News and reviews.

The Jacob’s Ladder is getting it’s final touches.

From Lab

Of course, it will look much better once the gorgeous clear tube is in place.

From Lab

Then, Monday night, we headed out to Lagoon, yet again. I got some flash photos on the Terror Ride. I got the ‘no pictures’ moan from the dark. (really, a moan, the guy was trying to stay in character as they sometimes walk behind cars to scare them) So, we’ll get a few more at a later time.

First is this great wall.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

The gate creaks back and forth, and a couple of the spines move around as you drive by. THIS is something relatively simple to re-create for a home haunt.

Second are these guys (there’s actually 3 of them)

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

These guys are perplexing, as they are opposite a lit display and hard to see, but their head turns as you pass. Turns the WRONG way, too. Instead of their gaze following you, they turn to look behind you. ??? Easy to see the mechanism with the flash.

ON TO TONIGHTS REVIEW.

RUSTOLEUM UNIVERSAL HAMMERED FINISH SPRAY PAINT.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

As you might be aware, I’m painting quite a bit of ye olde plastic these days. And, anyone who has tried to spray paint plastic knows it doesn’t like to stick well. Well, having been pleased with the Krylon Fusion hammered finish on the generator, but it didn’t QUITE cover the whole thing. And, Lowes doesn’t carry Krylon, and this Rustoleum was the only hammered finish rated for plastic in the store. I bought 2 cans, one copper, one black.

The Rustoleum cans have a nice spray trigger, and spray out in a very nice narrow fan that makes application easy and controlled.

I sprayed the copper into the inside of the cat-sand buckets on the generator to give a nice finish for the lights to reflect off. And…it looked like crap. The ‘hammered’ finish was more like pock-marked as any dimples just showed the white of the bucket. A second coat did little to help matters. But, it was INSIDE the thing, no one was going to be noticing.

It DID adhere exremely well. And makes a nice, tough coating on the plastic. I figured the color issues must be from the plastic, however, and a standard color would probably be fine on plastic, just avoid the textured finishes. So, I decided since the Jacob’s ladder is WOOD, we’ll use the black THERE instead of finishing the generator with it.

Again, the hammered finish pock-marks show the white through.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Sure, they’re TINY on the wood, and no one is going to notice, but it bugs me. Also, these cans really don’t seem to go quite as far as the Krylon cans do. Overall, I’ld suggest avoiding the Rustoleum Universal hammered finishes.

For a comparison, this is the Krylon fusion hammered finish over the red wine barrel of my generator.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween