[VonDagger]

Hi All,

My wife and I are doing our bit to support Halloween in Australia, we've only been doing it the last couple of years and decorated for the first time 2 years ago, looking at going bigger and better this year.

In the past it's been predominantly spiders and webbing to the point most mothers won't walk up our front path and send the kids to the door on their own.

Looking at adding a graveyard this year and am frantically trying to finish my tombstones after work each night. I look forward to getting some great idea and tips from the experienced members.

 

[David_AVD]

G'day! Another Aussie here. Where are you located?

 

[VonDagger]

Western Sydney(Penrith) you?

 

[mrincredibletou]

Hello and welcome to the forums, plenty of great ideas here!

 

[David_AVD]

I'm in Victoria Point, about 30K south of Brisbane.

 

[ronnie4700]

Welcome, everyone here is always ready to help. Here's a pic of new
spider I just got,,,would love to get some webbing in there.Happy Haunting!

 

[dane82]

welcome aboard!

 

[VonDagger]

That spider looks awesome, I could find a nice spot for that and make everyone have to walk under it to get to the door

 

[pacman]

Hi and WELCOME TO THE FORUM ..... and for crying out loud VonDagger YOU GOT SOME big arse REAL SPIDERS OUT THERE IN AUS lol , hope your setup comes together , everyone always up for helping newer members on the forum , pop over to the U.K. thread and say hello sometime , everyone welcome and if we can help be glad to . Are you doing polystyrene or wood tombstones ...... there my favorite prop to make lol - here,s some of my polystyrene ones .

 

[VonDagger]

Hi pacman, I have made my first ones out of polystyrene Most are in various stages of painting. Here is my first effort. I painted the simplest one I made first.

 

[pacman]

Looking good VonDagger , you will find the more you do the easier and more fun they are , i used solvent based spray paint to spray onto the edges of some of my tombstones and that burns the foam and when it stops melting it gives that crumbly stone texture , i also used to scratch out a crack and then do the same process around the crack but not too heavy else it melts everything lol but then that adds to the crumbly effect around the crack as well . Here,s a couple photos i hope they may show better my process i think i used silver solvent paint on these two tombstones , and also i built a crypt out of plywood then covered that with polystyrene and aged it the same as my tombstones try that next it was a big hit with the kids with my skellie in lol , i am looking forward to seeing more of your pictures so post more when you get time , have fun .

 

[VonDagger]

Looks great paceman, I'm hoping to finish the rest of my tombstones this weekend, I'll definitely be putting up more pictures. I have used spray paint already on one to eat into the front in certain era's for a different effect, you can see a little bit of it in my picture to the left.

I need to make some fence next to put along the path in front of my cemetery. That should pretty much take me up till the day for this year, with other commitments I didn't get to start until 2 weeks ago.

 

[pacman]

You done well then m8 considering you started so late, have you planned what fence your making and what you are using ? i used pallet wood first time i did a fence as it didn't cost me anything , but about 10 years ago i went out and bought some 2 x 1 timber and some black plastic electric conduit , and so made a fake railing fence , that's was my go to cemetery fence for last 10 years , really really light could lift each 8ft section with one finger and was so easy to put together and strip down at the end of the night . Let me know how it goes and good luck , if i can be of any help let me know , it was through people on this forum i learnt new techniques and easier ways of creating my props and finally got my cemetery how i wanted it , its still my favorite yard setup , really look forward to seeing your photos , and dont forget when you design your fence make it easy to put up and take down that's the trick lol.

 

[VonDagger]

I have timber and conduit, just needs to be measured, cut and assembled. I'm also waiting on my delivery of 100 curtain rod finials for the fence toppers. They better arrive in time. We've also bought a smoke machine to put some smoke through the display as well.

I watched a lot of Youtube video's and did a lot of reading over the last few months to try to have a few idea's before starting as well.

I just hope it all comes together in reality like it does in my head.

