DIY Halloween Props, huge!

[xyster101]

Wife and I are having a Halloween party this year and it is my Favorite holiday. I just love to make things and really should work at a haunted house instead of doing this at my own house.
Subscribe as I will be adding until Halloween 2015 and party pics after!

I live on a 550' driveway, so why not put a cemetery at the end of it. Here are the pillers that I made from 2x3, 1x3 and foam board.

CAD sketch of pillars I have made before which I changed my mind about during construction:




Then it was off to making them in the garage.





I added texture with a wire wheel on a drill. Then applied a light mist of water and went over the foam with a torch. Where the water is present, the foam doesn't melt, areas without water melt creating a awesome stucco finish. Wife helped with this part.



Once painted it will look just like stucco.



The cut out areas are going to have carved brick behind them as if parts of the stucco have fallen off. There is a brick sheet on the left side of the pillar.



Now they have their first coat of grey paint on. There will be roughly 4 more colors added to get the weathered look.




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[akdiesel]

I am a huge Halloween fan also. Nice work.
Side note though. You did say it did not melt but just make sure you are up wind of any fumes from melting foam. That stuff can be deadly for the right person.

 

[Ohmthis]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! You have some great ideas on making it weathered. I'm going to have to show my BIL he loves holloween.

 

[bullnerd]

Cool as HELL!(get it?)

I have zero artistic talent so when I see what someone can just whip up like that I'm very impressed!

Great job, cant wait to see the rest.

 

[Mr.N]

Very nice set up

For some more diy hollow even ideas here is several I did
http://www.littlekeylime.com/hill_house_haunt.htm

You need to do a FCG, they move. Often stopped cars driving by the house.

I usually go all foam, lighter to move and store. Don't forget to make tie down spots for the windy days.

Keep posting.


FCG

 

[Mr.N]

I'd like to see what you are doing for lighting, as this can really effect the feel.

Problem is night pictures are hard to take that show how it is in person...

 

[xyster101]

I'd like to see what you are doing for lighting, as this can really effect the feel.

Problem is night pictures are hard to take that show how it is in person...

I hear you. Lighting can make a scene and I love electrical work. I will try my best to get some decent night shots because halloween decorations look silly during the day.

It is time to work on the fence. I took some 1/2" pvc conduit as it is the cheapest round stock I could find and cut it into 4 different lengths. Then I drilled down through a 2x4 every 6".




I ripped the 2x4 in half length wise and ended up with 2 identically drilled pieces. Then put the pipe through and tossed a screw to hold it.



I purposly tried to drill a few holes at an angle, but had weak results. Here is one piece of the fence done. 8 feet long and the tallest post is 39" tall. I sprayed it flat black with the $0.99 spray paint from HD.




While I was doing that the wife was using my router (dremel and the dewalt trim) to carve letters into the tombstones.



We also used the big soldering iron to melt parts of the tombstones. Don't worry about the fumes, directly in front of her is a 42" fan running full speed!



Ready for some water/torch texturing followed by paint.

 

[Gear Wolf]

EXCELLENT WORK XYSTER101! You and your wife are a good team!

 

[Clik]

I used to own an old house that needed porch repair. So when Halloween rolled around it was no big loss to cut a hole in the porch for me to stick my head up through. I sat on a chair below.

We made my face up to look dead and stuffed some of my old clothes to make the decapitated body.

We used stewed tomatoes and dyed corn syrup around the neck to make things ****** and gruesome. Enough so that the neighbors called the cops on us.

The cops rode by and hit me with their spot light. They just shook their head. Next thing I knew there was a regular parade of cops coming by for a look. It must have gone out on the radio as something to see.

We had dry ice smoke rolling out the door and the wife dressed as a gruesome witch to hand out candy. Not too many trick or treaters made it passed the head. I'd remain lifeless until they got to the door and then hit 'em with my pirate horror voice. "AArrrrgghh, who's that at my door"?

 

[Schleprock]

Really looking forward to this, wish I lived in your neck of the woods!

 

[Mr.N]

I hear you. Lighting can make a scene and I love electrical work. I will try my best to get some decent night shots because halloween decorations look silly during the day.

It is time to work on the fence. I took some 1/2" pvc conduit as it is the cheapest round stock I could find and cut it into 4 different lengths. Then I drilled down through a 2x4 every 6".

Yeah a fence does help with the affect.

 

[Mr.N]

Check out the haunted rocking chair.

It work nice to pull the power as people walked up so the chair stopped.
I was working on an old motion light to make a trip wire for it, but never finished that part.

 

[MagicMarker]

In for more pics

 

[Hpozzuoli]

Great....now I am going to start making Halloween decorations. I hate this site!

 

[Spareparts]

We had an old plant tree covered with a sheet and painted like a ghost, used a solenoid valve hooked to a air line, one line inside the ghost to make it flutter and the other line lying on the floor. It would give a blast of air across their feet. The kids thought it was cool, but mom's would often take off running off the porch.

 

[spike99250]

Xyster, what are you using to glue the foam together and what kind of paint are you using on the foam?
A couple of years ago we made foam headstones, paper mache'd(not sure on spelling there), and them sprayed them with a textured stone spray. If I could skip the paper step and just spray them that would be great.

