tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30184518267313188402024-03-13T18:44:33.006-07:00Mr. Chicken's Haunted Projects BlogMr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.comBlogger243125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-31914543890683194612020-07-03T18:22:00.004-07:002020-07-03T18:22:57.207-07:00Where to Find MeI haven't been posting much here, but I've been making a lot of stuff! Here's where you can find my current projects<br />
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Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chickenprops/">https://www.facebook.com/chickenprops/</a><br /><br />Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jasperjandersonfx/">https://www.instagram.com/jasperjandersonfx/</a><br />
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Incidentally, the main reason I haven't been updating the blog is that Facebook blocks links to here as spam, so if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix that, let me know.Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-56683937919628881772018-11-13T12:03:00.000-08:002018-11-15T15:42:15.981-08:00The Ring of DraculaThe Universal Monsters have always been a big influence on me, and I started thinking recently about putting together a little display of a few of the smaller pieces from those films. The Wolf Man has a silver wolf's head cane, Dracula and the Mummy both have themed rings, and the Frankenstein Monster's equivalent piece of jewelry is... the neck electrodes! So this should be a fun little diversion project.<br />
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I decided to start with the Dracula crest ring. There have been a few replicas produced over the years, and they all look nice at a glance, but once I saw the auction photos of the original ring, which belonged to Forry Ackerman for many years, it became clear that most of the current replicas are very sterilized, geometric interpretations of what would have been an organic, hand sculpted design, presumably by a jeweler in the '40s. Yes, the 1940s. In the original Dracula film in 1931, Lugosi wore a plainer ring. This more extravagant Dracula crest ring was first seen in the John Carradine sequels (though was probably altered from the Lon Chaney Jr. Dracula/Alucard ring), and finally worn by Lugosi in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.<br />
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There have also been replicas molded from the original ring, but they seemed to suffer from lost detail. You'll see the original in the printouts I'm working with for my rendition.<br />
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Anyway, detailed though it is, I thought I would be able to sculpt the ring in Apoxie Sculpt, and if I mixed in aluminum powder, it would be able to be buffed to a metallic shine. I did several tests with several methods, but didn't come up with something that would be workable at the fine level of detail I would need. So I decided to use Super Sculpey Firm, because it is hard enough to hold the sharp detail, and could be sanded after baking if needed. I jumped right in to the crest. I scaled the auction photos to full size, and cut out templates to help keep my proportions correct. I also traced the image onto a piece of clear plastic, so I could hold it over the sculpture to check. I ended up using various sizes of needles as my loop tools! Once that was baked and cleaned up a bit, I dumped some silicone on it. I cold cast it the way that's worked best for me in the past, which is to coat the surface with metal powder, and fill with black resin. Buff with steel wool, a very slight black wash, and the crest is done.<br />
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I had to think quite a bit about how I would mold the main ring part before proceeding. The thing about cold casting is it's very difficult to repair any imperfections in the seam or otherwise, because you need to preserve that ultra thin surface layer of metal. Once I figured out that I could have a removable dowel in the center, and split the mold where the band joins the main hunk of material, I could start sculpting. I decided that I would not attempt to mount a separate stone of any sort in the center. The tolerances would have to be so precise that it wasn't going to be worth it. Instead, I'd just sculpt it right in, and paint it later. The center of the stone would actually be the perfect place for a pour spout, since the crest would cover it up.<br />
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Sculpt, mold, cast the same way. I released the dowel with vaseline, and coated it in aluminum powder. It didn't quite take to the resin like the metal on the silicone sections did, but it's on the inside, so it doesn't matter much. With the stone painted, and a black wash over the recesses, I could carefully superglue the crest on top. And that's not too shabby for a plastic recreation. It's not perfect. I think I'd need some smaller needles to really get a 100% match on the sculpture, but I think it captures the feeling of the original. I gained a lot of respect for old school wax jewelry sculptors, too. <br />
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More to come!</div>
Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-79288713020720942202018-10-29T15:24:00.000-07:002018-10-29T15:24:05.507-07:00You Seem a Decent Fellow. I Hate to Kill You.<img border="0" height="400" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1955/44686382375_b47fc49f29_c.jpg" width="400" /><div>
