Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Angela of Death

There are a few tools in every home haunters toolbox. Hot glue used to make dribbly candles, latex and cotton to add flesh to a skeleton, and monster mud.

Monster mud is 5 parts joint compound to 1 part latex paint. Mix that up, slap it onto cloth, and you have your own 6 foot tall statue:


Ready for the step by step process? Hold onto your hat and various appendages.

 First I made the hands. This was done out of bic pens, wire hanger, 3/4" pvc and duct tape.
I drilled five holes into the pvc, one on the side for the thumb. Cutting each bic pen the length of the finger, I slid each onto a wire hanger and then looped it into the PVC pipe. Doing that another 9 times over, I had two hands that can be bent and twisted into whatever shape you want.

Next step is to latex the hands. It's as exciting as always. Add cotton for knuckles, add paper towel for skin.

Now to the dude. It begins, as all halloween props do, with PVC pipe. For not doing much plumbing work, we sure do buy a lot of PVC.

Cutting the pvc down to create shoulders, forearms, and biceps, slide it into a four-way joint, and then 90˚ and 45˚ joints. I stuck an average foam skull on. Some people use buckeys but the foam worked just fine.
Next part is giving PVC man a body. In comes the deadly chicken wire. Cursing to your demon of choice, wrap, squish and scream against your bloody sores as you mold the wire. I put some dents into the front so it didn't look like a giant tube sausage for a body. I also looped large sections across the arms for a deep robe look.
Burlap time! Pinning, cutting, screaming, cursing some more, drape the burlap around your reaper. 
Time for the monster mud. I mixed 3 gallons of the mud to 1/2 gallon of black paint. Using foam brushes we coated the guy in the stuff. It was exhausting. Probably the second most exhausting part after the chicken wire. You'll want to do layers to try and hide the waffle texture of the burlap.

But eventually you'll get something like this:
I brushed some white paint over the edges to give it a worn look. 
 Because the cowl kept reminding me of a nun from the back, I decided to call my Reaper Angela.

 And that's how to make a 6'+ prop that looks like a creepy statue.

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