Halloween 2021: Grim Guardians

Day Shots:

For some reason, the post hiccupped, and didn't want to include the big guy here:

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments....believe me, they're appreciated!

Ghost of Spookie said:

When your daytime photos look as awesome and creepy as your nighttime, well can’t improve on that!! Always a delight to see your house and work.

Glad to see those Eerie Eyes guys are still a part of your garden. I just find them creepy and finally bought my own. Am curious how heavy the corbel skeleton is and how you ended up suspending it. Thanks.

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Thanks GoS!

Before I address the question, I'd like to take a quick second to say how much I always appreciate your encouraging and positive comments.

It's always gratifying to hear from the visitors to the haunt, but there's a different sort of gratification when it comes from people that know what goes into these displays every year, and I really appreciate that kind feedback...it's very energizing!

Anyway, that corbel clocks in at about 30 pounds, which is primarily because he's on a 1/4" plywood backer, and because his draping is all coated in monster mud. I tried to keep the rest pretty light (plastic skeleton, foam and plastic accents, etc., but he's still got some heft.

He's supported with a heavy-duty French cleat that's rated up to 300 lbs.

That provided an invisible / seamless hanging method to the viewer, allowed for easy mounting and removal, and also allowed me to go directly into the 1 X 4 trim boards under the eaves / soffit.

Plus, it also makes storage pretty simple...I can just pull the cleat down, and put it back in the shop, and hang him right back up.

Below is the view from the shop on November 1st; all of the major arcana were right back in their respective homes, including Mr. Skeletal Corbel:

jdubbya said:

The large sitting gargoyle; a Distortions piece? Impressive!

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Yep, he's from Distortions!

I'd initially thought I was going to try to make something from foam, but then I took on making the corbel and a few other things, and decided I'd see if it could be outsourced. And, of course, my first stop was Distortions. (I've been getting something new from them pretty much every year for the last several, and have zero regrets)

Turns out they had pretty much exactly what I was looking for. He was the right size / scale, and had the right look, etc. He was even flat backed, which was perfect for what I was looking to do.

Since he'd have to be mounted overhead, and be sturdy / stable, and he was also going to have to be modified to have some nice glowing features, it was also going to need to have some kind of access cavity. Luckily, the back was already open, and had plenty of room for all of that stuff!

First, I cemented a piece of wood in the bottom of the cavity that had two holes in it to receive some PVC, and then used that to run threaded rod through (that was then used to bolt everthing down to the shelf when overhead). The goal was to create a connection mechanism to the shelf, but also to add some rigidity.

In this picture, you can just see the cavity that leads into the back of the head at the very top of the image, too. That allowed me a place to insert LEDs, and to secure the connections and waterproof them:



(He's naturally pretty dense and sturdy, but I didn't want to the wind to get him rocking too much, so foam inserts were also run behind the PVC to offer some additional stabilization after the above picture was taken)

From there, it was just a matter of inserting some LEDs behind the eyes, and close enough to the surface that they would show through and the last layer of latex would diffuse the light. For the eyes, 5mm did the trick, but the mouth needed 18mm to get it to look right for me:💀




Anyhow, I think he's pretty great, and I love the several Distortions props that I've got now.

As much as I enjoy making stuff for the display, it's nice that there is someone out there making stuff with high enough quality that you don't always have to!