Animated Swaying Zombie Prop

Another prop for the 2025 haunt display is now done! My new swaying zombie animatronic is now ready to go out into the yard...

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After reviewing last year's display, I knew that I wanted to add some new props with movement this year. My time was short, so I needed something quick and easy. A few years ago, I had built a side-to-side rotating skeleton with lantern sitting on a tombstone with a quick and dependable kit from Spider Hill Prop Works, so I went back to them to see what they had available.

I settled on their Animated Swaying Zombie kit, complete with mounted wiper motor and all PVC pipe sections, and got to work assembling it. I really have to give a big shoutout to Spider Hill, because this kit had literally everything needed to assemble the full figure along with detailed instructions on how to assemble it. The figure went together quickly and easily and was soon ready for finishing. And the fit and finish on the completed kit was top notch.

I used a prop head from good friend to the Cemetery, Dave at Closed Casket Studios. The decayed head worked perfectly for this piece, and the best part is that I already had it sitting in my collection! The detailed sculpt really set the entire piece off nicely...

For the clothing, I lucked out and used a full, already-distressed suit that I had used for a zombie costume 10 years ago. It was just sitting in my basement unused, so it worked perfectly for this. And luckily, it fit the dimensions of the kit nicely.

I also ended up grabbing a cheap pair of white plastic zombie hands from eBay to finish the figure. The white plastic ended up matching the color of the prop head and they were pretty close on scale to the rest of the figure. It took a bit of rigging, but they fit snug into the pipe ends of the arms, and they look good when the arms are swaying freely as the figure rotates, almost as if they are reaching out to grab you.

To finish the piece off, I added an MP3 player with external speaker to the inside of the body. I had an old zombie audio track (unfortunately, I can't remember where I got it) that I dug up and used, which ended up working perfectly. A really nasty, gurgling vocal to add the final accent to a really great prop.

I am SUPER happy with the way this one turned out and with how easily it all went together. It is going to look fantastic sitting next to my crypt, right next to the walkway where all of the trick-or-treaters have to pass by to get their candy. I think it will be an intimidating challenge for some to get by as it growls and rotates...

The Creeps Are Creeping! The Spooks Are Spooking!

The undead have returned to Highbury Cemetery for tonight's trick-or-treat! (Yes, unfortunately it's tonight, not Halloween night like it should be...) But regardless, we have been hard at work getting the Cemetery ready to go for another year of creepy, crawly fun. The tombstones are out, the ghouls are gathered, the lights are in place...

One quick shot to whet your whistle, and then it's showtime for us. See you on the other side!

  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween to all from Highbury Cemetery! May the Candy Corn gods look down upon you in favor on this day and grant you the opportunities to celebrate the high holiday in the manner you see fit. 

Another year's worth of planning, building, and most importantly celebrating, the season comes down to this. So go forth and revel in All Hallows Eve. Our Holiday. Carry on the traditions that make the season so great, for we are the anointed that keep the spirits alive, nurture them, and pass them on to future generations. We are Halloween.

  

Animated Grave Breaker 2023 Prop Upgrade

Two years ago, I picked up a cheap Grave Breaker prop from Halloween City and transformed it into a ghastly, twisting corpse powered by a reindeer motor. You can check out the corpsing portion of the project here, and the animation portion here. It was a fun little build that added some much-needed movement to the front of my display.

Fast forward to today and I have now added a second version to my Cemetery. A few weeks back I was in my local Michael's checking out their Halloween wares, and I came across another Grave Breaker static prop and threw it in the cart. Cheap to begin with, but makes for a great starting point on another animated ghoul that I needed to add to my display...

I followed the same corpsing technique as the first prop, giving it a grotesque, dead flesh look. I ended up adding whisps of hair from an old wig to give it just a bit more creepiness (I simply snipped sections of hair from the wig and applied it randomly using contact cement.)

After the corpsing portion was done, I turned to animating it. The first prop turns side-to-side, so I decided that this version would rock front-to-back. I ended up throwing a linkage arm together with leftover pieces from the first build, powered by a vertically-mounted reindeer motor that I had left over. I mounted the arm to a single piece of PVC, pivoting on a single bolt and washer axle. (Take a look at the original supply list here.)

