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My first attempt at a Pirate Ship....

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11K views 47 replies 32 participants last post by  One eyed Mick 
#1 ·
This is my first attempt at a large pirate display. We built a small deck off the front of my house a year or so ago and I got the idea to turn it into a pirate ship for Halloween. I have been working on it for the last couple of weeks. I got some great ideas for this ship from a lot of the members on this board.

It is a "Work in progress". I have a little more "Tweaking" to do before the big day. I still have to add a skeleton pirate that will be "Walking the plank" and I have one more free standing pirate skeleton that has yet to be delivered.

I am also still working on the navigational (Red/Green) lanterns. I have a fog machine that will go behind the "Bow" along with a lightening strobe. There will also be a lightening strobe on the main deck next to the ship's wheel. The deck torches will be lit at night.

I am also going to be adding some rope "Rigging" and more netting to finish her off........l

I give you the "Mourning Star":









Here is a link to the rest of my pics:

mic214/Pirate Ship 2008 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Thanks for looking........

"One Eyed" Mick
 
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#12 ·
#11 ·
WOW! Mic214 that is amazing!!! For a first attempt....well that looks pretty profesional to me! I love how you made it part of the actual house. It looks huge. The TOT are going to love coming to your house this year. Very nice work.
 
#16 ·
It is a pretty fair size set up. The deck is 10' high and it is 8' deep x 14' wide. The mast runs 18' to the top of the flag pole section. After looking at the pics, I am thinking on moving the gang plank to the other side of the deck (To the bay window side) as it is easier to see......

I'd love to see a night photo. Or did I miss something...?
I added the red and green nav lites last night and also lit the torches and turned on the lightening strobe down in the bow section. I took some pics, but they didn't turn out too good. The flash kept washing everything out. I took some more pics tonight:







 
#19 ·
Ha, ha, ha.....that would be great, but I am having a hard enough time convincing my bride into letting leave it up for Christmas!!!!! I thought a "Santa Pirate" would be way cool.......she, on the other hand, does not:(!

I took some more night photos with my other camera and I think they turned out pretty cool:







 
#26 ·
I tweaked my display a bit and added a few more props, so now I think I am finally DONE:D!!!! We moved a couple of the skeletons around on the ship and re-arranged the tombstones on the lawn. We took out some of the "Non-pirate" decorations and added some more green and blue spot lights.

I was able to score an old, wrecked row boat for free. I cut the boat in half and set up a skeleton in it, along with a few more skeleton tiki torches, a couple of kegs, some rope and another tattered pirate flag. I think it turned out pretty good.......

I took a bunch of pictures of my project as I went along. My night photography skills are not very good, but some of the pics came out OK. Here is a link to my Photobucket album:

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

Here is a shot as you walk up the front door:



This is the wrecked row boat set up:



A closer shot of the "Wreck":



A shot of my front door area:



A shot of a couple of the "Crew" that I moved on the ship:



Let me know what you think of the "Mourning Star".......
 
#27 ·
We have a small ledge shelf above our garage and I had thought of doing a ship something like you did with it coming at you but boy yours is way better than I would have planned. Great use of your upper deck. Really, really nice job there. The only thing IMO I thought was lacking from your photo page was lighting of the ship from ground level and the addition of fog around the ship's hull. You did such a nice job making the hull people really should see it more in the dark.

Mic214 I noticed from your prop table that you had something called a cannon thunder strobe. How did this work, did you think it was a good effect and where did you purchase it from?

Thanks for posting.
 
#28 ·
GOS,

Thanks for the kind words! I actually do have a fog machine that I have yet to set up. I plan to put it in the driveway behind the bow of the ship. That is where I put the cannon thunder strobe light (K-Mart) and it worked pretty well, but one of my neighbors thought as you did and suggested that I add more light behind the bow. So I just added a blue flood light a couple of days ago and it looks pretty good. I will try and take some more night time pics of it all with everything lit up......
 
#29 ·
I was wondering where you got the row boat from :) Great idea!

Your display looks great - I'm bummed that I didn't look at this thread sooner - would have loved one of those anchors! And nice score on the kegs/barrels. We were scouring the freecycle and craig's lists out here for that stuff, but no luck.

Becoming a "haunter" does change your perception of garage sales, thrift stores, etc. I find myself looking at objects with a "what can I make out of that" mindset!
 
#30 ·
ManicMom,

Thanks for the kind words! I have had a lot of fun putting this all together. I have spent a lot of time on Craigslist and the internet in general looking for stuff. You are so right that becoming a "Haunter" does make you look at things differently! Next year, I am hoping to get my cannons set up to fire and I want to make the ship's wheel turn a bit. I also need to add a pirate audio soundtrack too.....

Now all I have to do is convince my lovely bride that a "Pirate" Christmas would work:D!!!!!

"One Eyed" Mick
 
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