and BIG but it had to be stored outside all year and not take up much space. I wanted a
castle wall front and it also had to have a window in it for display of some type of hideous
thing. This is the design I came up with, it's made out of 3/4 inch chip board and 1 1/2 inch
thick white Styrofoam glued to the front. It comes apart in three pieces for storage and the
window has been changed to different things over the years.
with the cutouts for the window and door on one piece of the chip board then
gluing the foam to the chip board with construction adhesive to each piece. After that set
up I cut out the window and door through the foam. Now I put all the pieces face side
down in the driveway and connected the parts together with the 48 inch 2 x 2 and 2 x 4
inch pieces on the back. The top 2 x 2 side parts are screwed to the base pieces and the
screws above them are removable so you can take it apart. The same goes for the 2 x4
parts on the bottom these are permanently screwed to the window side piece. Once you
are happy with the fit I painted the back flat black and then flipped the whole thing over
and painted the face of the foam gray.
After the paint dried I laid out the block pattern and used my router with a 1/2 inch set
about 3/8 inch deep to make the mortar lines. I used a 10 foot long 2 x 4 as a straight edge
as I had two of these to hold the wall once it was stood in place. All of the cracks in the
blocks were painted on after I had all the lines cut. To make them look real you just need
to highlight the outside of the black paint with white, that is what gives them the depth.
To erect the wall I put it together on the ground face down then at the base I pounded
into the ground 3- 2 x 2 x 48 inch long pieces leaving about 2 foot of them above
ground so when the wall goes up the ride to the insides of the outer 2 x 2 pieces on the
wall sections. Then I attach the 2- 10 foot 2 x 4 pieces to the outside of the side 2 x 2 with
1- 1/4 x 4 inch lag bolt just below the top and side wall section on each side. I then have
two people guide the 2 x 4 pieces as I lift the front up from the top and walk it onto the 2
x 2 stakes behind the wall. The ends of the 2 x 4's are then screwed to a 2 x 2 stake at the
base of them. I then go back and put 2 more lag bolts into the tops of the 2 x 4 on the wall
sections and also screw the base stakes to the uprights on the wall. This has stood up to
40 MPH winds more than once!
The door gate was made out of PVC pipe and 1 x 2 lumber painted black and screwed to
the wall with 1 inch hinges. The finials on the tops of them are left over foam
cut into the spike and glued to the tops of the pipe. After I had it made it was still missing
something, It needed gargoyles, I found a picture on the internet and copied it then
enlarged it on the computer and cut these out. Then I glued them to pieces of 1/2 inch
chip board and attached a 2 x 2 stick on the back. I clear coated this with polyurethane
and screwed them to the back of the top piece of the wall.
The window started with a crank ghost that was made out of cheese cloth dipped in
whitener so it would glow under black light. I then made a box for it out of 1/2 inch
chip board and attached it to the wall on cleats. After I had it attached to the wall I put a
piece of plastic on the inside of the box over the opening so the ghost looked fuzzy from
the front. This was in there until 2003 when it was replaced with a peppers ghost box.
