Ashland Hanging Tattered Reaper Prop Upgrade

My second prop of the season is done! I recently picked up an Ashland Hanging Tattered Reaper from Michael's. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it when I bought it, but I knew that it was a good starting point and that I could make something really cool with it. The only idea I had was to convert it from a flimsy hanging prop into a freestanding piece that would take its place at the front fence of my Cemetery display.

After about two weeks of creating, corpsing, detailing, and fine tuning, I took the finished piece out to a great open field near my house for some epic photos.

My finished piece...

After bringing the original piece home from the store, I got to work disassembling all the parts and building a new t-shaped body frame out of 3/4" PVC piping. I added PVC elbow pieces for the shoulders and neck, and then added extra PVC pieces and elbows to make rigid, bent arms. I next used old packing bubble wrap to bulk out the upper torso. Finally, I hit sections of the main support PVC pipe with a heat gun, bending areas to create a twisted and hunched figure.

I then took the skull and added a screw to the jaw to set it open as if screaming, and did a full, multilayered corpsing with plastic drop cloth and my trusty heat gun. I added a PVC plug into the bottom of the skull, and attached it at an angle to the neck, giving it a contorted, twisted look. And once the head was set, I added a corpsed neck section for added realism and bulk (and to cover the inner PVC frame).

Next, I cut the original, flimsy wire-and-foam arms from the form and stuffed and glued them into the ends of the new PVC arm sections that I had built. Once they were set and dry, I did the same corpsing technique to both arms and hands.

Once the twisted body form was set and fully corpsed, I reattached the original cloak (after a bit of extra tattering, bleach splattering, and a light misting of orange spray paint) to the body. It now had an old, earthy appearance, perfect for the decayed look I was going for. I also ended up leaving the original plastic chain attached, giving it a mist of the orange spray paint to give it an old, rusted look.

After finishing the cloak, the final step was adding a wood stain to the corpsed flesh areas of the body. I concentrated the most detail on the head, adding heavy coats of stain and quickly wiping away the raised areas to create higher contrast around the eyes, nose and mouth.

And that was it! Another new piece ready to be placed into this year's display. A quick and easy upgrade to a store-bought piece that is going to look a thousand times better. I'm SUPER happy with the results and really excited to now start on the next, even bigger prop!

  

Lowe's Haunted Living 48" Tombstone Upgrade

And another quick prop upgrade is finished and ready to go! 

So last month I wrote about a full schedule really hampering my prop-building time for this season. Luckily, the big box stores have been upping the quality of their offerings, allowing me to pick up a few of their pieces to add to this year's display.

Although as a dedicated home haunter, there would be no way that I could simply pull the prop from the box and put it straight into the yard without giving it at least a little extra touch-up...

So just like I did with the Home Depot Grim Reaper Statue and the Lowe's Haunted Living Cauldron, I grabbed this really cool matching Haunted Living 48" tombstone from Lowe's and went to work...

Out of the box, this tombstone had a really great texture and finish, but I wanted to give it a more naturally aged stone look. I dry-brushed a complete, thin coating of light grey to lighten the entire piece. I then went in with a green dry-brush in the recessed areas for a cool mossy look, followed by a black wash to give the piece an overall dark, grimy sheen.

After the updated painting, I wanted to take the customization one step further and decided to add some melted candles to the top section of the stone. I ended up cutting a few angled pieces of toilet paper roll, and then globbed hot glue around the base of each to attach it, followed by a thick drizzle around each to simulate melted wax. After all three candles were set, I simply gave each a full coat of off-white paint and they were done. Now on Halloween night, I'll simply drop an LED tea light into each for a completely realistic candle effect that will really take this tombstone to the next level.

The original prop from Lowe's.

Toilet paper roll and hot glue candles.

I placed the completed tombstone into my yard and I think it looks absolutely great! Another detailed piece that will sit at the front of the display to really draw the eye in.

And now on to the next project on the list!

  

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.

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!!

  

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.