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Our Princess Bride costumes made the rounds this past weekend. Here are a few brief notes on how we did it...<br /><br />Inigo Montoya:<br />-found a shirt, dyed and added leather laces<br />-vest made from scratch with faux leather<br />-boots are women's boots with added faux leather cuffs<br />-wig was a cheap number, cut and styled, but set it back on my head to use my own hair as bangs<br />-mustaches are from Frends Beauty, trimmed<br />-pants were also used for Han Solo a few years ago<br />-belt is a "close enough"<br />-scars are 3rd Degree silicone<br /><br /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1955/44686382375_b47fc49f29_c.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />Dread Pirate Roberts:<br />-mask is a vacuum form of her face with faux stretch leather glued on top and an elastic band<br />-bandana and sash were just lengths of black fabric, hemmed<br />-added faux leather boot tops to regular boots<br />-cheap $7 frogs used for both swords<br />-bought a basic black pirate shirt. The sleeves aren't as full, but it's all so darned black that you can't really perceive whether the details are right<br />-her own pants and belt.<br /><br /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1963/31727956958_28f7688a07_c.jpg" width="400" /></div>
Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-38648346415330737482018-10-21T06:22:00.000-07:002019-04-16T19:44:28.076-07:00One Sword, Two SwordMrs. Chicken and I have been working on our Hallowen costumes for some time now. I'll say the theme is The Princess Bride, and you'll probably figure it out pretty quickly, but before the big reveal, I wanted to do a specific post on one of the most important and complicated parts of the outfits: the swords.<br />
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First, we needed Inigo Montoya's sword. Gold, jewel-encrusted, and ornate, it has a very specific look. I don't think you could do the costume justice without getting reasonably in the ballpark. I spent a long time looking for an existing replica, or a "close-enough" product. I looked at many a swept hilt rapier, but nothing even had the general shape of the hilt.<br />
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Then I saw that IndyMagnoli on the RPF is in the process of doing a run of beautiful reproductions of the Inigo sword, but they won’t be ready in time for Halloween, so it was back to doing things the old fashioned way. And I mean that in a general sense, because I had never made something quite this way before.<br />
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I thought about making a blade, but the thought of all that grinding of metal was giving me a headache, so I found a cheap rapier for $40 on Amazon to cannibalize.<br />
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On studying the construction of what looks like a very complicated, swirly, twisty hilt, I determined that it would be impractical to mold as one piece, or even a few pieces, especially given also the fact that I only needed one. Really, the way the original maker probably made the hilt is out of a few flat pieces bent and fused together. I could take a similar approach with plastic. Cue the 3D printer. I mocked up the concept in paper to be sure it would work.<br />
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I am not a skilled 3D modeler, so I drew out a rough approximation of the intricate details of the guard in sharpie, following the outline I had prototyped in paper. Then I scanned those drawings, and used the tracing tools in Illustrator to turn it into vector outlines. That file could then be imported into a 3D modeling program (I used one of the free ones from Autodesk...123 something), and extruded into one thickness for the main body, and again a little taller for the details. Print two of everything, mirrored for the other side of the sword.<br />
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I printed in ABS, because it’s a bit stronger. Solid infill for extra strength. The thinking here was that if I printed the curved parts in a curve, the layers would be aligned to create weak points where it would snap through the thin bars. If I print it flat, one layer of plastic goes continuously around the whole surface, making for a stronger part. Then it's just a matter of hitting the parts with a heat gun, and shaping them to fit together.<br />
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A bit of acetone will bond the reversed ABS parts to each other, and will also seal in the outside, and melt it down a bit. I also rounded over the edges and some of the detail with a dremel sanding drum at this point. It could have been done in the model, but I was pleased with the way this worked out.<br />
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My mistake that I realized at this point was that the middle Y shaped piece should have been a bit larger. Oops.<br />
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I used a thick 5 minute epoxy gel to fuse the larger curved parts to the main guard, and to fill in the volume there. This stuff retains some flex when it cures, which means it’s less likely to break off at the join than if I had used a totally rigid glue.<br />
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I did another pass of acetone, but it wasn’t giving me the total smoothness that I wanted, so I went for a product that I really don’t like to use. Smooth On XTC 3D. It’s designed to be brushed on to 3D prints to clean up the layer lines, but it tends to obliterate all detail, too. It often goes on unevenly, and it’s an especially stinky epoxy. Not my top pick. But all of those usual drawbacks (except the stench) will actually work in my favor here, and give me a high gloss surface to do my faux chrome. So I slathered on a couple of coats.<br />
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Some Alclad Chrome paint, then a candy coat of orange makes a decent faux gold.<br />
