Don't know if it will be so much a tutorial, but I've decided to revisit one of my old props and attack it with some lessons learned.
Back in 2012 I created the original Trevor.
It was meant to be a one-off, and sold after Halloween that year. I was unhappy with a couple little things, and have certainly improved on my building techniques in the last 7 years.
Primary goals for Trevor 2.0:
Using apoxie clay to create something waterproof and extremely durable from the get go on the sculpt.
Pink foam, not the white beads. Again for durability.
Fog dispersion comes out from the pluerants, not the crappy underneath, thus allowing a more cohesive base.
Secondary goals:
Collapsible?
Efficiency in build
Other effects? slider lid? Shaker?
Multiple???
Don't know if it will be so much a tutorial, but I've decided to revisit one of my old props and attack it with some lessons learned.
Back in 2012 I created the original Trevor.
It was meant to be a one-off, and sold after Halloween that year. I was unhappy with a couple little things, and have certainly improved on my building techniques in the last 7 years.
Primary goals for Trevor 2.0:
Using apoxie clay to create something waterproof and extremely durable from the get go on the sculpt.
Pink foam, not the white beads. Again for durability.
Fog dispersion comes out from the pluerants, not the crappy underneath, thus allowing a more cohesive base.
Secondary goals:
Collapsible?
Efficiency in build
Other effects? slider lid? Shaker?
Multiple???
Wow! That is really cool! I have several questions about Trevor 1.0: is there any framework or is it completely made of beadfoam? What is the body made of? Is there a fog cooler under there or is the fog low-lying because it's seeping out of the bottom? More importantly: how do you plan to make this collapsible for storage? I will absolutely follow this build!!
Awesome work!
Wow! That is really cool! I have several questions about Trevor 1.0: is there any framework or is it completely made of beadfoam? What is the body made of? Is there a fog cooler under there or is the fog low-lying because it's seeping out of the bottom? More importantly: how do you plan to make this collapsible for storage? I will absolutely follow this build!!
Awesome work!
Mostly been getting the shop in order. It had mostly been used for storage since remodel. Finally clearing all that out.
Built the custom table here for not only this project, but all future sculpting jobs. One of the things that would limit my ability to sculpt was pain, both in back and in my hands. This eliminates the former, finally a table at a working height. On casters, the shop door is extra wide so this can be rolled around anywhere in the basement if needed.
However, I'm planning several new creatures coming up, and as such have decided I need to make a mold...
Thus we see Fred here being prepped for a mold. For the uninitiated, Fred here is a 'Bucky' model from the anatomical Chart company. Purchased and corpsed back in 2008, he's been outside as a prop pretty much since then. Brought him in and have been de-corpsing him. In the process removed the arms (alread broken hardware, was being held by the latex corpsing) and legs.
We're making a similar piece for our Druid tomb next year. Will be following along. Still figuring out dimensions but want it to be no more than 6 ft in length and maybe 26-28" wide. plan to frame it with 2x3 then skin with 1" foam, add skulls, adornments, etc.. I'll be watching how you drape the body. This is he part that's vexing me right now. Using a Wally skelly but will likely replace the skull. Off to review the first edition.
We're making a similar piece for our Druid tomb next year. Will be following along. Still figuring out dimensions but want it to be no more than 6 ft in length and maybe 26-28" wide. plan to frame it with 2x3 then skin with 1" foam, add skulls, adornments, etc.. I'll be watching how you drape the body. This is he part that's vexing me right now. Using a Wally skelly but will likely replace the skull. Off to review the first edition.
So, you're going to going a shroud tomb? I know I saw a number of examples, some very 'druid' like back in 2012. This is the only one I saved though. (and it's supposed to be Christ in the tomb, so definitely NOT druid)
I'm making this one smaller than last time as well. I'll do the effigy first then work the dimensions from there. If all the holiday things could quit getting in the way, I could get to work...
