Thread: New take on an old fav. (crank arm marionette show)

Tweet

Last year shortly after halloween, I happened upon 4 marionetts for $10 (i think) at an auction. I fell in love with an old witch, lol and It's taken me this long to figure out how to include her in my haunt. I'll be using 2 of the marionettes.

So the purpose of this experiment.......Turn this old crate

into a vintage carnival type coin op machine. (The idea came to me while watching american pickers)
The rig is the same as a standard fcg only smaller. I did find a couple neat clamps to help sell my vintage coin op vision.

Wasn't easy finding room for all these strings, But managed what I think to be a neat little halloween movement.

View My Video


I'm planning an including some haunted scenery (animated), glass and all the bells and whistles of a vintage arcade type amusement game.
Man I love halloween!

Looks great! Nice movement.

That motor seems kind of loud! LOL

The motors virtually silent. (tiny little rc type motor) but its the attached gear box that makes all the racket. Once it's behind glass, It should be loud enough to hear but not overly annoying. I wanted some noise to give it that old mechanical vibe. The vid /camera placement makes it seem louder than it is.

Likey those a lot! They are pretty creepy.

A-w-e-s-o-m-e ! ! ! !

that is creeeepy. great job.

Thx guys and gals.

Well the stage is set. time to move on to paint and detailing. Still have to figure out the xmas lighting for the stars in the night sky.


Lucked out this morning and found a small bird at a garage sale ($0.10) It was yellow, so I just colored it with a black sharpie.

Here's a short clip of the finalized movements and the moon.
View My Video

Started painting some signage for the machine. I can't believe how much extra work go's into painting/making something to look old.
Theres 3 layers of color. Sand dinged and dented. All of which where tinted with blacks, browns and yellows to look like the colors of yesteryear.
Each layer of paint thicker than the last. I want it to look like its had layers and layers of paint.
New pieces of lumber needed to be aged (sanded/worn/antiqued) while old weather checked pieces of lumber were difficult to paint with clean lines.
I even sanded wet paint to almost instantly add years of grime.



I can't wait to get the crate stained up and start detailing the scene inside. Real earth, an old streetlight, the possiblities are endless.

The projects coming together better than I expected. I stainded the crate and added some 6v lighting (old pinball parts). The lights and motor are actually running on the same power supply. (with fuse just to be safe)
I think with the right paint, the plant stand I picked up a couple weeks back (garage sale-2 for $5) will make a fantastic cast iron stand for my machine.

The list of things left to do seems to get bigger as I go. With that said, I'm very pleased with the way its shaping up. Still gotta figure out a coin slot, frame a piece of glass for the front, paint the stand, travel stencils on the outside of the crate, sew/embroider a little old trick or treat bag for the cowgirl, and most importantly decorate/paint the outside.
Should fit right into my carnival of chaos theme.

Btw, Is the colored fabric that looks like burlap, sold as burlap? Or is there another name for it?

I decided to change out the stand and use my old cast iron base. It's served multiple purposes over the years but this has to be the best yet.
Built the frame for the glass and finished it off with a nice halloween orange.

My little nepthew was over at the house today. He told me Hellga wasn't a real witch, cause she didn't have a broom stick.lol
She does now.
It's just taped inplace, but I love the way she sets it in the corner when she's finished with it.
check it out.

View My Video