An Unorthodox Halloween – Page 90

Fred.

Meet Fred.

Last time you saw Fred, he was a regular ole bucky hangin out in the garage.

He needed some air, so I built him a nice little hanging stand of his own. Yes, it’s not straight or perfect, or square, but it’s effective.

Now, see, we wanted a…rather more…well…fresh skeleton. Bare bones are not only not frightening but silly to picture all still stuck together. And, so, as with the clothes rotting, I sought out the advice from Skull and Bone’s here.

Now, we’re not finished yet. Just having finished the whole panty hose thing. (Quite fun messin with the clerk while buying those) But, I have had quite a bit of experience back in the day with latex for makeup purposes, and if you were to ask me right now to do another, I’ld probably go back to my makeup roots and use tissue paper as opposed to the panty hose. We’ll see how it all looks after the stain and stuff.

So, here’s Fred, all skinned up.

Had a major accident during this. The whole top portion became unscrewed and Fred fell down. As a result, the head is not as good as it used to be. But, the rest wasn’t impacted.

I’m a little mixed on the look of the whole chest area. We’ll see how it stains, liking the pattern myself, though.

The back ended up getting a little more ‘skin’ than I planned, but it was needed to keep the rest of the stuff in check. No complaints there.

So, it’s been a nice diversion to get back to something akin to the old makeup job I used to do. One which I was fairly decent at. Even being sent home from work one day (that’ll teach em to ask me to come in costume) for an all together too realistic bullet hole in my forehead that the customers at Burger King were losing their apetite over for some reason. Ah…I don’t regret giving that up in favor of masks that the younger kids can be shown are just masks (easy on, easy off). But, it’s nice to find something to get that same feeling of creation and style of work back.

Probably won’t see any advancement on Fred this evening as we have a scout meeting. Maybe Wednsday.

I’m Spider Man!

Well, sorta.

Friday was a nice warm day, all was going well. Jen home, I got the lawn mowed early, and decided it was time to start working on Fred, what with the weather supposed to be nice all week for a change.

So, I was in the back hacking apart some scrap wood, and building a quick frame to hang Fred from, so I could work on him. Jen hollers that she needed me out front, and I get there to see my Birthday/Fathers day present had arrived. A nice Air Compressor, essential to the airbrush I need, which did NOT show up.

Now, as I needed an airbrush, and looking into those they wanted $300 for the little compressors just for those, I had decided to get one decent enough to run a webcaster. So, looking around, we got a great deal on a 5CFM at 90 psi compressor. More than enough to run most tools, well more than needed for the airbrush, and brings about the possibility of me playing with pneumatic powered props in the future.

And, as I shopped for cobweb guns, I knew I was not paying the $50 most people wanted for one. I spent 2 years working as mechanic and lead in a packaging department for Fram Air Filters, on what essentially was a gigantic pneumatic hot glue gun what seems like ages ago. I may as well put the knowledge acquired there to some use, no? This was one of those projects that not only was I not afraid of, I was down right confident in doing myself.

One thing that did annoy me in the shopping, though. A lot of how-to’s used to be out there. But, they were taken down due to “commercial interest in the design”. Essentially people figured they may as well make some cash for making these guns.

It’s not exactly rocket science here. And, I was going to get my own how-to up here, but my camera battery died, and I didn’t feel like dealing with Jen’s camera. So, I found this one. Same process, they used a different gun. But, it’s not that hard to figure it out with whatever gun you get. I’ld add that a pipe cutter makes it easier, and I compressed the pipe at the end with a pair of pliers to control the airflow a bit better, and make the web casting just a bit less random.

If that one gets taken down for ‘commercial interest’, I’ll just have to make me a second gun and post a how-to of my own.

The trouble was in finding a glue gun. More wattage means faster melting of glue, means more webs, and most places only had those dang mini guns. However, Joann’s had what I needed for $10. With 40% off coupon, make that $6.

Some copper pipe, a couple fittings later, and I made myself a little $10 webshooting gun. Despite Kyle’s disbelief in my ability to do so. And, a far cry from the $50 to buy one.

