So it only took me 2 years, but I finally had a chance to repair and update my original 3-tiered obelisk tombstone prop from 2011.
Back in 2015, the top section of the obelisk blew over on a windy Halloween, cracking the insert piece that held the obelisk's giant ball topper in place. The piece was still attached, but the ball sat at a noticeable angle. I immediately placed its repair on my next year's "to-do" list, but of course it was displaced by bigger and cooler projects.
I ended up letting it go as is, until last year, when the top piece finally cracked in half and the ball completely fell off. And without the ball on top, it just didn't look right at all. So I finally put the repair at the top of the list and was able to get it all done in 2 days...
I simply cut a new top piece from some scrap foam, screwed it in to the top of the obelisk, drilled a new hole for the ball's PVC insert piece, glued it all together, spackled over all of the holes and seam cracks from its previous tumbles, and it was ready to go. Almost...
I had some daylight left after everything was repaired, so I decided to give the entire obelisk a fresh coat of grime, giving it a new darker, weathered look. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and how quickly I was able to get this lingering project off the list. Finally.
If you'd like to see how this monstrosity was built, you can travel all the way back to 2011 to see the whole process here!
This also served as a nice starting to point to the 2018 build season. I got a really late start this year, but it really cranked the motivation to get the next projects on the list started and completed. Time to get to the garage and start crackin'!