Thread: Tips for locking skeleton joints in place

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I have a few Barney and Bucky skeletons that I want to pose in my pirate-themed haunt, but I'm not certain how to go about it. For example, I want to have a skeleton falling backwards off a plank, with his arms outstretched. I plan to hang him from some beams in my garage using fishing line, so balancing him on the end of the plank is not a problem. However, I'm looking for suggestions on how to keep his knee, elbow, and shoulder joints bent.

I'm considering heavy gauge wire wrapped around the joints and painted to match his bones so it blends in, but does someone have a better technique? Ideally, I'm looking for a technique that is (a) not permanent (aka, does not involve glue) so that I can pose him differently in the future, and (b) does not need to be covered up (my skeletons may be partially clothed in rags, but the elbow and knee joints will likely be exposed).

Any suggestions/experiences would be welcome! Thanks!

I would think the large bottles of epoxy/hardner from Lowes oughta do the job permentanly. Start with the wire for the posing and more for the epoxy to grab to, and it's most likely not going ANYWHERE. I think with the wire alone you'll have too much bending of it and possible slipping.

Screws will work. I used screws to keep some of buckies mouths open. One bit of advice though if you decide to go the screw route. Make sure that you pre-drill the hole first. It will be easier to drill the screw plus sometimes if you try to just put the screw into the bucky the bone will actually break. where you are drilling.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I need to think on this further. I still want to avoid any permanent adhesives like epoxy so I can reposition the skeletons differently the next year. And while screws would work well with buckys, I'm a little leery of using them with the hollow bones on my barneys (could cause cracking).

I have had very good results using hot glue in the joints. You need to build it up slowly, but it works great and is removable, without damage to the Bucky. You can really just pull it out of the joints later, or re-melt it in stubborn areas. The transluscent hot melt in the joints looks like cartilage, so no cover up or painting is necessary. Here is an example of it on our neighborhood scarecrow contest entry. It withstood wind and rain for over a month. The secret is to build it up in layers, letting each layer cool between applications. It took only about 10 minutes to pose the arms on this guy.





Eric

Cool - thanks Eric (Wolfbeard)!

Originally Posted by MassMax

Cool - thanks Eric (Wolfbeard)!

Be sure to post photos as you go. The skeleton falling off the plank sounds like a great idea. I can almost picture it in my head. There are a few other pirate theme related photos in my gallery, if you want to take a look.

To make the Bucky stand, you can drill a hole in the plank, and run a piece of re-bar up high enough to zip tie the spine and one leg to it. Paint the re-bar bone white or the color of your skeleton and you are good to go with lower body support for a standing bucky. Use plenty of zip ties to adequately support it. If you use the whitish ones, they are almost invisible against the bones and can be hidden by rag clothing if necessary.

Eric

If you're suspending the skeleton with fishing line why not position the arms with fishing line as well?

I like Wolfbeard's hot glue idea! Simple, cheap and easily removable. Just curious on how much weight it might actually support. If MassMax is trying to keep the bucky arms outstretch to the sides, the arm weight might be a little too much for the hot glue to hold it without cracking or breaking free.

Zip-ties are the way I'd go to. Find another prop or something that can be "hid" to tie it to.