I'm really happy with the results of this one. It's a huge upgrade to the out-of-the-box piece, and it all went together quickly and fairly easily. I love the subtlety of the movement, as its slow, creepy lunge is just enough to catch your eyes and will look great among the tombstones at the front of my display.

2022 Sneak Peek

It's go time tonight at Highbury Cemetery! The display is up and looking pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Just adding those last few accents (that nobody will notice), and it will be showtime!

Just going to drop a little sneak peak for today. The Harvester of Brine, ready and waiting...

  

Jumping Spider Prop Upgrade

My first new prop for the 2022 season is done, and I'm pretty darn happy with the results...

Right after Halloween last year, I had a chance to check out the clearance sales at the local Spirit Halloween and Halloween USA stores, eventually grabbing this Jumping Spider prop. I rarely ever buy anything from any of these types of pop-up Halloween stores, as I never find anything that I absolutely need for my haunt display. I ended up going back and forth on this one, eventually plopping the cash down, figuring that I could do SOMETHING to it to make it a bit cooler for the following Halloween.

As I'm finally getting into build mode for this season, I remembered this prop sitting patiently in my basement, and went to work on ideas to make this a worthy piece to fit in my display. Upon pulling the spider out, dropping in some batteries, and then watching its mechanical arm spring into life, I was actually pretty impressed with the lunging action as well as the quality of "spider sounds."

The only thing lacking was the spider itself. Bland and a little "cartoony" looking for my liking, but definitely a solid base to work from.

I decided that I'm going to have this in the far end of my display, hiding out in a dark, web-laden corner of my front yard. I will have him triggered as trick-or-treaters walk down the sidewalk, lunging out from a shadowed cluster of bushes. I think it will make a great jump scare. But as is, the spider was just too dark. I wanted something that was going to be VERY noticeable as it lunged from the darkness. So I started doing some spider research...

I ended up using this beautiful Yellow Orb Weaver for reference. A perfect combination of bright and bold colors on the body, but still incredibly creepy-looking. In reality, it's a fairly harmless garden spider, but it will absolutely terrify passersby on the big night.

The paint detailing actually went pretty quickly. I masked off the glossy eyes, and then gave the entire body a quick coat of flat black for a base color.

Once the base coat was dry, I mixed up a nice grey for the face and "fur ring" behind the head. I then painted the fangs white and gave each of the spider's eyes a dot of white to simulate a light reflection (I wanted to make the eyes look a bit more shiny and reflective).

After detailing the head, I went to work on the legs, adjusting the position of each, and then loosely painting a dull yellow ring pattern on each leg. I manipulated each wire-and-fabric positionable leg to look as close to real as possible...

And for the last (and most detailed) step, I painted the Orb Weaver's detailed yellow splotch pattern down the back, using a multi-surface acrylic paint (it has to be multi-surface in order to stick to the fabric of the spider's body). The most difficult part was mirroring both sides of the pattern. It wasn't completely perfect, but it looks really, really good as a finished piece.

This thing is going to look SUPER creepy as it jumps out at you. And it was the perfect choice as my first prop of the season - a quick project with a huge improvement in looks, and it really gets the creativity flowing for the next project on my list. The only thing left for this is to add a thick plywood base to further anchor it down during the lunging motions, and then to staple down that attached cotton spider webbing material around it. Once everything is finalized, I'll be sure to post up some video of this thing in action.

Watch out, trick-or-treaters!

  

The Day After...

The Harvester of Brine

Please consider this my belated "Happy Halloween!" post that I never got to yesterday! It was on my schedule, but things went a bit sideways yesterday.

I got up early to get a head start on final set up of my display. I wanted to make sure that I had time to spare before the night's trick-or-treat festivities. Props went up quickly and I was making great time. The rains from the past 7 days were FINALLY moving out and the sun started to peek through.

And then the winds kicked up...

My scarecrow, the main in prop in my display, became the first victim. The wind literally blew the whole thing over, snapping the base. And then we saw my Pratt tombstone go blowing across the front yard, landing against a small stone retainer wall, breaking the skull from the tombstone's facade...

So I went from having plenty of time to spare to total freak out in seconds (apologies to everyone helping out who got to witness my barrage of F-bombs!). I was repairing and gluing until the last possible second.