 

[xyster101]

Xyster, what are you using to glue the foam together and what kind of paint are you using on the foam?
A couple of years ago we made foam headstones, paper mache'd(not sure on spelling there), and them sprayed them with a textured stone spray. If I could skip the paper step and just spray them that would be great.

Believe it or not I am using hot glue. On the pillars it is attached to the wood frame with fender washers and screws, but foam to foam I use hot glue. I bought a crazy hot one off Amazon that I can push a full 10" stick through without it cooling off. I have been a stage manager at my local school for 12+ years and that is what we use when we glue foam.

 

[xyster101]

I discovered that free form sculpting is not my strong suit. This angel tombstone did not come out great. I used a wire wheel on the drill and a soldering iron to create the shape.



I am hoping paint helps it.



I got to have a sign for the cemetery. I printed out letters, glued them down with spray foam and used a router.





Then some soldering iron work to add details.

 

[spike99250]

Thanks Xyster I never gave thought to using hot glue. What about paint? Does you use latex ?

 

[KMinAF]

Awesome thread! Keep those ideas and pictures coming

 

[mtnwalton]

Believe it or not I am using hot glue. On the pillars it is attached to the wood frame with fender washers and screws, but foam to foam I use hot glue. I bought a crazy hot one off Amazon that I can push a full 10" stick through without it cooling off. I have been a stage manager at my local school for 12+ years and that is what we use when we glue foam.

Expanding foam in a can works well as long as you keep the two surfaces from spreading. Use dowels sharpened, insert at an angle. There are other adhesives better, but much more costly. This works for foam to wood as well.

 

[Mr.N]

Thanks Xyster I never gave thought to using hot glue. What about paint? Does you use latex ?

I used latex paint, found a 5 gallon Home Depot miss colored, so it was cheaper than a gallon. It was a base gray.
Then used cheap spray paint to color. You can see it on the link to HHH

 

[Mr.N]

I got to have a sign for the cemetery. I printed out letters, glued them down with spray foam and used a router.

Now that is a lot of work for a sign!

 

[Mr.N]

Great....now I am going to start making Halloween decorations. I hate this site!

If you've a place to hang one, do a Flying Crank Ghost as your first prop.

I've yet to see a video that does them justice.





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[brianh]

Cool stuff I use foam sometimes for setup pieces. Made these gears and had them at a machinery show fun to watch guys go to lift an end and flip it right up. I cheated though and machined on cnc.

 

[spike99250]

Thanks guys about the paint questions.

 

[Mr.N]

Talking bib, how tall is you tallest prop?

 

[Murdoch]

Very nicely done. Are you members of the RPF by chance...GM

 

[Mr.N]

This has me thinking...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?ebc=ANy...w48DGE0S_cxvKp4HzNxB7q0TL6j8yEg&v=NtlUNhbODCQ

 

[xyster101]

Painting is tedious and slow. I should have put the dark coat on first, I was not thinking. Now I will need to go back over the pillars with a medium coat then a lite coat. You can see the "fake brick" behind the "stucco" that I made.






I painted the routered letters on the tombstones. That took a while.



Only need about 3 more cans of spray paint to finish up the black on my 48' of fencing. Each row is 2 sections.

 

[xyster101]

Been a while since I have had time to work on my stuff. Finished up the tombstones tonight.



Found these skulls at Target for $10. Drilled a hole in them and then put red hot glue over them. Father in Law helping.








Just a cellphone picture, once it is all up and running I will use my real camera. Hammered a stake into the ground and tied it down with a rachet strap. I wired a fluorescent starter to the hot wire so the light flickers constantly.

 

[The Cobbler]

awesome !

 

[steel 35]

Really nice!

Here's mine for the year.

 

[neonnblack]

Those look really great

 

[Kevin54]

I think we are going to need a vide before long. Nice Work for certain!!!!!

 

[ishiboo]

xyster those are AWESOME. Whenever I see a project where people start working with foam, there's a 90/10 chance of it being awful or completely awesome.

Great work!

 

[SilverSS1969]

Those look great.

Another idea to get the stone look/texture from the foam is to coat it in a sanded grout. I did this in my Ball Pythons take along the back wall. Held up great to the high moister/high humidity of the tank. Used a sealer over top to protect it.

 

[xyster101]

Those look great.

Another idea to get the stone look/texture from the foam is to coat it in a sanded grout. I did this in my Ball Pythons take along the back wall. Held up great to the high moister/high humidity of the tank. Used a sealer over top to protect it.

Never thought of grout for that. I did something similar with foam and concrete for my fish tank to hide all the pipes and filters. Except it kept leaching out and raising the pH of the water. It would always hover around 8 no matter how often I changed it or what I put into it. I did not seal it, only paint.

 

[xyster101]

I still need to do some night photos and possibly a video of the lights flashing. I have a few more things to put down at the street end of things. I got the cemetery up and running 90%. I still need to add my sign that is drying.




There is a piece of steel bedframe hammered into the ground with a ratchet strap holding the pillars down.

 

[ishiboo]

Your bathroom is incredible too. I think we're going to need more project threads from you...