 

[pacman]

You approached it the right way VonDagger , the more thought you put in at the beginning the easier the build usually , i measured my lengths to suit my yard , and i used normal 4x4 inch posts cut down with pallet slats as bases for the posts on corner areas , i found when making the actual fence runs i just screwed the 2 pieces of 2x1 together measured the marks for where i wanted the conduits to go evenly spaced , i marked top and bottom sections and face up on both then drilled down through both pieces at the same time with right size auger bit , this way i couldn't get the spacing's wrong as long i used the right markings face top and bottom etc , then it was piece of cake to just slide each conduit through one at a time and screw threw , then i just blasted the whole fence at the end with cheap flat black spray paint . I couldn't afford finials so just filled top of my conduit .
What fog juice have you got , the real good one that is much denser is so bloody expensive here , and even then when i used it last time in my garden i had to build a fog chiller filled with ice cubes as the temperature here was so warm the fog dissipated as it came out , but by putting it through the chiller box first which was filled with ice cubes it stuck like s++t to a blanket on the floor and looked brilliant straight out of a hammer horror film creeping really slowly tight to the floor , so was well worth it in the end . i look forward to seeing your photos so when you get time i look forward to seeing them , i am in the process of making a DELUXE VAMPIRE HUNTERS KIT , i just made a standard one but this one has loads more accessories lol inc small glass vials and a lot more knick knacks in it , here,s a picture of the basic one -

 

[MarikaL]

Hi All,

My wife and I are doing our bit to support Halloween in Australia, we've only been doing it the last couple of years and decorated for the first time 2 years ago, looking at going bigger and better this year.
.

Welcome VonDagger ?
We are the weirdos in our town (Adelaide hills) that put out a full Halloween display. It has been received really well with lots of ToT’s.
We recently had a death in our family, so this year we are very much behind. But usually we try to make at least one foam tombstone a year and one other large prop. This year however, we have bought our first ever Costco tombstone, DH is driving it home with the children as I type.

My DH (Edgar whelp) has posted some other links to our ever-growing set-up in another Aussie thread, but this year I’ll try to take some better pics and post them up for all to see.

I am loving the increasing interest in Halloween in Australia, it certainly makes it easier to purchase props!

 

[MarikaL]

Well now, the Costco tombstone is pretty fab, we got it for $99, which is a steal!
I’m gonna go over it with a bit of white wash to reduce the slightly plastic look that you see when you get up close, but otherwise, yup very happy!

As for the angel, we’ll smash off one wing and then she’ll be painted and put on her own podium for the graveyard... I saw someone did similar in the other Aussie thread, my DH has been wanting to do this since he first saw her at Costco 3 years ago!
So while we aren’t doing as much DIY as we normally do each year, this is helpful for sure... and we still have to make a life sized cauldron stirring witch and a cauldron too, yikes!

 

[VonDagger]

Hey paceman, thanks for the fog chiller idea, I hadn't seen or thought about that too much yet, damn another project to complete in the next 10 days! I was concerned though about the smoke rising and dissipating too quickly. We have a weeding photography business and see the difference in the way the smoke sits between the dry ice and liquid type smoke machines. I better get it out today and do a trial!

Hi MarikaL, we made some Costco prop purchases ourselves, just a couple of big pumpkins and something else I can't remember off hand. My wife is big into having the best display. I can't get money out of her to make the car go faster, but $$ for halloween comes easy.

I'll have a look for the aussie thread when I get a chance. But it's back to making my fence now.

 

[pacman]

Yeah VonDagger we all get the same problems lol , i guess that's the fun of having your own yard haunt , my chiller was just a basic one a small plastic water tank and i used plastic pipe to wind up and down inside the tank back up and down with an outlet right at the bottom which was water tight which would feed out the fog after it had chilled thoroughly as it passed all the way through the pipework inside the chiller then of course you just pile tons of ice on top of the pipework inside the chiller box and fill it to the top with the ice and put the lid on , then on the night you may need to fill it once or twice again depending how long you got your fog machine running , it really does make a difference and is worth it , especially when the fog creeps slowly out and hugs the first 6 - 7 inches of the ground and look brilliant . MarikaL glad you got one of the costco tombstones a few of the U.K. members just got them as costco marked them down already so they are a lot cheaper than was originally marked up at .

 

[VonDagger]

OK, I've gone as far s I can with my tombstones for this year, here's me fav one.