Somehow, I was able to get everything fixed and put back into place as the first trick-or-treaters were coming up the street. I was completely frazzled and exhausted and I was completely out of my Halloween groove.

But then something unexpected happened. The winds totally died down. The fog machines pumped out glorious billows of fog across the yard, allowing my new laser vortex walkway to work well (especially when it got dark). Trick-or-treaters showed up at the house in waves. My props worked flawlessly all night (well, all but my talking skeleton who just stopped working halfway through the night - but he still looked good as a standing reaper at the end of the driveway). And as it got darker, the display looked incredible in the glow of my lighting. 

And my mojo came back. I got back into my character and interacted with trick-or-treaters, parents, friends, neighbors, and curious onlookers.

And everyone who came over to help work the display or to hang out at our first Halloween night party had a blast. It wasn't easy this year, but it sure was fun.

I hope everyone else was able to celebrate Halloween in their own way and do what you do to make the big night extra special! I'm going through last night's photos and I can't wait to share them.

I have a bunch of posts still to get through, so Halloween may be over, but this party still has a little left in the tank. Come back and let's keep it going for a bit, shall we?

 

Anita Cat Memorial Tombstone Prop

I just put the wraps on a special new tombstone going into this year's display. Anita Cat was a friend of a friend who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. She was a fan of the Cemetery, so I thought I'd give her a little memorial there when I heard the news...

Many years ago, Anita let me do her zombie makeup for a costume party that she was going to. I can't remember if she won Best Costume, but I had a ton of fun doing it. Rest in peace, Anita...

Let me show you how I created this stone...

I started by creating the size and shape of the stone along with the epitaph in Adobe Illustrator. I then tiled the printouts together at 100% size. I used a repositionable glue stick on the back of the paper and adhered it to a scrap piece of 2" blue foam that I had. One I had it in place, I trimmed the curved top portion of the stone with a small handheld jigsaw. I then started carving out the black areas of the epitaph with my Dremel tool. I use the guide attachment while carving to keep the depth consistent. It also helps control the tool for more accurate carving...

Once I had the epitaph fully carved, I peeled the remaining paper from the front of the stone, giving it a quick rinse with the hose to remove any paper pieces or remaining glue areas. I then took a piece of sand paper and sanded all of the edges, adding chips and divots to mimic and old, weathered stone. I also gently sanded the entire face of the stone, adding slight eroded streak areas to the cross and some of the letters. Once I had given the stone a full "weathering" with the sand paper, I was ready for paint.

I painted this stone quickly using only three colors. I always start with the darkest color and work my way up to the lightest. I used a very dark grey for my base color, making sure to get into every letter, flourish and crack. 

Once the stone was completely coated with the dark grey, I did a full dry brush coat with a light grey. This color formed the actual base color of the stone, leaving the dark grey in the recessed areas like letters, cracks and chips.

After a thorough brushing of the light grey, I went in with an olive green and sparsely dry-brushed areas of moss and mold. I concentrated on corner areas, especially at the base, and anywhere that water might run down during rain.

For the final step, I needed to add the holes for mounting into the yard display. I always drill 2 3/8" holes into the bottom of the tombstone. I insert a length of 3/8" PEX pipe into each hole, and when it's ready to go into the display, I stick 2 pieces of 5/16" dowel rod into the ground, then slip the PEX pipe holes over them. I may eventually go larger on the pipe and dowel rods, but this setup has worked well for me so far.

I knocked this tombstone out pretty quick, and was happy with the result. On Halloween night, it will get set up in the Cemetery display with the other memorial stones, and we'll be sure to lift a pumpkin beer toast in their honor.

 

Grave Breaker Prop Upgrade: Part Two

Last Saturday, I shared Part One of my store-bought Grave Breaker prop upgrade, giving him more undead flesh and overall creepiness.

This week, I'll show you how I took it even further, adding motion to the formerly static prop!