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I decided to keep the original pommel because the weight of real metal is needed to make the sword balance properly in your hand. The shape was in the ballpark, too, which is one of the reasons I picked this donor sword originally. So then I just had to make a handle to fit between the pommel and the guard. I checked the size with a bit of 1/2” pvc pipe, and ended up using that as a base, onto which I added Freeform Air (leftover from a previous project). I figured out this time that using baby powder to smooth it was a cleaner way to go than alcohol.<br />
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I let that cure, then painted it and gave it a good wire wrap. Not too bad for $50 and some leftover materials.<br />
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The Dread Pirate Roberts sword was the next puzzle. I should mention that Factory Entertainment did both swords several years ago in a very small edition. I looked for these, but they’re long sold out, and it doesn’t seem like anyone who has one is parting with theirs. However, I spotted on Amazon what appears to be the manufacturer’s attempt to make a genericized version of the Dread Pirate Roberts sword. It’s the same guard, same handle, but a different pommel and a black blade.<br />
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They call it the Black Marauder Rapier. I can work with that. Frankly, this was the sword that could have been pretty generic. Most people wouldn’t know he difference no matter what sword he was holding, but where’s the fun in that?<br />
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The blade was blackened, and through some research, I found that you can just scrub it with vinegar and the blackening comes off. Give it a polish with some stuff made for stainless steel kitchen surfaces, and you've got a silver blade again.<br />
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The wrong pommel screws right off, so it would be easy to replace. And I had great reference of the correct pommel, due to the previous licensed replica. The bummer is that the swirling seashell design is a pain to 3D model. Yes, I’ll be printing this one, too. One thing the printer does much better than I do is geometry.<br />
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I got it modeled and printed hollow, with a receptacle for an appropriate hex nut. And then I filled the void with lead shot, backed with epoxy.<br />
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Sand, sand, sand the pommel. Then I gave the guard and the pommel a coat of gloss black enamel and the Alclad chrome treatment. I'm really impressed with how effective the chrome is on this. There's a little ring of metal at the top of the leather wrapped handle. I opted for aluminum tape on this part, rather than masking and painting, and it blends right in.<br />
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If you'd like to make your own swords, I've uploaded the files I made to Thingiverse.<br />
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Here's the Dread Pirate Roberts Pommel: <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3114815">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3114815</a><br />
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And here's the Inigo Montoya guard: <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3054622">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3054622</a><br />
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-79780821032464155212018-10-09T17:00:00.000-07:002018-10-09T17:00:08.750-07:00Model Magic Prop Heads How To VideoI've talked about Model Magic on the blog before, but now I can show you!<br />
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Watch me make this Haunted Mansion popup ghost-inspired head, and explain everything I've learned working with this weird material.</div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="220" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r0D6U1VRc04" width="390"></iframe>Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-91242634989877276722018-10-07T11:14:00.000-07:002018-10-07T11:14:19.561-07:00Monstrous Mask Making VideoHere's how I've been making my paper-mache-ish monster masks. If you just want to make yourself a cool mask without going through the hassle of molding and casting, give this a try, and let me know what you create!<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="220" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CwjBxShw4TY?rel=0" width="390"></iframe>Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-21551091591516255122018-10-01T06:13:00.000-07:002018-10-01T06:13:22.302-07:00Fuzzy Wuzzy Werewolf Mask<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I got the mask making bug when I made my <a href="https://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2017/10/strange-mask-making-continues.html">Glenn Strange chicken-mache Frankenstein mask</a> last year, and jumped right into another, with just days before Halloween. It's taken me almost a year to complete the Wolfman mask to buddy up with the Frankie, but now it's finished, too! Here's the story.</div>
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I've wanted to do a rendition of Lon Chaney Jr.'s original Wolf Man for some time, and the success of the Frankenstein Monster mask pushed me to take that approach.</div>
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Like the last mask, I'll be drawing from the original character and the intense textures of the Don Post mask.</div>
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I started by doing a quick sculpture over my lifecast in a soft, easy to shape, oil clay. I know that the imprecision of the process means I'll never hit the likeness spot on, so it's just a matter of checking in at each stage to make sure it still feels right.</div>
