[Bruzilla]

We decided to upgrade the wing spars on our Creeper wings this year. They were made from lengths of 1/2" PVC pipe, which didn't really work for several reasons. The biggest issue was they are smooth and the same width from end to end, and the wing spars should taper as they go. The other big issue was weight. The long spars were six feet long and the shorter ones were five feet long, and that's a lot of weight to handle and support.

We were going to use fishing poles, but eight poles of the correct length and width were going to be pricey as most people won't sell you a pole without a reel. We did some looking around and came across some lengths of bamboo that Pier 1 Imports sells. They come bundled four to a set, with widths ranging from 3/8" to about 1/4". We bought three sets at $9.99 a set, separated them so we would group them by width, and made new bundles of four or five lengths with the thicker bamboo being used for the top two spars and the thinner for the lower two. Then we used zip ties to hold them together, then coated with wood glue and hot glue to form them into one mass. Then we removed the ties, painted the spars brown, and attached them to the wings.





The final product came out very well. The wings are much lighter and can actually flap in the breeze, plus taking them up a ladder and handling them is now a one man job. Plus the wings were much higher and looked better than when they hung lower due to the PVC.

 

[Thorn Kill Creek]

Great job. That looks awesome. Any night shots?

 

[DoctorGrim]

That looks Hollywood worthy.

How does it hold up to wind?

 

[Rumsfield]

That looks Hollywood worthy.

Yeah I agree - Super Awesome
Did you make the hands ?

 

[The Halloween Lady]

Very nicely done! It is a super scary vignette! I can only imagine that they are also now a litle safer for you when setting up and taking down

 

[Bruzilla]

That looks Hollywood worthy.

How does it hold up to wind?

The way the wings attach is we fitted a board, about 12" wide by 18" long, to the back of the mannequin, and there are six brackets on the board. The brackets are the type used to mount old TV antennas to walls. The wing arms have poles that slide down into the brackets, which allows the wings to swivel forwards and backwards in the wind. We used to have a problem with one wing moving more than the other, and we fixed that by running a bungee cord from one wing to another under the Creeper's clothing, so wind force gets balanced between the two wings and they move together, which is a pretty neat effect.

The wings can sweep about 35 degrees forward, and a full 90 degrees aft, so it would take a lot of wind to damage them.

 

[Bruzilla]

Yeah I agree - Super Awesome
Did you make the hands ?

The hands are costume gloves for the bad guy in the Harry Potter movies, Mort or something like that (I'm not a Harry Potter guy). We ran pieces of wire coat hanger into the fingers, then filled them out by stuffing in little bits of toilet paper. That fleshes out the hands and makes the fingers bendable. The mannequin we used had no head or arms, so we made arms out of PVC pipe with outside floodlight brackets for the shoulder and elbow joints, and then wrapped the PVC pipe in bubble wrap to fill them out. Light, cheap, and most importantly waterproof.

 

[Bruzilla]

By the way, if you look at my avatar, you can see the Creeper with the PVC in the wings and see how much lower they hung with the PVC versus the bamboo spars.

 

[deadrail]

Awesome. Would love to build one.
Rich

 

[crazy xmas]

That is killer way to cool!

 

[DoctorGrim]

The hands are costume gloves for the bad guy in the Harry Potter movies, Mort or something like that (I'm not a Harry Potter guy). We ran pieces of wire coat hanger into the fingers, then filled them out by stuffing in little bits of toilet paper. That fleshes out the hands and makes the fingers bendable. The mannequin we used had no head or arms, so we made arms out of PVC pipe with outside floodlight brackets for the shoulder and elbow joints, and then wrapped the PVC pipe in bubble wrap to fill them out. Light, cheap, and most importantly waterproof.

So....any tutorials?

Do you have your CFBL still?

 

[Bruzilla]

Great job. That looks awesome. Any night shots?

 

[Bruzilla]

So....any tutorials?

Do you have your CFBL still?

Yep, still have the Creature, but we replaced the Ricou Browning head that we originally used with a Ben Chapman head. We had intended to make a Chapman Creature and used a 6'4" mannequin, but we ended up with a Browning head and since Browning was smaller his head was a bit too small on the Chapman body. So some time this year I hope to build a Browning Creature and then we'll have both of them.

We also put the Creature into a cage that was vacated by my son's iguana this year, and made it look like he had broken out of it and was trying to grab the TOTs as they walked past it. It was a pretty nice effect.

 

[xxScorpion64xx]

Damn! Awesome job Bruzilla, thanks again for hooking me up with Brian Penikas mask, I also have a Creeper and I would like to add some wings like yours.

 

[Bruzilla]

The wings make all the difference.

 

[bl00d]

That is sooo awesome!!! Where did you get the hat and what is the name of it? I've been searching for one forever!!! AWESOME JOB!!!

 

[Bruzilla]

That is sooo awesome!!! Where did you get the hat and what is the name of it? I've been searching for one forever!!! AWESOME JOB!!!

The mask and hat came from Makeup and Monsters, which is Brian Penikas's shop out in CA. He was the makeup guy for both Jeepers Creepers movies and a lot of other films. It's kinda cool when you order from him because you're dealing directly with him, and he also sends along pictures of the costumes that are very useful. That's the good news. The bad news is I checked his website and it looks like he's still selling the masks but not the hats except for children's sizes. You can check out the site at http://www.makeupandmonsters.com/CreeperMasks.htm, or you can email him at [email protected] and see if he's got any more hats or if he's getting more in.

Brian sells two grades of masks, one is the signature mask and the cheaper one is the masquerade one. I'm using the masquerade one.