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Mining hard hat....

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5K views 25 replies 16 participants last post by  CMGhost 
#1 ·
I needed a hard hat for my skeleton that will be sitting in my mine cart. My good old scrounge of a dad found one for me. It was blue and white plastic (stupid me didn't think of taking a before pic of it).

First I spray painted it metallic silver. Then I went out to the garden and sifted some dirt over a really fine mesh. I got some really fine dust. Then I took clear cover spray paint and wet down the hard hard. I layered a fine dusting of dirt over the helmet. Making sure to get it heavy in the crevices. I repeated this a few times and smoothed and bumped up certain areas. Then a fine spray of clear over the whole thing.

It looks so cool in person, you can't really see all of the bumps and ridges the dirt made in these pics. It is especially cool on the brim, as if someone's dirty hands had taken the hat off on and on thousands of times (Vladamir Guerrero would be proud). ;)

Here are a few pics.





 
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#5 ·
Thanks all. I am on the look out for more freebie hard hats. I have my whole scavenging team hot on the trail. :) I hope to get at least 4 or 5. We have plans for about that many props. I am not very good at these aging techniques so I am so happy with how it turned out. Since I want to do more, the next one I do I want to get progress pics. I wish I would have had the forethought to take a before picture of this one though.

Great idea on the headlamp. I will have to figure that one out to make it look old school as well. :D
 
#16 ·
YHJ, totally sold me on it being an old fashioned metal miners hard hat. Well done. Now, just what were they mining for and why are they all dead...gotta "flesh" out the theme a bit maybe?! Or was it a dead mine that took the souls of those looking for the elusive gold and now they remain to haunt the shaft?
 
#18 ·
I'm going to have some sort of legend about Springhill Jack, a miner that was cheated or otherwised wronged and now haunts the mine. And ever since, miners that have gone in to steal Springhill Jack's gold have never been seen again. There will be some partially buried skeletons in the mine to explain what happened to them.
 
#20 ·
I had come across that page before I joined hauntforum. I was thinking a little more cartoonish in terms of my targeted audience being little TOT's. I definitely can take some ideas from them though. I really liked the clothing the miners were dressed up in. We are in the process of trying to find lamps as well. Thanks for all the great input everyone!!!! I can't wait to disclose some of the "special" projects that I am working on.
 
#21 ·
Man...I wish I would've seen this thread a while ago.... I really could have helped you out. I am a coal miner (CM stands for coal miner), and I come across all kinds of spare miner cap lamps all the time, we just throw them out when we're done with them.

Checked out your thread on your haunt too...sounds great. I've been doing one for a few years too, although i get a lot of great ideas and props from work. It's always a great scare.
 
#24 ·
"I'm going to have some sort of legend about Springhill Jack" - read that and an old song I learned during my teenaged folkie years popped into my head:

Springhill Mine Disaster

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine
There's blood on the coal and the miners lie
In the roads that never saw sun nor sky. (x2)

In the town of Springhill, you don't sleep easy
Often the earth will tremble and roar
When the earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal. (x2)

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Late in the year of fifty-eight
Day still comes and the sun still shines
(But it's) Dark as the grave in the Cumberland mine. (x2)

Down at the coal face, miners working
Rattle of the belt and the cutter's blade
Rumble of the rock and the walls closed round
(The) Living and the dead men two miles down. (x2)

Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft
Twelve men lay in the dark and sang
Long hot days in the miners tomb
(It was) Three feet high and a hundred long. (x2)

Three days past and the lamps gave out
And Caleb Rushton got up and and said
There’s no more water, or light, or bread
(So we'll) Live on song and hope instead. (x2)

Listen for the shouts of the barefaced miners
Listen thru the rubble for a rescue team
Six hundred feet of coal and slag
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam. (x2)

Eight days passes and some were rescued
Leaving the dead to lie alone
Thru all their lives they dug their grave
Two miles of earth for a marking stone. (x2)
 
#26 ·
It looks great for an old time miner hat... only thing lacking, like you already said, is a light holder on the front...

Of course, the miner hats today are plastic, and usually covered in reflective tape and coal mining stickers... but thats now. the ol' timers had simple hats...

I love the coal miner themes...even though they hit close to home for me. Everyone's plans sound great for their haunts...I personally wish I could come to each one of your haunts to check it out.

If you all haven't seen it yet, check out My Bloody Valentine. Great horror movie with a coal miner theme and a coal miner villian...could get a lot of good ideas from that too!
 
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