Thread: Basic materials:

Tweet

For someone just now starting out in the 'home made props' area...what would be a basic list of essential tools and materials?

Please keep in mind that I'm from Ireland and a lot of things you'll list have a completely different name over here...silly world - language barriers even amongst people who speak the same language!

Welcome to the haunters world... It is really hard to say what materials you need because that will mostly depend on what you are looking to build. PVC is greatly used, Great Stuff Foam, Chicken Wire, The pink insulation foam is used, latex or you can make monster mud. Just really depends on what you want to build, but those are some of the most widely used materials.

As far as tools go, I would look to invest in a dremel tool for build some props.

Then you have your must have to buy accessories like flood lights, smoke machines, strobes, sound, etc.

Just look around here and you will get some great ideas on what you what to use and put your haunt together and before long it will come together nicely.

Thanks so much Texan! That list alone has helped a lot. I've been doing a 'search' for 'foamboard' but didn't come up with much, but now that you've explained it's insulating foam...I'll do another one! Yay!

Also, get a few basic tools such as a utility knife- the kind with replacement blades, a sheetrock saw-used for sawing drywall over here. Cheap paint brushes, air conditioning tape called duck tape over here. Plus laytex paint any color. extension cords. etc.

Thanks... I believe we call sheetrock, plasterboard over here...and a utility knife, a stanley knife, and we have duck tape

Here a list of supplies you can start looking for:

Cotton / cotton balls
Glue
Liquid nail
Newspaper / paper towels
Paint
Foam
Old pillows
Wood pallets
Old shirts, etc..
Chicken Wire
Great Stuff Foam
PVC, pipes, old wood
Just look around the house for old stuff that been sitting in the closet for years.

On that note, Fastcat, there's also something to be said for dumpster diving.

Tatiana - check out the refuse behind businesses...somethings what they consider waste has great use for making props.

Large chunks of styrofoam...large sheets or boxes of cardboard...long tubes used for shipping (sometimes made of cardboard, sometimes made of plastic)...I've heard some stories of things people have found discarded that were just amazing when turned into a Halloween prop.

Good luck!

Yes, I used a carpet roll tube for my graveyard corner posts. I cut them 36" long each. It fit just right over some 1 x 4 stakes I drove in the yard. This was scrap from a friend who is a house builder.

I recently had a mattress and box springs set I needed to dispose of. Our town only picks up large items once a year so I began tearing it all apart to put into garbage bags and sneak it out with our regular weekly trash. Little did I know the goldmine these things are made of!!!!
The bottom of the boxsprings is covered in a gauzy material that looks like cobwebs,the framing is made up of nice little boards once you remove ALL the staples..LOL! My bed happened to be flesh colored so I now have large pieces of "skin" material, there is also lots of wires and springs that can come of use for many projects. The mattress itself held foam and padding to fill out dummies and there are more springs too!
I never seem to be able to actually THROW anything away anymore...

Lol Deadna..that's quite the bounty you found inside an old bed!!

Thanks a million guys, I will be on the lookout.