Thread: Tabatha's Makeover (WIP)

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I decided to include Tabatha's place of employment, the movie theater snack bar, a bit further down. It just made sense since I'm doing both simultaneously and they go together in the end.

Meet Tabatha. She's an animated witch from Michaels who had many problems. Her hands were installed backwards, her trick or treat bag was installed inside out, and her hair is almost non-existent.



The first step in her makeover was to strip her down to nothing. The stapled hair was pried out with a screwdriver and the fabric was sheared right off her body.



I noticed that two staples were holding the hands onto their bases and promptly flipped them the right way. That was easy.

I mixed up an appropriate ghostly pallor, as that bright green Wicked Witch paint job was a bit too on the nose for my tastes. The head and hands were fully covered so I could better detail it later.



The next step was the wrinkles. I just went in with a very fine brush and followed all the grooves built into the piece. I thought it was a bit too dark at first, but grew to like it with extra detail. I wanted her to look ancient and this did the trick. I still might dry brush over some to soften them just a bit.



The last bit I've figured out so far is the make-up situation. I gave her thick eyebrows and purple lips, eyeshadow, eyeliner, blush, and nail polish. She's beautiful now.




And naked. Once I figure out her new uniform for the movie theater haunt, she'll be clothed simply and promptly. And wigged. She needs a wig.

Cool.I love to redo props.But get that lady some hair.You know how we are about that lol.

Still no luck on the wig front. The local party store had boring normal people hair and I need something exciting for this striking witch.

What I neglected to mention originally was the context for my friend Tabatha here. I recently switched to a movie theater-themed haunt. As in, I will be (crazily) simulating a multiplex experience on the front lawn. You know, ticket booth, popcorn, multiple screens--the works.

Tabatha is the first employee of the new theater. She is in charge of the concessions stand. I'll be building that from the ground up.

I found great discount tile borders at Home Depot for 89cents each. I glued them down to a big 6'x12" board, and grouted them with tinted orange grout.



I then started building out the frame. It's 1x3s on top of 3' deck banisters, which were 99cents each. The back piece has six studs, the front piece three. I still have to fit the pre-bought, $2 on sale shelves for the snacks in the bar and I haven't worked out the exact placement. I'll have more support in the front once that's figured out.



Finally for today, I decided to test some of my beverage options for the snack bar. I'll be doing a unit up like this one with soda bottles and acrylic-tinted water. Here you see Diet Slime, Blood-O+ (the zero calorie alternative), and Pumpkin Beer.

looks great so far!

Great work so far. Movies are my next favorite thing to Halloween, so I don't know why i didn't think of combining them. A movie theatre themed haunt is simply GENIUS!!! What a fabulous idea!!!

Love love love the black and white tile, can't wait to see the finished product.

The snack bar is coming together. Kind of. I'm figuring it out as I go and only just made my first mistake. Not a big one, but enough to stop me working today.

First, I attached the front and back supports to the bar. I wanted an overhang on the counter, hence the gap from the front to the front support.



When I discovered it could stand but wasn't exactly level, I straightened out the legs and added as much reinforcement as I could. There will be solid side panels and additional support on the inside and outside for the legs to really secure them.

Then, I split a thin sheet of plywood in half to act as the backing board for the two shelf sections. That's where the snacks will be displayed. It'll make more sense tomorrow.



Here is where I made my mistake. I mis-measured the width of the shelf for the screws/anchors on the left half of the bar, meaning when I righted it here to test the shelf spacing, I couldn't hang half of them. At least I know it stands pretty level now.



Tomorrow, I pick up a few extra 1x3s to anchor the legs and remember to bring my better jigsaw home to get straight lines where I need straight lines on MDF. I'm very close to being able to do actual finishing work on this, which will not take nearly as long as the bar build itself.

Now if only I could find the right wig for Tabatha. I figured out her uniform. That's just a matter of some quick stitching and finding the right base hat.

I made great progress on the Tabatha's bar today, but had the weather turn against me before I could do a quick run for some extra wood.

I started by stabilizing the legs. I used 1x3 cut to the 6' length of the bar and screwed them into the legs and the board connecting the legs to the bar. They are not going anywhere now.

I then remembered the bar was 1' wide. I started splitting the remaining 2' lengths of 1x3 as I went to fill in side panels and better stabilize the legs.



The missing slats are because I ran out of 1x3s and could feel the start of a big storm coming in. Sadly, I'm still waiting for it to show up. I couldn't risk losing my gigantic stash of cardboard boxes (which stay in the garage on top of my car when not working) to the threat of rainstorm.

My main focus was sectioning out the snack shelf windows. I added the 1x3s to the top and bottom on the front to make create the display windows. That much I was able to complete.



I need to decide if I want one big window or two separate small windows still. If I make it one window, the popcorn maker goes in the center of the bar and I need to adjust the supports in the front (two instead of one). If I make it two windows, I have to place the popcorn maker on the bar itself or behind the bar. Whichever way, I still need to build the popcorn maker as I refuse to waste a perfectly good popper for an outdoor display that will not actually serve popcorn. I ran through the risk assessment and it just was not the right decision to serve popcorn in this neighborhood. Not only is it filled with punk kids who destroy everything not nailed down, their parents are all sue-happy. So, more building work it is.

I will say I'm really liking the look of the slats. I was going to go over the bar with plywood or MDF for a smoother facade. Now it reminds of a pine-box casket and I'm digging the potential creep-factor of that.

Lastly, I leave you with a sampling of the wood decorations for the bar. Here's a jack'o'lantern and a bat. I have plenty of both and needed to fix the paint on all of them anyway.



I can't get to Home Depot again until Monday for more 1x3s, so tomorrow I'll get to start another project. Or not. We'll see.

After a long break from the project (money issues, now resolved), I was able to finish the structure of the bar and stain it black. Note how scratched up the tile is now: it's exactly why I installed it before stabilizing the structure. It's creepy and kooky and just right for how the haunt will look.



I have to wait for the humidity to break to start dry-brushing the Halloween colors on the bar. It should rain a little bit this afternoon which will help. I plan on spraying the exposed interior wood real quick with a black spray can after dry-brushing to hide it. Then I'll seal it all the exposed wood and begin worrying about detail pieces like the popcorn machine, soda fountains, snacks, and getting a wig/clothes on Tabatha.

30 minutes of dry-brushing later and the paint job is set. I hit it with a semi-gloss clear water-based sealer and left it to dry hopefully before the rain really kicks up tonight.







I have the bat for the front drying in the garage. If the rain holds up, I can seal it quick and screw it in.