Thread: HELP me with my giant pumpkin prop!

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Hey guys! i am making a giant pumpkin for my yard this year. It is a piece of PVC pipe standing vertical, attached to a wood base, then chicken wire attached to the wood base and wrapped up over the pvc and then paper mache over that.

Now i need help making it stronger. should i use monster mud to cover it? will it crack when moved? should i use dry lock? again will it crack when moved?

should i just put some coats of clear poly over it?

this was the base, it is now covered in about 4-5 layers of paper mache

You don't say how big this is. Giant? I can't tell from the photo.

its about 5 feet tall

Wow! 5 feet! My recent build was only about 18". Paper mache worked fine for mine, it's plenty sturdy with about 4 layers, but something this big will likely require a coating of something else. Monster Mud? Dry Lock? I don't know, but there's help coming from the others, stay tuned.

Ahh...yeah....hmmmm. Thats BIG! If you use Monster Mud, it will weight a lot! But I think Monster Mud would be the way to go.
Oh, it will crack but it shouldn't be a big concern.
It looks great so far. Keep the pictures coming.

but is it gonna crack and then crumble off???? and should i just rub the monster mud all over it, or should i use cheese cloth dipped in monster mud?

I would reinforce it with additional pvc just below the flat part of the top of the pumpkin, that way the top can rest on the cross brace pvc and the bottom will hang from that part.

If you use a 4 way pvc fitting you can get a couple of pvc braces coming off the main pvc. I also use wire and blocks of the pink/blue foam cut to fit to help reinforce mine as well, it's light and strong for a pumpkin.

If you use MM, go with some sort of cloth over the wire or it will eventually crack. Have you considered a couple layers of paper mache? You can even use a couple layers of paper mache and then go over it with MM. I would recommend stolloweens' recipe for paper mache paste. 2-3 coats and it will be very durable.

On my oversized paper mache projects I attatch a cap to the top end of the pvc and bolt an eye bolt through for hanging in storage. It has made my life so much easier! Keep the eye bolt in back and paint it the same color as the stem and it will never show.

im already wayyyyy beyond the point of getting in there to re-do the inside, it already has at least 4 layers of paper mache over the entire thing. and with all that paper on it, it still has yet to sag any. however when i try to lay it on its side to mache the bottom some more, that is when it sags, which i wont have to worry about, cause it will be standing straight up once its in the yard. i just need some sort of final top layer that will be hard.

MM would do the trick. It dries super hard and is durrable. I put MM over some of my paper mache groundbreakers and they hold up pretty good. I didn't use any cloth, just wiped the mud right on and dipped my hand in some water to smooth the mud out where needed. I get small cracks when it dries but the paint layer fills most of it in.

ok im gonna go with it! thanks! i'll get pictures up when i get done with the mud