I immediately set about webbing one of the patio chairs. And, boy, does this make some great webs. I’ve seen some absolute artists with the bags of stretchy webbing stuff, that can make it look great. In my hands it looks like a cotton factory exploded in the yard. With the web gun, even I can get some good looking webs up. To my surprise, they’re even a bit stretchy and can be manipulated pretty well after sprayed.

So, while my webs are not strong enough to swing from, it did make me feel just a little bit like Spider Man over the weekend, making my own webshooters. (Peter has to make web shooters in the comics, it’s not a part of the mutation from the bite, unlike the movies)

Pictures will follow soon, I got more batteries on the way.

Now…my older brother is deathly afraid of spiders, and is on vacation for the week…Maybe I should put this webshooter to good use and turn his garage into his worst nightmare…

There once was a pinata…

Well, the pinata distraction is over.

The Power Grab Paper Mache worked well, it seems. No reinforcement tricks to the pinata (bamboo, duct tape, etc) needed. Only 7 layers thick at the end, much thinner than the previous 2 I made of traditional glue recipes. And yet, stronger, still.

I’ll have to get a few photos of it’s carcass up as well. But, I understand it survived 32 kids whacking it with a stick and a good drop when the rope it was hanging from broke before finally being put to death by an adult wielding a baseball bat.

Yeah, I think it will be strong enough to make a few halloween decorations that wont be the target of baseball bats, just fine.

A little swap meet find, here.

While slightly damaged, and obviously aged, the horns are tremendous. I’m debating just what to do with this thing, use it as is? Try to mold it? But, similar quality goat skulls go for $65 or more from Skulls Unlimited. And, the person selling it wanted $20. I got it for $10 after offering $5, and pointing out all the aforementioned damages and aging.

On one hand, it’s a bit strange just how much I’ve come to understand about skulls, able to identify a wide range, knowing this particular goat was suffering some pathology I cannot pronounce, let alone spell, but I know what I’m seeing. On the other, knowing your stuff makes it easier to barter with people.

Crystal Skull 2 is out of it’s mold, and 90% done. It’s hollow, and I had a mind to leave it so, but it’s not catching the light quite right due to that hollow center, so I’ll fill in the center soon and get pics of it up. Wonderful mold, that one. Really like the look in crystal.

So…plans for the weekend…(no work Friday, yay!)

Name the new kitten. (VLAD THE IMPALER!!!)

Jen was on board with it till people at work had no clue what or who Vlad the Impaler was. Come on, folks…DRACULA. HOW do you NOT know DRACULA!?

I actually put forward the name in jest. Along with Frankenstein and Jeckyl (since one of the 2 vets at the place we go is Dr Hyde…)

Getting Cozette to not kill the new kitten…Bumping some skull production and maybe a little Shrunken Head action as well.

On some site news.

I’ve added a link to the Rock Bottom Cemetery in the links section.

I don’t link to many places, but Blinky kicks ass! This is THE place to go to get the lindberg skull featured in the mold making, plaster skull, and crystal skull how-to’s. There is also a lot of other interesting stuff for sale there.

Speaking of the how-to’s, I’ve also added the howto for the Crystal Skull over there, and rearranged the sidebar a bit. It was time to get rid of that Indiana Jones widget, but I accidentally removed my countdown at the same time…gotta remember how I did that…

The Crystal Skull

I’ve been getting some requests for better pics of the crystal skull, tripod enabled.

My pleasure.

Here we have it catching the light from the window.

From another angle.

From the back, you can see the tiny seem I still haven’t got around to trimming off.

Then, people have asked for some lighting tests on it. Well, here is a tiny battery operated color changing LED tea light. Let’s see how it pictures when I shut myself in the laundry room and stick the skull in front of that.

It reflects the red really well.

But I think I like the blueish color better.

Then, this orange/yellow is pretty cool too.

Of course, most likely I’ll be using firelight. And, it catches light from quite a distance. But, angle seems to be the important variable. Here from well away and below the skull.

Not an optimal angle, but still catching the light just fine.