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A few layers of the ol' chicken mache (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RltE_5aywC8">how to here</a>) for structure and detail.</div>
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And then I popped it off the sculpture once dried, and gave it some paint. Pictured below are temporary teeth. The final teeth were done in sculpey.</div>
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I ended up completely repainting it later because, as often happens, the paint job looked entirely different once the hair went on.<br />
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I wanted to use the old style of cheap brown fur fabric to keep with the raw, constructed look. There's a hood to cover the back of the head, but the hair on the face is snipped off of the fabric backing and glued down to the mask to allow it to lay flatter.<br />
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But what really matters is how well we can pull off the iconic Don Post Calendar shot.<br />
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Yep. I'm happy with that.<br />
<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-18845846555737493632018-09-21T18:19:00.000-07:002018-09-21T18:19:47.938-07:00Yo ho, yo ho, A Pirate's Head for Me!<i>Ye come seeking adventure and salty old pirates, eh? Sure, you've come to the proper place.</i><br />
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I recently had a resin head fall into my lap that seems to be derived from a well used sculpture from Disneyland.<br />
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When they did the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there were only 20 or so different heads sculpted to fill out the hoards of buckaneers, so each face got different paint and hair treatments to transform it into multiple characters. This one can be seen several times in Pirates.<br />
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It even found a job in the Haunted Mansion as one of the revelers in the ballroom (pictured here in a pre-opening promo photoshoot with master illusionist, Yale Gracey).</div>
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Every now and then a figure will get retired from the ride and wander into the world.</div>
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The original source of the copy I have seems to have been this head, or one just like it. This was from an auction some years ago. It matches up with the old man in the bayou scene at the top of the ride. Notice the angled hole in the mouth to accept a pipe, and the partially closed eyes. This is the only example I've been able to find of a different version of the same sculpt.<br />
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All other appearances of the head in Pirates and Haunted Mansion have more opened eyes, and a more neutral mouth position. And that's kind of weird. They were doing all these different sculptures for Pirates, and reusing many, but here's this one that was reused, yet modified. I have to assume they made a copy of the first sculpt, altered it, and remolded it. But which version is the original sculpt? Going back to the auction picture, I spy a line in the reflection across the upper eyelids that roughly corresponds to the shape of the open eye version. That's good enough for me. Looks like the open eye version came first, and additional eyelid was added in clay over a hard casting to be remolded as the bayou guy. The lower lip was probably tweaked the same way.<br />
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Now, I'll be turning this head into a replica of the jailed pirate seen above. So, the aim of the game is to open the eyes back up, see what we can do with the mouth, and go from there. I'm going to be inserting premade eyes, so I can just carve away at the cast eye until it's the right size and shape.<br />
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Measure twice, cut many more times in gradual increments.<br />
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I filled in the hole in the lip with epoxy clay, and shaped it back to a closed position with a dremel. I cut a door in the back of the head to be able to access the eyes from behind. It took lots of careful carving to shape the backs of the eyelids to properly fit the plastic eyeballs I had. Side by side with the original, you can see how much is changed before we even get to the finishing work.<br />
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I find it's helpful to visualize where things are going to doodle important features on photos. Will his face look right when the beard goes on? You'll notice I also stated adding some of the clothes. The bandana and scarf are just cotton fabrics, and the shirt is one from the thrift store.<br />
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And then came painting. I wanted to strike a balance here of looking nice fairly close up, and having the feel of the actual Disney piece, which tends to have a pretty simple paint job. "Tends to" because, well, let's digress a bit here. Each time the character gets a refurbishment, things change a bit. Here's a look at some of the different versions of the same character at Disneyland. We're not even getting into the variations at other parks.<br />
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There's changes in the face paint job, the hair color, the beard texture, the beard placement, and cut. The bottom right picture is before the very first one was installed in the attraction, so I take that as the most important reference point. Then I sort of mixed all of them together to get at the essence of the character. If there's this much leeway in how the official pirate looks, then I can have some wiggle room, too.<br />
