My first prop for Halloween, 2026 is done! For the third year in a row, I have picked up a cemetery statue from Home Depot and then given it a full Highbury Cemetery custom detailing.
I must admit that Home Depot has had a few really nice, right-out-of-the-box cemetery statue pieces lately and this year was no different. I ended up ordering the 5 Foot Angel Of Death Monument statue (Slaaaaaayer!), immediately thinking just how far I could take this one. It's taller and wider than either the Eternal Embrace Statue or the Hourglass Grim Reaper Statue that I had picked up the previous two seasons, and would serve as a nice centerpiece for the trio of statues. And as the centerpiece, I really wanted to push the customization and detail of it.
The finished piece, shot in my back yard...
As with previous statues, the first step was adding paint to increase the contrast. I started with a dark purple/black wash to accent the shadows, followed by a white dry brush overcoat to add highlight to the raised area. This also gave it more of an old, cemetery stone look. The third step was to add a dry brush green to some of the recessed areas for a moldy, mossy look. To finalize the painting process, I spattered a watered down purple/black over the entire statue for some added grime. The cherry on top was to add a heavy, drippy coat of the purple/black to the eyes to simulate black tears down the cheeks and body for that extra bit of creepiness.
The next step served as an homage to one of my earlier props, The Guardian Of The Tombs. This was an old garden angel statue that had blown over in the wind, broke, and was then relegated to becoming a Halloween prop. One of the angel wings had broken off, so upon its October transformation, I had recreated a new "wing" out of twigs and Spanish moss, giving it a cool, overgrown organic look. This prop has since fallen over a few more times through the years and is headed for a possible retirement due to its increasingly fragile state.
So for the new prop, I discarded the same wing and fashioned a new one out of branches, creepy cloth, and hot glue cobwebs. I was able to find long branches with angles that mimicked the angle of the wing, spreading and stuffing them into the hole in the back where the original wing would have attached. I then solidified it all together with a generous blast of expanding foam. Once the twigs were placed and set, I gave them a mist of white spray paint to match the color of the statue. I then wrapped sections of cream-colored creepy cloth across different branched to fill out the wing's shape. I ended up giving each piece a shot of spray adhesive just to give it a bit more of a hardened, fixed setting. As a final accent, I added clumps of Spanish moss to hang from the branches.
Once the wing was completed, I wrapped two pieces of vine (that I had gotten while seeking out the wing branches) around the entire statue. I attached both vines at the base and at various hidden points up the body with hot glue and a few screws for a permanent attachment.
I then decided on one last accent and added melted white candles to the base. I used hot glue on three toilet paper rolls (all cut at angles), giving them all extra glue drippings around the base of each. I painted each with basic white paint and added an LED tea light in each, giving it an old, realistic look.
And as a final detail, I layered on a heavy coating of hot glue spider webbing over the entire piece to give it that old, aged feel. My Webcaster Glue Gun skills have improved greatly since my first try a few years ago, and I was able to concentrate the webbing around the statues face, the main focal point of the piece.
Once everything was done, I put it in the back yard for a quick evening photo session. I'm REALLY happy with the way it turned out and it will serve as another signature piece in Highbury Cemetery.
