Part 4: Reinforcement (if necessary)
Depending upon how tall you've made your Kraken Sea Monster, and how long of a dryer vent hose you've used, you may need to reinforce the structure to keep it from toppling over.
You can do this by:
1) Doubling up on chicken wire along the base
2) Or adding a structural skin outside of the masking tape.
I opted to add a structural skin, but using fabric weed guard (from those pesky summer chores) and using fiberglass resin to secure it to the armiture.
If you've never fiberglassed before, it's very simple (and less messy than Paper Mache)

I like to use weed guard as my cloth (instead of fiberglass cloth) simply because of cost. Since these Kraken aren't meant to last forever, I wanted to go with low-cost alternatives.
For about $15 at Home Depot, you can pick up a 1 qt. can of Bondo 2-part fiberglass resin. Simply follow the instructions and mix the two parts in an old container (like a yogurt cup) and use a disposable brush to "paint" the resin onto the tape. Then apply your strips of weed guard (for strength) and paint another layer of resin on top. You'll need to work fast as this stuff will set up quickly.
You can see the black "band" of fabric that was fiberglassed below: