New to the Forum and to Prop Making

**Joe_31st** · 10-12-2011,10:54 AM

Hello all!

Well, I'm full time dad of a teen aged son from Downey, CA and I have to say that Halloween is our favorite time of the year. It's actually our favorite Holiday. We celebrate all month long going to Knott's Scary Farm (Buena Park, CA), watching scary movies on Sci-Fi and stuff like that. I think that having a kid who loves Halloween keeps me young at heart which means that I will never outgrow Halloween.

I had always wanted to do a Home Haunt but I never got enough initiative to actually do one. Last year (2010), at the last moment I dressed up the porch a bit as well as myself (cannibalistic butcher) and gave out candy on Halloween. I didn't really do much, but the kids seemed to like it and I actually got some compliments out of them. It inspired me to do better for 2011.

Of course, since I'm a "last minute larry" I'm just now getting my stuff together to build my props. This is where I need help from the forum. I've been reading and learning little by little. I'm most interested in pneumatics, animation control, and audio.

I looked online for toe-pincher coffin plans and I hope to build one or two this coming weekend. The plan is to animate one, and then have the other one for my son to pop out of and scare the kids.

The scene this year will be "Zombie Cemetery". I plan to have a few graves, one with and open coffin, and one with an animated coffin. The animation will be something similar to what's seen at the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. The one where it seems like where someBODY is trying to get out. I plan on making it animate with pneumatics. I just need help on parts and cylinder sizes and stuff.

Well, that's pretty much it!

Joey