Thread: Filling up my monster - With something other than the neighborhood children :)

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I couldn't imagine building something like this without the couplers we have available here in the U.S. I think what you should do (it may be too late now) is run the legs all the way up to the shoulders, instead of making it anatomically correct with two legs, one spine, etc. This will give extra support for the head and do away with the joint there at the hips. That would make it much sturdier.

Monster Mud should be approximately 5 gallons of spackle mixed with one gallon of latex paint.

But, I'm not convinced that using Monster Mud is going to solve your problem????? I made a similar type of prop and had the same problem of the character being very top heavy. I used Monster Mud and all it did was make him heavier all over. What I did to fix my problem was add weight to the base. I put about 15 to 20 pounds on the base. You could use large rocks or something that blends in with his environment to disguise what you are doing by weighting him down. You might even consider anchoring him at the upper part of his back to a tree or a post???

On most of my top heavy props I use 1 inch electrical conduit staked into the ground and then run up through the prop and secure it to the the spine or neck joint

So far, he doesn't seem to be too heavy for the stand, though I haven't actually done any paper maching yet. lol But at the moment, it's only the head piece that seems to be causing him to sway, and he only sways forward or backward, but not far enough to fall over. This is why I'm wondering if the stiffness of the paper mache once I've done it, might be enough to keep him standing up straight.

I have made some adjustments. I decided to cover the thinner pvc legs with a sheath of the wider pvc, like I did with the spine, leaving only the part that goes into the stand uncovered at the bottom, so that when I slide the half inch pvc pipe into the 3/4 inch pvc pipe on the stand, there is a touch more weight distribution because the 3/4 inch pvc of the stand meets up with the 3/4 inch sheath around the leg, which also keeps the legs stiffer.

Also, I took the skeleton out and added some bracing brackets to keep things straight:



This helped a bit, but he still starts to lean backwards or forwards when I put the head on him. :P Most of the bending seems to be at the hip point, like you mention Screaming Demons, and I think your suggestion of making the legs go all the way up to the head has a lot of merit... But I'm not sure if that would work while using pvc piping, because it would still have a tendency to bow, wouldn't it?

Now that I've got the spine to stand up relatively straight though, with all the bracing, and I don't seem to be having a problem with bowing because of the reinforced pipes, I'm wondering if it might actually work as it is, if it's stuffed with something that keeps the spine from drifting forward or backward in there... I just wish I could know before hand, so I could make any adjustments before doing the paper mache part, ya know? I don't want to have to tear it apart because I did it wrong or forgot to calculate for something, ya know? lol

As for weighting down the base, I'll definitely do that, or change the size of the base if needed, when/if he doesn't stay standing once he's all together... I'm actually hoping to have the base be as invisible as possible, and his feet up off the ground so he appears to be floating as the Gentlemen were in that episode of Buffy. But if I need to weigh it down, I'll just need to find a way to do that inconspicuously! lol

Again, thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate having other expert prop-makers' opinions on this as it's a bit of a stumper for me. Hehehe