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So, I painted the face. A little more cartoony than not, but with a little more realism than slapping down one or two colors.<br />
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And then I started going at the hair and beard. It's two colors of kanekalon synthetic hair mixed together to feel a little more natural. It makes a color not exactly ever represented on the real pirate, but one that feels like a pretty good compromise between the many that have been.<br />
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I didn't take any pictures during the hair laying, but I did learn a few things. I've glued hair to resin before with superglue, so I started using that, but I found out that there's some kind of reaction between the glue and the hair that turns the hair whitish after a short time. I switched over to E6000, which worked great. I styled and set it with clear satin spray paint, as it's a more permanent solution than hairspray. Wear gloves and a respirator, kids.</div>
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I decided a small, simple base was in order to give it a polished look. Just some 1/2" wood painted black. It took some playing around to find the right way to deal with the scarf, which hangs in a low loop on the real figure.</div>
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And that's about it. This guy won't be staying with me, but he's off to a good home.</div>
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-82771424791155635202018-09-18T12:00:00.001-07:002018-09-18T12:00:08.103-07:00How to Make an Animatronic RavenI've finished the 4 part series on assembling my Animatronic Raven Kit. Check it out if you've got a kit, or are thinking about getting one.<br />
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The Facebook group for anyone working on a kit is here:<br />
https://www.facebook.com/groups/185149192169022/<br />
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-50402028466547956922018-07-31T19:32:00.001-07:002018-07-31T19:32:50.499-07:00Benny from Halloweentown visits Midsummer ScreamWhile prepping for the Mr. Chicken's Prop Shop booth for Midsummer Scream, the show's creators asked if I might have time for one more project. The lead actress from the Disney Channel Halloweentown movies was going to be in attendance, and they thought it would be fun to have one of the characters from the movie as a photo op.<br />
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This is Benny, the taxi cab driver in Halloweentown. Can I make a replica of him for the show? Sure!<br />
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There were a few considerations in my approach. First, it needed to be sturdy enough to survive being touched by the masses. Second, it needed to be a fast process, as there was only about a month until the show, and I had plenty of other things to get done, too. Third, it couldn't be too expensive, as the budget was tight.<br />
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I figured I'd start with a plastic skeleton, mount it to a sturdy armature, dress it, and sculpt on top of the skull with epoxy clay to get the Benny likeness.<br />
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Thank goodness Amazon still has skeletons in the off season. The one I found had what I think of as the "Target" skull, as that's where I first saw this design show up a few years ago. It's probably the furthest off from what it needs to be of all the generic skulls out there, but we can fix that.<br />
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I've enjoyed using Aves Apoxie Sculpt in the past, but I wanted to try a new product, so I picked up some FreeForm Sculpt from the local Smooth On store. I didn't like it. While it's easier to mix, it doesn't hold its shape well while curing, so you end up spending a lot of time chasing drooping forms until it sets. I'll try Magic Sculpt next time, as I've heard good things from my friend at <a href="http://hellizondohaunt.com/blog/">Hellizondo</a>.<br />
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The head was painted with acrylics, sealed with my old standby, Polycrylic, and mounted to another piece of armature wire for free posing by pouring expanding foam inside the head to lock the wire in place, and epoxying the wire to the neck.<br />
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The skeleton was zip tied to 1" PVC that was mounted to a plywood base with flanges and fittings. The pipe supported the legs and spine up to the ribs.<br />
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I chopped off the existing shoulder joints, and ran a hefty piece of armature wire through the upper arms, connected across the torso, and zip tied it to the ribs in the middle.<br />
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This way I could get more than a toy soldier's range of movement out of the shoulders, which goes a long way in posing. I also zip tied a length of wire along the outside of the arms, behind the elbows, to allow for sturdy, adjustable posing. You might notice one hand was removed and flipped around to make things feel a bit less restricted, too.<br />
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The costuming was all eBay finds. I knew the jacket and hat would be tricky to source locally. Both were sold as military inspired pieces. The navy blue jacket is a Liz Taylor-- go figure. I grabbed some of the skinniest 28" waist black pants I could find while I was in town, too. He still needs safety pins to hold them up.<br />
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The final touch, which was actually the first thing I made, was a "TAXI" embroidered patch on the hat. Now that I have to explain my approach, I'm remembering that my sewing machine might have some embroidery settings, but it hadn't occurred to me at the time. What I did was to model it in 3D in Fusion360, then 3D print it, allowing the layer lines to stand in for threads.<br />
