Thread: Need a skull for tombstone

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So I want to try putting a skull on my tombstone that I'm currently still cutting out of foam. I'm not sure if its best to use like a half skull that you can just glue on the front of the tombstone, or a full skull and drill out a large hull to put half of the skull thru.

Any ideas? If half..what are some good sites to purchase? Thanks guys

If you are inclined, make some paper mache cast of a skull, you can cut these and experiment without trashing a perfectly good skull. Make a cast by covering the skull tightly with tin foil, then cover with mache. Or you can do what I do and rub a little oil or other releasing agent before applying the mache. Thats the technique I used on this tombstone

Get a cheap foam skull from Michaels or AC Moore. Cut it in half and adhere it to the stone. I've made three of them this year and they look very nice.
Terror Syndicate also sells foam full and half skulls in various sizes for reasonable prices.

http://terrorsyndicate.com/GSgallery.html

cool, thanks. Is it easy to glue a half skull on a stone? I can't even visually picture how or where you would apply glue to the back of a half skull. If you had it cut, there would only be the outside thin diamater of the skull itself, seeing as the skull is prob hollow. hmm

Originally Posted by chugger93

cool, thanks. Is it easy to glue a half skull on a stone? I can't even visually picture how or where you would apply glue to the back of a half skull. If you had it cut, there would only be the outside thin diamater of the skull itself, seeing as the skull is prob hollow. hmm

The small foam skulls at Michaels are solid styrofoam so the section to be glued is the full surface. The TS skulls are the same way. A hollow skull would be more difficult and have less of a contact surface but the right adhesive would work. I use Liquid Nails Heavy Duty construction adhesive for all of my foam stuff and it works great.

Originally Posted by chugger93

cool, thanks. Is it easy to glue a half skull on a stone? I can't even visually picture how or where you would apply glue to the back of a half skull. If you had it cut, there would only be the outside thin diamater of the skull itself, seeing as the skull is prob hollow. hmm

I was actually just down in the basement working on some 1/2 skulls to be applied to my mausoleum.

I found some fairly realistic (not the cheap looking Bluckies) blow mold skulls. Using a utility knife I carefully cut the back off using the handy vertical mold seam as a guide. I then fill the hollow skull with expanding foam insulation and let it cure overnight. It's then easy to slice off the extra leaving a large flat back with lots of contact surface to glue your skull to whatever you want. I've done the same with other thin plastic hollow vacuum formed decorations in order to glue them down. Hope this helps.

If you are using a hollow skull you could also push it into the foam tombstone ~1/4-1/2" so you can apply adhesive to the sides that slide into the tombstone.

I too like the Terror Syndicate half skull. It's on my 2009 reaper tombstone and attached super easy with Liquid Nails for foamboard.

BTW, Heresjohnny - I have serious tombstone envy plus other prop envy and you're not helping matters!!!

Get a dollar store skull or a cheap one and papier mache an army of them!
Here is how mine turned out... perfect for graves...lightweight and easy to make a ton of them. Went to walgreens 2 days ago and found AWESOME realistic HUMAN sized hard resin skulls for 5.99... bought all they had, but plan on making a ton of them. I can post a pic of that too if you would like...it is the best skull I own so far without dumping money on a bucky skull.

Hey Johnny, how exactly did you make that stone? Ever think of doing a tutorial? I really like the look of it.