So, I started to get to work, but discovered my case of supplies is actually the wrong stuff. I might have a use for that later, but for now, I'm going to have to wait a week or two for more stuff.
Speaking of the supplies.
I use this wrap here:
You can purchase "Rigid Wrap" brand at your local craft store, but the above is cheaper when you bulk purchase. For this project, I'll end up using about 5 rolls.
If you've never worked with it before, simply cut to size, dunk in water, and spread over your form.
Measuring Fred here for size...
After a couple layers. (note I avoided the bolt in his chest) You don't want to wrap too much undercut as we're going to peel this off.
I could have done the skull as well, but I'm going to elongate the neck a bit and use a different skull for artistic reasons. Once this dries, I'll peel it off and fill it with great stuff before determining if I need to do the back as well. We'll bring in details once I start going over this with clay later.
Today, working on the legs. You can see I've been filling the torso with great stuff.
I'm doing the entire leg to get details on the knee a bit. Simply measure out the wrap down the leg and cut. We're covering the top of the leg, and peeling the bones out of the back later. You can see a little bit of 'one I prepared earlier here, where I filled the completed one with great stuff.
Leg covered with the wrap, took 3 layers, with a few small pieces cut to reinforce all joints.
Where I'm going for a mummified/decaying look, we don't want a lot of calf muscle, so I just took 2 strips of the wrap, (one for inside, one for outside of the leg) measured from heel to above the knee, and draped them around the leg, letting the back hang. When dry, this will be filled with great stuff for support.
You need the calf and the hip to inform how to shape the thighs, however, so next step is attaching the leg.
Yeah, I just used Fred as the mold. (though I'm going to make a fiberglass casting of him for other things later)
I'm essentially corpsing with the plaster wrap (then peeling off the wrap and filling the hollow with foam), and I'll go back over THAT with clay for detail work later.
Thanks Unorthodox, I always love your how-to's been following you here for years. I look forward to seeing this one come together. I remember following the original thread on your first tomb like this. It inspired me to come up with my sand casting process that I did the how-to on a few years back.
For attaching the legs, do one side at time. Using the great stuff as in the pic above to attach at the hip. Once that dries, you want just a bit more meat to the upper leg, so spray a little bit of great stuff onto the femur...
And cover that while still wet with some of the plaster wrap.
The wrap will help the great stuff expand smoothly. Roll the thing over and repeat on the back end.
Trevor now has both legs. His right is a little uneven, I'm debating whether to leave that or try to 'fix' it. I tend to like the slight variations and 'mistakes', and most of that will be covered in cloth later. I'm waiting on my order for the clay to come in before going further. Getting the ribs sculpted and smoothed prior to adding the arms will save me trouble later. Might add the skull. There wasn't a real great reason not to do Fred's head at the same time as the rest of the body other than I don't particularly love Bucky model skulls.
So here is a project inspired (copied from) by SKAustin.
It is essentially a large rope handled bin with the rope removed. I then needed to make a bunch of ribs to create the cauldron shape. Taking the time to make a great template was key!
When I was a kid there was a house near our neighborhood that was built to look kind of like a castle. We went trick or treating there one year and they had the whole place decked out with torches along the walkways and people dressed like monks wandering around with torches. For an 8yr old kid...
Here's the how-to for the Moving Eyes Mechanism I made for Frankie's Girl to use behind a painted portrait. It could also work for moving eyes behind a tombstone or in a static prop.
MOVING EYES MECHANISM...
So someone asked if I would post a tutorial on how I made my gibbet this year. Now I mostly followed Hermans Secret tutorial but I made some tweaks. As per the rules I won't link to that tutorial but I will put in the steps and what I did different. I just wanted to make sure that Hermans...
Note: This is a repost of an old tutorial whose links to pictures were broken with the software update at HF.
Gurus of interior design follow basic rules in designing a great room. Christopher Lowell came out with a blockbuster book called the Seven Layers of Design. In haunting, we also use...