Very shortly, I will be posting a ‘how to make your own crystal skull’. I’ll warn you up front, this is not the easiest, or cheapest of projects. And it carries some dangers along with it. Poisonous fumes, chemical burns, and more standard burns. So, common sense and proper plans and all that.

Cloverfield

I remember the first trailer coming out in the theater. No title. Just an ominous date.

I immediately pegged it as a Godzilla remake/clone, and mentally tagged it as a ‘must see’. And, when word of the shaky camera work got out, that changed to a “must wait till DVD”. In the meantime, I have avoided all comments and reviews of the thing. Just knew it was filmed with a handheld camera, and that is all.

So, it was a very rare moment when I put Alec to bed, had Kyle ‘sneak upstairs’ (Alec does not do well with scary movies), and we set down to watch this thing this weekend. No predisposed knowledge or opinions on it. No searching it for inspiration, just sitting back and enjoying.

Spoilers ahoy!

It was 9:30ish when we started watching. About 10:00ish, both Kyle and I were nearly asleep on the couch when blissfully the action started. Earthquake, power flicker, run to the roof, see the fireball in the distance. Hey, finally got to the trailer!

Run down to the street, and there comes the head of the Statue of Liberty, where the trailer part ends. Oh, we’re into it now. A little while later, they start crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. I look over at Kyle:

“Oh, that bridge is going DOWN.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll bet you, that bridge is going to be attacked.”

“Why?”

They walk around and pause, and it’s all normal just long enough for him to say

“See, it’s not crashing.”

BANG goes the…err, whatever it is. Crushing one of the characters and suddenly they’re running back off the bridge.

Now there is panic in the streets, and a scene with the camera running I couldn’t watch even on the small screen. Glad we didn’t go to the theaters.

It was the scene here that it finally clicked in my head. They show the thing from the news copters, and little doodads are falling off it and attacking people. Wait a minute…I’ve SEEN THIS BEFORE!!!

The movie was most enjoyable, really. Shaky camera aside, that is. It’s a rare one where they know when NOT to show you something, and leave you with questions unanswered.

What was it? What happens to people who are bitten? Did they kill it?

The whole handheld camera thing wasn’t so bad. Only twice did I have to stop watching or get sick. Still, it was mostly unneeded. I do want to know where the hell I can get one of those cameras though. The battery lasts forever, it’s got lights, night vision, and takes one hell of a beating, not to mention that SD card sure held a good chunk of video…How much one of those go for, you think?

As the movie ends, abruptly, Kyle sat there wide-eyed. Yeah, he’s not sleeping…So, I had to break out and show him where the movie seems to have come from. As I said, seen it before. Happens to be a Playstation 2 GAME.

Final Fantasy X:
Opens in a nice crowded city, a sports arena. You see these fireballs coming and hit the building, and you run down to the street.

Cloverfield:
NYC. Fireballs come, striking the buildings, making it not safe, they run to the street.

Final Fantasy X:
Getting to the street, we’re presented with an ominous face of a broken statue.

Cloverfield:
Statue of Liberty’s head comes screeching to a hault right in front of the camera.

Final Fantasy X: running across a crowded bridge, it’s suddenly attacked.

Cloverfield: Calmly walking across the bridge, it’s suddenly attacked, killing one of the ‘main’ characters up to that point.

Final Fantasy X: Little scale shaped things break off big bad monster, open up to look remarkably similar to the cloverfield things (but have wings) and start attacking.

Cloverfield: Little things that look like the bugs from Starship Troopers fall off the big bad monster and start attacking.

Coincidence? Possibly, I suppose. Or is it just so cliche a storyline at this point? Also possible.

It’s a little 5-10 minute opening segment of the Final Fantasy game. But the resemblence was striking once it ‘clicked’. Does make for a good movie when all dramatized and following a couple of people try to survive it for 90 minutes, I’ll admit.

Explaining the resemblence put Kyle at ease, at any rate.

Good show, gets alot right. Let’s hope they do some better camerawork (less bouncing around, please?) for the sequel.