Thread: Dummies

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Hello,

I was at a Halloween store yesterday, and bought a really cool mask for $12, but that is off topic...lol.....sorry. I saw a Michael Myers character for $999. It was really cool. Not worth the money, but really cool anyway. So I played around with it a little just to get an idea of what it's made of. It was a hard plaster or plastic. Fairly heavy and the back was flat and kinda hallowed out.

So that got me thinking.....

What have the great members of this forum come up with for bodies for their props. I've read a lot of posts and seen a lot of websites and they all vary from the high level high cost latex forms all the way to clothes filled with newspaper. I have two props that I've used chicken wire and some newspaper to get the general forms. Of course they are FAR from perfect and actually a little out of porportion.

I'd like to hear and maybe even see what everyone has done for their bodies and maybe be able to inspire each other to come up with a nice cost effective idea......

Inflatable mannequins are cheap and you can roll the heads down before you add too much air and then add a mask and some clothing. They don't bend or shape very well but for body bags, they work great.

I use a PVC frame under chicken wire or garden mesh. IThey are lightweight and if something does not look right or sticks out more on one side than the other it is nothing to bend it into the shape you want.

For a head a good ol' styrofoam wig head is enough to go under a mask or hood. If I need a fuller face (like my Frankenstein prop) an old t-shift wrapped around it does the trick.

i use a pvc frame and i use towels to round out the arms and legs, then i stuff the torso with newspaper, theyrenot perfect but if there in the dark you cant even tell.

We did the pvc skeletons for our witches as well. I actually modeled the proportions (hight, shoulder width, arm length) off my wife (Lhallow) then just increased or decreased all dimensions for 3 different witches.

After those were constructed, we wrapped chicken wire around them to buildout the bodies. You can do anything you want with chicken wire, even gave two of them hump backs. ("what hump?") sorry, watched Young Frankenstine last night!

I've always wondered why no one make styro foam bodies, arms and legs like the styro wig heads. A nice, light yet sturdy styro foam torso with matching legs and arms that attach would be great and hopfully not too expensive.

so if there are any of manufactures lurking out there for some ideas...hint hint hint

I have built bodies with pvc and chicken wire as above, but now I build my bodies with 2x4 lumber and 3/4" plywood bases and covered in chicken wire. Much heavier, but also much cheaper, sturdier, and stronger. I have a compound miter saw so I can make cuts so that by bodies can be made to be in any stance. I can have one balancing on 1 leg if I want to.

I made some out of expanding foam "Great Stuff" for Home depot

Originally Posted by SouthernBelle

Inflatable mannequins are cheap ...

I've heard of cheap dates before, but I wouldn't bring this one to a haunt.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

(1) Duct Tape Double: "Other Me"

(2) Put soft foam over a rigid frame and then carefulling wrap the foam with duct tape. As you loop the tape along the limbs/torso, control how much the foam compresses by wrapping with more/less tension on the tape. If it doesn't look right, just unwrap it and try again until it does.

Having good proportions on body parts is the difference between amateur hour and a great looking mannequin. Just make sure you have enough to time to get the look right, instead of rushing everything at the last minute.