After the "corpsification" was complete, I decided to finally use an old reindeer motor I had laying around and animate this guy. I ended up using HiLo Greg's excellent YouTube tutorial with a few minor modifications. I made my way to my local Lowe's and came back with the following items to build it:

- Hillman 1/2" x 5.5" mending plate (5-pack)
- #8-32 x 1-1/4" round combo bolts (I only needed one at this length)
- #8-32 x 1/2" truss combo bolts (x4)
- #8 flat washers
- #8 lock washers
- #8-32 nylon insert lock nuts
- #000 x 3-7/8" eye hook screw
- 3/4" PVC pipe section
- 1" PVC end cap
- 5/32 x 1-1/2 cotter pin
- Gorilla Glue
- scrap 1" x 6" piece of board
- scrap 1" x 2" piece of board
- FrightProps Fixed Speed 110V AC 5RPM Deer Motor
- I also bought a 90-degree angle bracket, but I ended up not using it.

Right out of the gate, I noticed that my reindeer motor did NOT have the plastic swing arm piece that I see on most motors, so I had to start by fabricating one. I used a handful of flat washers on the spindle to build up support, and used half of a mending plate for the swing arm. I ran a cotter pin through the spindle hole to secure the arm in place. I ended up hitting it with a few drops of Gorilla Glue just to make sure it wouldn't move at all. 

Once the fabricated arm was solid, I then made the next swing arm connection with a full mending plate. I ended up using an inverted 1-1/4" mending bolt (threads facing up), a stack of flat washers, and a nylon lock nut. I needed to stack it so that the connection arm would clear the motor spindle when it rotated around. I connected the other end of the mending plate with the 1/2" truss combo bolt, flat washers, and a nylon lock nut to the remaining half of the first mending plate (waste not, want not). IMPORTANT! Leave a little play on both lock nuts so that the bolts will be secure, but still loose enough that the arms can still pivot around, as they will move back and forth.

The half mending plate section was then FULLY connected to a 90-degree angle piece of plate with 2x 1/2" truss combo bolts, washers, and lock nuts. Make sure this connection is tightened completely!

The 90-degree angle piece of plate is then screwed into a small section of 3/4" PVC pipe. I used 2 wood screws that I had laying around, and they need to be secured to the vertical PVC pipe tightly.

The last part of the build was the PVC pipe shaft. I used a small piece of pipe, as I wanted to keep the corpse figure close to the ground. I also took the 1" cap and screwed it down onto the scrap piece of 1" x 6". The slightly oversized cap acts like a cup for the PVC pipe section to rotate back and forth in smoothly. I also screwed a scrap piece of 1" x 2" next to the PVC pipe and screwed the eye hook in at the top. The eye hook acts as a guide to hold the rotating PVC pipe at the top while it rotates in the end cap at the bottom.

Once all of these linkage pieces were assembled and rotating correctly, I had to adjust the placement of the motor itself on the 1" x 6" so that I got a full, clean rotation on all of the pieces. Once I found a clean spot, I screwed the motor housing down, using existing screw holes on the motor's body.

Once everything was fixed in place and moving smoothly, I simply slid the slightly smaller piece of black pipe on the corpse prop right down into the PVC pipe shaft. It fits snug enough that I don't need to glue it in. It holds as is and rotates smoothly.

And after I had all of the final adjustments dialed it, I simply plugged it in and let it run! Flawless, slow rotations back and forth adding just a little bit more creepiness to an off-the-shelf Halloween prop!

And here is a video of the motor and linkage arms, working in sweet, sweet harmony.

The final step will be to add some finishing details. I'm going to paint the wood and PVC section black so that you can't see it at night. I'm also going to add some creepy cloth to the bottom of the prop's shirt so that the motor section is hidden from view.

I had a blast figuring this thing out and I'm REALLY happy with how it tuned out. Huge thanks to Hilo Greg and his video for giving me a template to work from! This will be placed up front in this year's layout and will provide some much-needed movement to break up an otherwise static display.

 

Grave Breaker Prop Upgrade: Part One

2 weeks ago, a Halloween City opened up near me. I never have any luck finding anything for my yard haunt at these types of stores, but I decided to go in just to get some haunt spirit motivation.

They had just opened and were still in the process of filling their shelves, but out of the corner of my eye, I caught a small Grave Breaker prop. And it actually looked kinda cool.

My mind raced with ideas on how to make it much creepier and I decided to bring it home and immediately got to work...

In looking at the prop, I realized that it was a bit flimsy out of the box, so my first step was to beef it up a bit.

