about making the spine from pipe insulation and wire ties. But, I filed it into the back of me brain for future use, and there ya go.

I dug Fred out from his hiding spot, took as close of a tracing as I could get from his chest cavity, and put that into a cardboard frame for the ribcage.

Bob is now taking shape.

From bob

Talia finds him too fun…

From bob

Bob’s already begun quite well, scaring Alec with his abrupt sit-up.

Next, is to mache the spine and ribcage with a base coat, then start the painstaking process of filling in the bones one by one…

For that, it’s time for a SPECIAL brew…

From bob
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Categorized as Bob, Lab