Projects
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Facade: 10 ft. tall x 24 ft. wide. Construction:
2 x 4 frame and 2" styrofoam insulation sheets.
Stones are spraypainted and archway made separately.
Ran out of time before the 'heavy oaken door' was completed,
so we hung a black felt curtain, which worked just fine.
Inside the doorway is a short hall leading into the
endless hallway. |
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Right: Detail of the small skellies at bottom of
each side of the arch, eyes glowing green. We sandwiched
three pieces of 2" foam to make the arch so it
would look massive as patrons passed through. Coach
lights with flicker bulbs were mounted on each side
of the archway, screwed into the framework behind the
foam. This added to the solidity of the structure (many
people felt compelled to touch the "stone"
as they entered Castle Dredd. |
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Our first Monster
Mud creation was supposed to be a blood
fountain, sitting in a 3' wading pool, but
ended up on the mausoleum wall. Cut his
basic shape out of 1-1/2" styrofoam,
added more foam to create depth, sprayed
him in places with expanding foam, which
I never really got the hang of, then covered
him with MM. |
  Unfinished
pool.
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We
created a square stone column of styrofoam
to go around the tree in the parlor (right).
The window had a strobe light, and the actor
tried to persuade visitors to 'come closer'
or screamed 'let me out!' |
  
Searched
and found an appropriate picture and tiled
it on our printer to be 22" x 28"
(we'd already found the frame in a thrift
store). We had some pour-on resin on hand
so used that for the finish, cutting a slit
in the portrait's neck. Installed a fountain
pump on the back with a few modifications
to plans available elsewhere online. Worked
great, but there was so much going on in
the room, some folks missed it completely,
even though it had an on/off light effect.
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Couldn't find a matching
frame for the picture of the evil Lord Dredd,
so we made one out of styrofoam, painted
it with acrylic black paint, then used gold
wax to highlight it. |
Guests
in the dining room got a surprise when the
centerpiece came to life. Chairs are folding
metal with tall backs made from carved styrofoam,
covered with shiny blue material trimmed
with gold. Fit for a king...or Lord Dredd. |
Thanks to our
Frightmaster, Dane Sanders, our endless
hallway is different from anyone else's
I've seen. The mirrors can be perpendicular
and there's no danger of the patrons seeing
their own reflection. Make sure it's sturdy,
though, because people will try to walk
down the hallway and right into the mirror.
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Live and learn.
My second MM creation was Herman, seen standing
in front of the facade. He was originally
about 7' tall, but since I didn't really
make a sturdy frame for his body, instead
working on him while he was hanging from
the rafters, by the time we closed the doors
for the last time, he was barely over 6'.
His bottom had softened in the dampness
and he just kept shrinking. Looked good
while he lasted, though. Changed his sign
to simply say "Enter at your own risk,"
with skull and crossbones at the bottom.
Made his face with tissue mache over the
ceramic skull, which worked perfectly. Hands
came off a pair of old skeleton gloves;
bones were just glued on. |
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Got
lots of
comments
on
our
body bags...
eeewwww!
and
Gross!!,
etc., etc.,
etc.
Amazing that
they
started out so unthreateningly. To begin with, our
business
uses lots
of
Pelaspan (packing popcorn) and it
comes
in clear
plastic
bags about
6-1/2'
tall. Perfect
for
our uses. |
First
we wrapped our 'victim' from neck to ankles in duct
tape, making sure she was wearing old clothes we could
cut off her.
After
the duct tape and old clothing was cut off our model,
we stuffed the resultant body form with polyfill, added
hands and feet, and in one case a wig head with mask
and wig. This one we left headless. |
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After
spray painting the
form
with flesh colored paint and stuffing it in the bag,
some red acrylic paint poured down the sides of the
bag add a little...
color. |
This guy's waiting for a neck, then he'll be added
as a startle to the Parts Department. |
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Typical of charity haunts, we had virtually no budget
and had to make practically everything we had. In addition
to Monster Mud, we used tissue mache and expanding foam
for lots of things. We had one life size ceramic skull
on which we put aluminum foil, then tissues over which
we brushed a mixture of water and Elmer's Glue. After
it dried, and we had 12 done, we started foaming the
insides and building a mound. We painted the foam that
oozed out between the skulls fluorescent green, and
the whole thing looked superb in the mausoleum. |
Website
produced
and
maintained
by
Spinner |
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Unfinished
pool.
