Thread: Year of the Charr

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As some of you know, back in those long ago days when Halloween was not a 24/7/365 hobby of mine...I would play a LOT of video games.

And, the last one I really got hooked on was Guild Wars.

As some may have read, Guild Wars was even responsible for inspiring the whole field of skulls thing. In 2007, one little cave caught my eye...






I even took the time to light the yard up in honor of that cave...



However, that was too late to enter the Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest.

In 2008, I pegged a Guild Wars Graveyard. In part to enter the contest, but mostly because my 5 year old wanted a graveyard, and I didn't want an 'ordinary one'.



I knew letting the kids do most the work would preclude winning the contest, but it was worth it to get them excited.

(the slideshow don't want to attach, so just a snapshot)



While I'm planning an entirely new direction for the yard, I know I can't get it all finished THIS year, so it's really working towards 2010. Still, I want to add something THIS year, that will also fit with what we'll be doing in 2010.

And, as one of the totems collapsed last year, I've been thinking of ways to replace it, possilby with a whole new design. And, I wanted to enter that Halloween art contest for real, at least once before I put this general yard design aside for good. (or at least a few years)

That has brought me full circle...

That first cave is found in a Charr temple. Charr, in the game, are rather primitive, worship fire, and view humans as meat. Basically, they fit the yard PERFECT.

At the beginning of GW, they worshipped some fire gods...and would create THESE in their honor.



MOST often, they were seen ablaze, however.





(For reference, this character is 5'8")



Question becomes....

HOW.

Scale is likely unrealistic simply for storage.

I WOULD like them a min of 7' tall head to toe.

I'll need the arms and legs removable for storage as well. And likely the body able to come in halves.

Paper Mache is the most likely medium. Even so, that tripod leg design has me concerned what would be sturdy enough to hold the weight...

Been thinking of metal conduit, or even pipe as a frame, but that has a host of problems itself.

I know you just ruled out conduit, but I wouldn't be too hasty on that front, I'd use a conduit "stick" figure surrounded by grape vine and paper mache, then to create the flaming effect pump fog into the structure with red lighting inside.
Just a thought

I didn't rule it out, just mentioned there's problems with the idea there, too.

That's almost precisely my initial thoughts on how to do it. I'm concerned that even conduit might not support that much weight in the center without some kind of support down the center (which I'ld rather avoid).

Are you thinking metal or plastic coduit, I would think the metal would do the trick for support

A little necromancy here...

Finally getting back around to this sucker, now that the lab is over and done with, and the BYOB tutorial finished.

I tried to get all 'cute' with the base, and had to scrap most of it a while back. But, it's slowly been coming together in spare time. Really got going this weekend.

Some 'feet' in process:



Feet mostly finished, and no-nonsense leg structure in place (remains of a failed leg attempt on the lawn as well...I'ld rather not talk about ):



I actually finished up the legs, and have the attachment system ready for the body as well, but failed to get a pic of it. Hope to soon.

Just bought the conduit for the body last night, hopefully have at least a wire skeleton and beginning of it done by this coming weekend.

Just some dimmensions. the 'feet' are 3' tall, the 'legs' are 10' emt conduit bent in the center, so each leg is roughly 5' from center long. The 'body' will be 2 10' EMT conduits curved (though I have not ruled out cutting that down some, yet) covered in chicken wire and mache.

Arms...I'm still working on how to attach the arms...

Starting to come together.

The head is coming together this weekend, body skeleton started.

Got some poor weather coming in again this week...gotta get it in. We're buying some waterproofing and will get it started next weekend, and waterproof as we go, to be able to not worry so much about the weather. Hope it works, trying yet another something new that will work in theory...

Haven't quite worked out how we're attaching the arms just yet. And, I need to double check the head angle before finishing it off.




If the whole charr thing don't work out, we got a heck of a head start on a dragon...

oh yeah! That's going to look awesome!

Are you still doing paper maché? Because I could see doing a light MM application with some lightweight burlap to get the effect...

Yeah, I had thought of that...but we're sticking to Paper Mache, because at 10' tall, I don't know that I could be hefting around a MM construction. My Totems are about 1/2 this size with some MM, and I can barely maneuver those. In fact, difficulty maneuvering them has led to some of the damage they've sustained.

While the frat boys next door would certainly help us out...I don't like NEEDING to rely on people to move things.

If the epoxy coating I'm going to be using for waterproofing works as advertised, durability is not going to be an issue.

Wow. If you pull this off, you would handily beat the daylights out of the competition for the GW Halloween contest... *tries to send sunny weather your way*