I removed the hair and sculpted part of a foam ball that I had laying around to form out a full head. I used a few toothpicks and some Gorilla Glue to join the piece to the back of the head. For some reason, this prop had a flat back of the head, which wouldn't work when viewed from anywhere but straight on. And I had plans for this guy to be up at the front of my display...

Once the glue dried, I went to work on "corpsing" him. On a quick note, some people like to paint the skull before adding the corpsing layers, but I don't. I keep the skull as bright as possible, so that it will stay lighter in the highlight areas once the staining is complete. I also add 3 to 4 layers of plastic "flesh" to the body to get better raised areas, especially across the face.

I use the standard .7-mil plastic drop cloth, torn off into random, jagged pieces. I wrap the pieces around the skull (or other body part to be "corpsed") and then simply shrink/melt it with a heat gun. The plastic reduces down nicely, and when layered will form a solid layer of flesh. I added extra pieces of plastic to the areas I wanted raised, like the brow, cheeks, and lips.

When using the heat gun, I will pay special attention to the face, namely the eye sockets, the nose cavity, and most importantly the mouth. I want to form those areas as realistically as possible, trying to get the prop to emote emotion. I will always try to keep the mouth open, as though it's screaming.

Once I'm satisfied with the flesh layers and the facial expression, I get to staining. I use whatever I have laying around, which happened to be a small can of dark wood stain. I start with a full, heavy coat over the entire head. I then take paper towels and carefully wipe away the raised areas that I want to highlight. I will then go back and add a little bit of stain to the areas I want to keep dark, adding as much contrast as possible. (PLEASE wear gloves while doing this!)

I went and spattered the wood stain across the prop's clothing to dirty it up a bit, too.

On this particular prop, I went in after the stain had dried, and added some black paint to the eye sockets, nose cavity and inside the mouth for even more contrast and detail.

Once everything had dried, it was ready to photograph!

Be sure to stop back next week for part 2, where I make this prop move!!

  

Government Notice - Virul Infection Information Flyer

So after all of the craziness that was Halloween, I began purging old stuff that I didn't need or use and was taking up too much space. Upon opening up one old storage tote, I discovered a hilarious old prop flyer that I once used to great effect...

Way back in 2010, I found this Zombie Infection flyer somewhere on the Internet. I ended up printing out a small stack and plastered them on every tree, light post, and street sign on my block for that year's haunt display. They were everywhere.

And as I was walking up and down the sidewalk in front of my house during trick-or-treat that night, I glanced over at a group of parents huddled together, reading the flyer that I had posted to a light post. I could not believe what I heard next...

One of the moms, with a worried/confused look on her face, looked over to her friend and said, "Is... is this real??"

YES. IT IS COMPLETELY REAL. Run for your life.

A posted zombie virus flyer (from England, no less) was mistaken for real. On Halloween night. In front of a cemetery yard haunt with people dressed up as zombies. It was one of the few times I have ever broken character, but I busted up laughing. Got 'ya!! Happy Halloween!!

After reminiscing on that night for a bit, I ran up to my computer wondering if I still had this old file. And after a quick search, sure enough I found it. So here it is!!

Grab the hi res .bmp image below and feel free to print some up for your haunt display. Or your next COVID-affected holiday gathering. Either way, this is sure to be an effective scare! Enjoy!

Lenore Sofia Highbury Tombstone

It's always nice to get that first tombstone of the season under your belt. The first project that opens the floodgates for the rest of the Halloween season projects. I know it's the end of August already, but it's finally go time at Highbury Cemetery! I proudly present my newest tombstone prop and newest member to reside within the rusted gates of Highbury Cemetery, Ms. Lenore Sofia Highbury...

It took a while to get things going for this year, but I'm REALLY happy with the way this one turned out! I decided that I needed a few more females within my cemetery, so Lenore Sofia earned her stone. A strange idea came out of nowhere when I started working on the epitaph, and I decided that this stone's epitaph would all be in French. I thought it would add a little bit of worldly class and sophistication to my display (or maybe it popped into my head when France won this year's World Cup, I can't be sure...). Either way, I thought it was a cool idea and ran with it.



Let me show you how I created it...

