Thread: just starting my cauldron creep

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well we have had this water but in the garden for years and so decided it would be put to good use as the cauldron part, after searching all over for a large cauldron shaped container..

it's been dressed with some cheap £1 skulls cut in half and dremmeled to fit and some foam pipe insulation cut in half and hot glued on. Then I remembered we a large piece of chain that we dont use so this was attached with thin wire through the sides of the cauldron. its had a base coat of grey then black and some rusty coloured paint on top.so far I think it should pass inspection at night lol.. we are planning to have a small smoke machine fed into the back of the cauldron, adn some lights inside the cauldron. possibly green..

Just inside the front edge of the cauldron we have some green and blue wide angle leds which will shine on the ghoul doing the stirring.

hope to have a few more pictures up later today

This looks amazing already. And you're in the UK! It's so nice to see UK haunters, we're such a rare breed.

I think the aging you've done on it looks really realistic, good thinking adding the chain too. Can't wait to see more.

May I ask, is it you who does the animatronics and stuff? Would you possibly be able to post a how-to? I'm a real dummy when it comes to motors and anything else to do with animating props but I'd really like to learn

Wow!! That is awesome!

That's looking great, so far!

looks great so far.

Looks great! I think the scale of the chain really makes everything come together. Awesome job!

Originally Posted by Lea32R

This looks amazing already. And you're in the UK! It's so nice to see UK haunters, we're such a rare breed.

I think the aging you've done on it looks really realistic, good thinking adding the chain too. Can't wait to see more.

May I ask, is it you who does the animatronics and stuff? Would you possibly be able to post a how-to? I'm a real dummy when it comes to motors and anything else to do with animating props but I'd really like to learn

Cauldron creeps are fairly easy, once you get past the motor tech. May I suggest you do a search for cauldron creep.

Originally Posted by Crunch

Cauldron creeps are fairly easy, once you get past the motor tech. May I suggest you do a search for cauldron creep.

"Easy" is a relative term - I really can't express how little I know about anything electronic. If it was expressed as a number, it would be a minus number! LOL

As my friend (he who knows about these things) said, when he volunteered to make me a tombstone peeper for this year's display "This would be a piece of cake, for anyone who wasn't YOU."

For instance:

"Because this output is so close to the amount of voltage needed to run the LEDs, you wont need a resistor, but because it is just enough voltage to run one LED, you need to wire these in parallel and not in series." < My instant response to this was "Wire the what now? Huh? I'm lost."

Originally Posted by Lea32R

"Easy" is a relative term - I really can't express how little I know about anything electronic. If it was expressed as a number, it would be a minus number! LOL

As my friend (he who knows about these things) said, when he volunteered to make me a tombstone peeper for this year's display "This would be a piece of cake, for anyone who wasn't YOU."

For instance:

"Because this output is so close to the amount of voltage needed to run the LEDs, you wont need a resistor, but because it is just enough voltage to run one LED, you need to wire these in parallel and not in series." < My instant response to this was "Wire the what now? Huh? I'm lost."

I concur. let me rephrase a little; Cauldron creeps don't look to difficult. A skeleton, a cauldron, some robe material, a motor and a long stir stick. However, the whole wiring scenario you posted is beyond me, at the moment. I'm sure if I put the effort into it, I could get the basics. I built my first animatronic last year, with help of my Old Man. We used a scavenged wiper motor. Clipped a car battery charger to it (because it came from a vehicle runs on 12 volts), red to the wire hanging off of it and black to ground it.

well I have been out in the garden today and made a good start on the stirring ghoul, apart from a bit of final dressing with some more material I think it's complete. yippee. just got to give it a test run later today with the cauldron and the leds on. I may hide an led near his hands so that it shines up where his face should be.

The frame is just thin timber with metal brackets at the shoulder and elbow joints.The hump for his back and shoulders have been covered with pipe insulation.

I was origionally going to use a mask for his face but then remembered we had an old baloon paper mache that we started and were going to throw out, so I used this. I like him with no face..

Wifey loves him. so I have shot myself in the foot and I'm making 2 more statues that will hold branches like this one but with lanterns hung off the top.At least I have allready done the lanterns lol.

These will be either side of our gates greeting people to our Halloween party.They are our "keepers of lost souls".