[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Putting together a very big, but not giant spider for my planned spider tree. I'm not happy with the biggest one I now have which is one of those furry wire legged muppet looking ones. I want one far more realistic looking. I still have a few blocks of shipping foam left and one of the bigger ones was perfect for carving the body from. I did the head/fangs as a separate piece so I could hold it in my hands and get at it from all angles to get better detail. While not perfectly smooth, the white bead foam block carved nicely and with some sanding I got it pretty smooth. A thick coat of latex paint will further smooth it and fill in some of the gaps without adding much weight. I want this to be light enough to display as if it's resting in the tree above it's victim awaiting it's next, not on the ground so I'm engeneering things to keep the weight down as much as i can. I'm doing the legs from wooden dowels because I just don't like the look of pvc legs that don't taper down in size with each segment and end abruptly without tapering to a point. Heres the pics so far. Still a bunch to do - finish up with the legs and reinforce the leg attachments, make fangs and the little mouth leg things on each side of them, eyes, and of course paint. Heres pics up to now...

And this is the paint job I'm going to attempt...

 

[Abunai]

Looks very good. As does the cauldron creep in the background.

 

[craftygirl]

Wow! I love your spider, I can't wait to see it painted!

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

OMG, great carve of the body and construction of the legs! I sheepishly opened this thread as we were vacuuming up black widows under our BBQ island yesterday. I dreamt of spiders all night long. Yours is looking to be something of nightmares as well. How do you adhere the elbows to the foam?

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

How do you adhere the elbows to the foam?

I made a hole big enough to tightly fit each elbow, then applied a generous amount of hot glue to the elbow all around, let it cool a couple of seconds to prevent melting the styrofoam, then inserted each one. I attached the first leg segment before doing this to ensure I got the right angle on the leg. I might have to redo it though as the foam seems to flex quite a bit and I'm worried it won't hold up without cracking.

 

[Terra]

Looks absolutely terrifying so far...

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Getting closer. Got the legs finished, fangs and pedipalps carved, body and legs base painted, then put it back together for a few pics. Just need eyes and the detail/pattern painting and it will be done.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Managed to (maybe) finish up the paint job this evening. I copied a big orb weaver spider's markings, but slightly changed the colors from yellow to yellowish cream and added a white outline. Might make a few changes, but I'm pretty happy with it. I still have not found anything I find suitable for making the eyes with, but did mark their positions and relative size. Looked at beads, glass stones, and stick on faceted thingies, but none of them struck me as eye worthy.

Oh, and I discovered that it will indeed support it's own weight, even on those spindly legs with wire joints. Once all four are attached they can be moved around and adjusted to spread the little bit of weight of the foam body out no problem! I still plan on displaying him in attack position hanging on to the webbed up spider tree I'm planning. My corpsed skeleton will be used as a victim, just as last year, and there will be smaller spiders, clusters of eggs, and a large egg sack hanging from the tree as well. I'm moving the whole setup to an oval shaped flower bed near the driveway so it will be viewable from all sides as the kids walk up. The full facebook album of this spider build from start to finish is located here... SPIDER!

 

[The Halloween Lady]

Your spider looks wonderful. Although I think it looks terrifying, I don't think your little haunter has any fear what so ever!

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

I don't think your little haunter has any fear what so ever!

Nope! Not when it comes to the things I build anyways. He loves Halloween just as much as I do.

 

[daddywoofdawg]

at the craft store they have those glass stone things people put in a jar,real spiders don't have pupils.so any glassy looking eye would work good.
So how big is the body?

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

at the craft store they have those glass stone things people put in a jar,real spiders don't have pupils.so any glassy looking eye would work good.
So how big is the body?

I looked at those at Michael's, but none appealed to me. Might try experimenting with some by painting the underside different colors and patterns to see what effects I can get. Might just go with glossy black ones. The body on this guy is roughly a little bigger than a basketball.

 

[offmymeds]

Wow, that thing is awesome and your little victim is adorable! I saw that pic and just laughed out loud!!

 

[Paint It Black]

I love it when the little ones get into it. For me, it's the grandkids.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

Great pics! And your spider is turning out fantastic!

 

[CassintheUK]

That looks awesome! I'm working on my spider fear here in the UK. Their harmless field spiders are huge and like to sit on my bottom step waiting for me to get up in the morning during the fall and early spring. However, I'll take the field spider over that! LOL! Can't wait to see it finished!

 

[Oswald]

That spider turned out great! How's it look under a black light?

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

That spider turned out great! How's it look under a black light?

Have not tried. I'll be lighting it with an led uplight most likely.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Got the tie down anchors attached to the underside so now I'm able to see it suspended similarly to how it will be posed in my fake tree. I put two metal loops on the underside, one near the spinnerets and one on the chest between the legs. I'll be able to secure it tightly to the branches with fishing line that will blend in to the rest of the webbing I plan on spraying with my web shooter. Excuse the mess, I've been busy getting my boat ready for some fishing at the same time I've been working on these latest projects. I'll disassemble the spider soon and store it in a tote for safe keeping till October so I can get all this mess cleaned up.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Oh, and here is the finished egg sac I started on a few weeks back...