As always, I start with the epitaph. I created the full epitaph, complete with names, birth and death dates - all of which in the Highbury household mysteriously die on October 31st - and a few little flourishes and clip art crosses to give it a bit extra.

Translated, the epitaph reads...

In Memory

Lenore Sofia Highbury

Born - January 19, 1809

Died - October 31, 1848

Death by Delirium Tremens (Severe, Fatal Alcohol Withdrawal Delirium)

Rest In Peace

I then come up with an interesting shape, this time based on a piece of scrap 2" thick blue foam that I had laying around in the garage.

I create the final art at 100% size in Adobe Illustrator, then print out the entire thing, tiling the 8.5" x 11" sheets together.

I also had a small paper mache skull that I wanted to use for this stone, similar to the Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Von Bloemhof tombstones that I made it previous years. I also had some LED prop eyes inserted into the stone to illuminate the skull's eyes, although I forgot to photograph it this time around. Just go look at my previous stone links to see how it was done.

Once the epitaph was printed out and tiled, I used repositionable glue sticks to adhere the printout to the tombstone shape that I had cut out. I then used a couple of different bits in my handheld Dremel tool and carefully carved out each letter and cross.

Once all of the letters and crosses were carved, I simply pulled off all of the remaining paper from the epitaph printout, and then gave it a quick AND GENTLE spray from my garden hose to remove any leftover glue.

I then moved to the skull. I used a 4" full paper mache skull that I had picked up from Pat Catan's. I used a coping saw to cut the rear of the skull off, going from top to bottom. I then took the skull face and positioned it on the stone between the two crosses, tracing around the shape. I then engraved the area around the skull shape. This would allow me to embed the skull into the stone.

Once I made an even engraving all the way around and the skull sat flush, I glued it into place with a healthy glob of Gorilla Glue and let it sit overnight. Once the glue dried, I used spackle to fill in the remaining gaps. I really do this to give it a smooth look, as though it was part of stone when it was carved.

I gave the spackle a quick smoothing, and then went to work on the stone itself. I rounded all the edges and corners with a piece of sandpaper to give the stone a weathered look. I also added chips and cracks around the entire shape to give it a worn, aged feel. After everything was sanded, I went to work on the paint.

I have often heard that in painting you should always go from light to dark. But with tombstone paining, I always go from dark to light. I want everything in recessed areas to stay dark. This includes the epitaph obviously, but also the chips and cracks. I start with a complete coat of very dark grey. I never use 100% black, but doing so isn't a deal breaker. Simply my preference for a more authentic look.

After the dark grey dries, I dry brush a thorough coat of medium grey over the entire stone, leaving the recessed area the darker color. This actually serves as the base color for the stone. And once the medium grey dries, I add a few sparse highlight areas with a light grey.

At this point, I want to go with an even-more realistic look, So I add a watered-down drip/spray coating of green for a weathered, mossy and moldy detail. 

After years of photographing old tombstones throughout my area, I quickly noticed that most of the older stones had a cool, natural green coating to them. So I add this as a final paint step to all of my stones now.

Please note that this photo looks very green due to the fluorescent bulbs in my garage. It looks much better in natural light. And when this green coat dries, I drill two small holes through the stone and place the LED prop eyes into it for the skull's eyes. This time, I went with a pair of blue LEDs and I think they look fantastic.

When that was done, I drilled the two small sections of PVC conduit up into the bottom in order to slide them over 2 pieces of dowel rod driven into the ground when I set it up in my display on Halloween night.

**For a more detailed how-to, go check the post on my R.M. Renfield tombstone from a two years ago. It was the first time I used all of the same steps as this stone, and it has become my standard method for quick, easy and detailed tombstone creation.**

So now that the stone was finished, there was only one thing left to do! So I grabbed my camera, some LED tea light candles and a few LED spotlights...



The first tombstone is now in the "finished" pile and it's onto my next project. It's the big project for 2018 and I can't wait to get started. No spoilers, but this one should look REALLY cool as it guides the trick-or-treaters into the newly updated Highbury crypt on Halloween night for their candy!

We're getting dangerously close to October, so the posts are going to start flying in with more frequency, in anticipation for the big night. Like in years past, things will go absolutely bonkers starting on October 1st, going daily straight through to the big night. Lots to talk about and lots to share, so let's make this year the best one yet.