Home Depot Eternal Embrace Tombstone Prop Upgrade

My first prop of the season is done! I recently picked up a 40 in. Grave & Bones Eternal Embrace Tombstone from Home Depot. Another really great sculpt on a big box store-bought piece, and with a little bit of added detail would make a fantastic new statue for my Cemetery display. It would also make a great companion piece to last year's Grim Reaper statue project.

The finished piece, shot at my local cemetery...

I made quick work of detailing this piece, using a similar technique to last year's: start with a wash of black paint for the recessed areas and a light wash of white paint in the highlight areas for added detail and depth, followed by a quick dry brushing of green for recessed areas of moss. I then went in and added drippy black tears from the blackened eyes, streaking down the front of the piece. I wanted to concentrate the most detail into the facial area creating a subtle main focal point. The final step would then be a heavy coating of air compressor-and-webcaster hot glue stick spider webbing to give it a well-aged look...

The original piece, right out of the box. Really not bad, but lacks any detail or depth...

With a black paint wash added to darken the recessed shadow areas.

Now with a white paint wash added to pump up the contrast of the highlight areas...

And then a dry brushed green for a mossy effect in the recessed areas. The moss really gives it an aged, organic look.

The final step of adding black tears down the face from blackened eyes, and then a heavy coating of spider webs to give it a decayed, creepy, old look. And the added detail in the faces creates a great, natural focal point to the piece.

I'm REALLY happy with the way this turned out. I was able to detail this piece in short time and the old, decayed look was achieved with relative ease. The cherry on top being that I was able to get my compressor and webcaster gun working correctly and got much better looking webbing than on last year's statue.

Another great piece ready to go into this year's display and the motivation to jump into my next project on the list. Let's go.