Thread: climbing pirate

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scarefactory has some amazing props!!!They have alot of pirate props that look so good...to bad I am not rich lol.
How can one replicate a climbing pirate they have.they have two versions vertical and diangonal.
What motors could be used to do a vertical climb?I know I can't achieve what they have done but if I could get one to look as if it is climbing that would be great.Has anybody done a climbing prop?If you have a vid or pictures along with what was uses would be great.
Here is the link to all these great pirate prop they have.
http://www.scarefactory.com/catalog/...nimations.html

Thanks for the thread Halloween71. Love pirates and if I was at the show they were featured at I could have stood there for hours watching them. Those climbing pirates are very cool.

I could see the swinging hanging one, shown in one of the the videos, as something that might be easy to incorporate probably hanging from a mast. The climbing guys seem to operate on some sort of racheting mechanism with a release I would guess.

I agree. Scarefactory has great stuff. Im afraid that if I had lots and LOTS of cash, Id buy a huge old mansion and make the bombest permanent haunt full of stuff like that. A guy can dream....

Not sure of the mechanics mentioned above....i'm more the scenic arts and static type prop maker. Id love to build with someone who knows the engineering stuff though.

My guess is they are using a electric brake. This would allow for movement in both directions. One motor to provide the extension motion. The motion could function in this way. A pair of rollers compress the rope. A second pair at the foot level also compress the rope. The first pair of rollers are attached to the hands and the hands via the motor move up and down. In the up movement the following occurs. The lower rollers would have the brake applied. This will hold the prop at it's current elevation. The hands and the rollers attached would move upward with the brake off. At the top of the stroke the upper rollers would have the brake applied and the brake on the lower rollers would be released. This would allow the prop to move upward as the hands come down. Once the hands reach the bottom of the stroke the two brakes would reverse and the cycle would start again. Of course at some point the climbing would need to reverse. Likely they use some kind of contact sensor to initiate the reverse cycle.

The challenge with a prop like this is not the mechanics, it is the control.

These are Disneyesque, high quality props, and are very cool!
After reviewing the video a second time. It looks like there is a cable pulling the pirate up the rope. I don't think they are actually climbing the rope. It is a clever illusion though! Fooled me the first time too!

Pete

I saw a prop almost exactly like that a few years back at the Ripley's Museum at Clifton Hill in Canada. They had a guy that climbed up and down a rope outside the building just like that and there was indeed a cable pulling him up and down. Awesome prop with a great movement. Will have to see if I can find the pictures...

Well that kinda sucks. I did not see it. But the cable does kind of spoil the effect.

Maybe I will play with the idea this next year. Cool prop.

Those are way cool (And uber expensive!).......I really love the pirate swinging back and forth by his leg......I think something like that could be made pretty easily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec6wHONUhPU

Not the exact one I saw at Ripley's but close. Looks like there is a series of pulleys that the rope is running through.

maybe you could use a garage door opener , they are stong and they have the back and forth movement , some garage door openers have a pully inside them and a chain attached some have aircraft cable to raise and lower you garage door maybe somehow a garage door opener can be mdified to do this motion back and forth , most of them work on a remote but there is prbably some techno geek that knows how to make this a continuous circut .. I am not that person...it would work like a winch motor those also have a forward and reverse, i think the scarefactory one works on a winch sytem the climbing motion is another motor inside the prop, some how mount the garage door system virtically