Thread: Start Your Engines...

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And so the stretched out and progressive Halloween build season officially gets underway today; a few shared comments on what one Halloweener is up to.

Just ordered 5 CH-S2 two-piece skulls from the good folk at the Anatomical Chart Company. Will all be used for small groundbreakers.

http://anatomical.com/product.asp?pn=CH-S2

Have spent an inordinate amount of my online Halloween research time exploring corpsing techniques. Was sold on the Skull & Bones method for some time...

http://www.skullandbone.com/tutorial_02.htm

...until I went through it in detail and noticed that right at the bottom of the page the following was written:

"...However, I don't think it would work well on foam. Foam has a way of getting eaten up by my experiments..."

Problem is, besides the plastic skulls, I have three full-sized foam skeletons to work on; don't want to work with multiple methods for consistency's sake.

The skels were a good find. They're over 6' tall, well detailed, and only cost $50 each.

So, have decided to opt for the method Pumpkinrot led me to, which is based on his own:

http://grimvisions.com/2007/01/23/pa...round-breaker/

Hopefully the method reacts relatively inertly with the foam.

The only other formal project planned for between now and October is a fence. Bought the materials last year, including the oh-so-important finials from here:

http://www.decorativeiron.com/Produc...ndex=1&level=1

They've been sitting in the garage with the other stuff since last Halloween, as I never got around to the project. Was preoccupied with building a scarecrow at the time, which I think turned out to be a darned nice one.

One of the things I've noticed with most of the PVC pipe/wood slat cemetery fences is that they are of uniform height along their length. Wanted a more gothic look and have been experimenting with different configurations using bar charts in Excel.

Lo and behold, a few weeks ago, came across this:

http://fence.casadesade.com/

What kills me is not only was this guy trying to achieve the same outcome, he also used Excel bar charts to experiment with different configurations. The way he works the increment from the taller rails to the shorter ones was also eerily similar to what I'd done. I guess twisted minds do think alike. Going to go with his proportions since he has a finished product that appears robust.

Owe a lot to members of this forum for all the creative ideas, as well as to http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/, which all of you know is a tremendous resource.

Haven't used this other resource quite as much, but for those of you who are technically gifted, it is very, very good.

http://members.aol.com/C40179/index.html

Good times and good luck with all your 2007 projects.

JD

Can't wait to see your pics. I prefer the wobbly falling down look of an old abandoned graveyard for mine. But to each his own! Good buy on the finials, check out flea markets, too. I scored 6 for a dollar once!

I have yet to corpse a bucky. Not that I think it would be hard, I just can't bring myself to altering my lovelies! Bwahahahaha!

I would love to go around our whole yard with fence, that would be so beautiful, but at 120x120 plus easement on the two sides against the streets (3 lots on a corner) it would be monumental at best.

Here's mine from '04 and '06
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...t=DSC00059.jpg
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...lloween281.jpg
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...lloween282.jpg
and the fence around our graveyard, all 1/2 and 3/4 pvc
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...lloween275.jpg
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...lloween320.jpg

I painted a garden arch black for the entrance, unfortunately I didn't get a good pic of it.

I like your fence IshWitch...WWI: wobbly with intent.

Will definitely photobucket the 2007 edition.

I agree the fence shouldn't look new and/or perfect. Kinda kills the whole effect. Last year, one of the members of another unrelated forum commented that my haunt was held back by the fact the lawn/landscaping was too neat, and the neighbourhood too perky.

This year, the front lawn doesn't get mowed in October. I also plan to throw rocks through my neighbour's windows...maybe one through mine, just so I'm not suspected.

I suspect that although the sectional pieces will be robust, they won't necessarily line up very well with each other and that the rebar footings will "give" over the month of October. Should help with the look. Am also considering having one section detached and leaning. Recall seeing someone out there who did this.

Will also randomly apply rust-coloured craft paint to give it an aged look.

JD

Sounds good. The effect of a very fine fence that is very old. I left our front garden to its own devices around August, just too hot to take care of, no hurricanes kept the temp up there last year. LOL

And our grass has died off in the backyard thanks to a combination of problems over the last 3 years so we are looking to landscape it, now that it is pretty much a blank canvas, I just have to make it haunt friendly! Bwahahahaha!

I took advantage of the fact that my front porch was in need of paint last fall and spraypainted florescent pirate graffiti and a giant "X" in front of the treasure chest. Plus I had plastic on the windows that wasn't going to make it through another winter - more graffiti. Looked great under the black lights. The hard part was painting over it in November - I hated to see it go!