[chachabella]

After I moved here and produced my first Halloween yard my neighbors asked what I was going to do for Christmas. I had no idea that I moved onto a road where everyone did Christmas displays.

So I slowly transitioned into a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Each year I just make or add one prop at a time. Finally one year after painting Santa I decided that plywood standups were good enough from here on out. This year was supposed to be a plywood Oogie Boogie. I was going to paint him with UV paint put him inside the screened in porch with black lights on him and light him up.










But then my husband found this inflatable costume!



I am not a huge fan of inflatables. But this seemed like such an easy addition. So I threw together a spiderhillpropworks armature his size so I could pose his arms, then I put him outside. But I still want to make him glow. Do you think I can coat him with some UV reactive fabric paint?

 

[Lord_kobel]

Have you tried just placing a strong light source on the back of the inflatable? I used a couple of inflatable eyes this Halloween with a 3 LED torch taped to the back of each, which lit the whole thing up perfectly, although those were a lot smaller than yours.

 

[matrixmom]

Everything looks wonderful...great twist for Christmas...

 

[chachabella]

Thanks @matrixmom. I was so horrified to learn that everyone here does Christmas... I am so tired after Halloween. But I figured if I could do it in a way that pleases me I would soldier on!


@Lord_kobel we have not tried backlighting. I did try a green led gemmy spotlight, but not from the back, only from the front . The green was pretty poopy looking on him. He is just brown, as he was designed to look like burlap. And the green didn't really pop over the brown. But this evening I will try it behind and see. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Wolfman]

If he's protected by the elements, a heavy coat of cheap neon acrylic pain will show up under UV. Give him a base coat of flat white, then go nuts with the neon. Green shows up well. The paint tends to chip away from the flexible material so touch up may be needed. And once the UV shuts off? No more glow.
But nice compromise for a Haunter to do Xmas....

 

[rmayer121]

Looks really good! How did you make the snake and the duck? I have a pirate themed haunt on the outside but we have some NBC props I've made for the inside and I'm particularly intrigued by these ones.

 

[chachabella]

Thank you. Those were made all of found objects around the house, so they were really just thrown together cheap and quickly.

The snake is corrugated drainage pipe. The head is a length of pipe cut to shape like his mouth and popped onto the end of the drainage pipe. His eyes are a foam ball cut in half and gorilla glued on. Some orange paint and he was good to go.

The duck was a bit more involved. I stole a foam duck decoy from my husband's hunting gear. It was shaved down to the appropriate size and shape. I used a pvc pipe for the neck and stuck a foam ball on for the head. The bill was some 1/4 inch foam cut to shape, no idea where it came from,probably some packaging or something. I cut slices out of the foam head and inserted the bill pieces. The teeth were some white rigid but thin plastic, maybe a butter tub lid or something to that effect. I cut them out and shoved them into the bill. The whole thing was coated with HotWireFoamFactory FoamCoat and painted.

 

[chachabella]

.... duplicate post ....

 

[chachabella]

What a total pita to paint!! But I think it will work out just fine. The only thing I find disappointing is that the weight or stiffness of the paint on the "fabric" is that he doesn't inflate as easily. But he will still be stellar when I get done with the uv green!

 

[halloween71]

looks so good.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

Your yard and all your props look terrific!
I love NBC.