Just finished up a really simple Leering Skelly. Saw these cedar half barrels at Menards for $22 with rebate and had to make something with it. I used the vinegar-water-steel wool-instant coffee mixture to weather the barrel. This is a typical Pose-N-Stay Skelly, the spine is really thin so I used a 3' length of 3/8 threaded rod up the spine. Motor is a cheap 5 rpm synchronous. The lantern was modified with yellow and orange flicker LED's.
J-Man - well done! Have you run the motor for very long yet? Just wondering how it'll do in the long term turning your skellie... I'm using a similar one to turn my giant skull up in my front yard trees, but am not sure how long it'll go for (primarily concerned about the drive shaft bearing).