Thread: Wales Court Cemetery Reaper Build

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The Idea is Born:
The majority of my build season for 2011 was taken up building blue/uv LED spot lights with PWM control, reworking my FCG and my reverse vortex chiller. All these improvements were transparent to most. So for a build I wanted to build something large for my graveyard thus the Reaper. Looking over what I had for parts, were a bag of bones and some sinister skulls also from target, an old flaming caldron, an unused sheppard’s plant hook.




The Base:
First I made the base, I wanted a 18 inch square base after it was skinned with extruded foam, it had to be light and sturdy. To do this I fell back on one of my other hobbies, model trains, for a light weight but sturdy frame work using L-girders. L-girders are made using 1 x 2 furring strips screwed and glued together where there cross-section is “L” shaped. I first cut the wood to the desired length for the sides of the cube. I then assembled the four cube sides of the cube using pocket hole joinery, keeping in mind the base so I would be able to fasten the foam firmly to the base. I then assembled the four sides in to a cube using dry wall screws. I then cut and assembled the base using 1 x 6, again using pocket hole joinery. I then cut the top from ¾ plywood so that I would have a 1 inch overhang after the cube was skinned with foam.




The Skull:
The foam skull that came in the bag of bones was not that great so I substituted a sinister plastic skull. I wanted to put in red LEDs for the eyes but wanted more of a glow. So I decided to cut an opening in the skull and create a diffuser from some plexiglas that I frosted by doing a light sanding with 400 grit paper. Once installed I had more of a glow.





The Hands:
The hands that came in the bag of bones were just flat; I needed one to grip the sheppard’s hook and the other to rest on the hilt of a sword. I cut the fingers apart at the joints and inserted a wire in each finger. I then posed the fingers the way I needed then and then gorilla glued then mini place.




The Armature:
To determine the dimensions of the armature I measured the leg bones and then used ZombieTronix’s biped calculator, http://zombietronix.com/calculator.php, to determine the overall height and other dimensions. After cutting the main support of the armature and shoulders I attached these to the base added supports and gusseting the shoulders as needed. I added the ribs as the starting point. The arms were just made with 1 x 3 and PVC conduit cut to the length defined in the ZombieTronix’s calculator output. After adding the hands I needed to make the sword. It was made from a 3/8 inch dowel and foam for the blade, a piece of 1 x 3 cut into a elongated diamond for the hilt and a piece of PVC conduit for the handle. In the handle I installed a white led for pommel of a spiked star, a crystal candle holder I bought at Michael’s at 50% off. I made the hips from some scrap ¾” plywood and a piece of 1 x 3. I then attached the legs one resting on the foam skull from the bag of bones that I installed green LED’s in the eye sockets. I then wired up the Reaper for the flaming cauldron, the LED eyes in both skulls and the LED in the sword hilt.





The Clothes:
I decided to cloth the Reaper in a roman style tunic and a full length hooded robe. I first used chicken wire to give the overall shape to the robe, I then made the lower half of the tunic from some cotton cloth and also the robe from cotton cloth. After test fitting the pieces I realized that the hips were too wide so I reworked them. I now needed to partly cover the ribs but I didn’t like the look of clothes then looking at my router pad I realized that once monster mudded it would look almost like chain mail. Not wanting to cut up my router pad I remembered that I had extra anti-slip carpet pad. I then made up a batch of monster mud, finding it to thick for the cloth since I was not using burlap I thinned it with more paint. I then monster mudded the outfit and applied them to the armature. (Sorry no pictures)



The Finish:
After the monster mud dried I painted everything black, highlighting by dry brushing with white. Covered the base in 1” foam with the epitaph that I cut with a X’acto knife. I then painted it grey and the lettering in glow in the dark red paint. Once powered and under black light I realized that the reaper was hard to see so I dry brushed it with Wild Fires luminous paint.




All the pictures can be found in my album: http://www.halloweenforum.com/member...ms-reaper.html

he looked super

awsome looks great !!!!!!