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I heat warped it to match the curve of the hat, then painted and sealed with acrylics.<br />
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He spent the weekend posing for pictures with Kimberly J. Brown and fans, and tells me he had the time of his afterlife!<br />
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<a href="http://busterballoon.com/">Buster Balloon</a> even gave Benny a parting gift on Sunday night!<br />
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-60090633696888704152018-06-24T18:03:00.001-07:002018-06-24T18:03:50.967-07:00Big Bird AnnouncementI'm pleased to present the release of my newest offering, an Animatronic Raven you can build yourself!<br />
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Check out the details at <a href="http://www.chickenprops.com/p/raven.html">ChickenProps.com</a>. There's a full step-by-step how to video coming soon, but if you order by July 6, you'll lock in the discounted introductory price!<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UCqkGoTgjMU?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="560"></iframe>Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-88967937123412938572018-05-15T11:43:00.001-07:002018-05-15T11:43:38.594-07:00Practically PerfectI was reminded recently of one of the first movie props I really coveted: the talking parrot umbrella from Mary Poppins. And when I started thinking about it, I realized it’s not all that complicated a piece (unless you get into the mechanics of making a talking version, which…maybe…). So why not have a go at it?<br />
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In my research, it became clear that there are several umbrellas used in the film. There’s certainly a talking one and a static one, but there are also variations in the pole, tassel, and paint job of the parrot. These are most of the major differences I caught:<br />
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The standard hand prop<br />
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This darker paint job (see the white eye area is blue). I'm leaving this one as a maybe because it could just be one of the others repainted<br />
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The wide shot flying umbrella (no graduation in the pipe, different/offset canopy<br />
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This one in the rain with a border around the canopy<br />
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And the puppet version (which you can se here full length with the cables out the bottom!)<br />
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I came across an expired <a href="https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/56572402_mary-poppins-original-prop-parrot-head-umbrella">auction</a> for what claims to be one of the originals. I’m not so sure that it is. The paint looks unlike anything seen in the film (both in style and color), the eye is painted (rather than an inserted doll’s eye), and the treatment of the handle with wrapped cord doesn’t match anything on screen that I could find. But that’s not to say it isn’t an original that’s been restored, or at the very least a casting of the original bird. What it did give me was a scale to work off of.<br />
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Disney has offered three versions of the movie umbrella. Two of the released Disney versions are derived from the original mold, and there are better pictures of these than of the prop in the movie. And while it looks like some detail was softened in the manufacturing process, these still provide a nice blueprint for where things line up on the sculpture. A defunct company called Icons produced a replica of the prop, as well, and someone on the <a href="https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=284965">RPF</a> who has this one was kind enough to send me some photos.<br />
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Now the other component is, of course, the umbrella itself. I spent some time searching the web for a simple black umbrella to use as a base. It turned out to be rather difficult to find manual open umbrellas of the right size. Eventually, <a href="https://www.target.com/p/shedrain-wood-stick-umbrella-black/-/A-16858083">Target</a> came through with one that nearly fit the bill, except the tip is all wood instead of wood and metal. I cut off the hook at the handle, and that looked about the right length for the wider part of the pole.<br />
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I started sculpting the bird over a pipe that’s close to the size of the handle, so I could slip it off and try it on the umbrella. This is a couple of short sessions in. I'll do a silicone mold of this and make the final piece in resin.<br />
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The next bit of problem solving is how to accommodate the eyes in the casting, and whether to make the lower beak separate for a possible animated version. I set the project aside for a little while to mull things over.<br />
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When I next picked it up, I was working out the detail below the bird with my 3D printer, since I don't have a lathe. It's trickier than I expected to get the right proportions here. This is the third attempt, and it seemed pretty good.<br />
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Progress!<br />
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After a few months abroad on a project I hope to be able to discuss sometime in the future, I finished up the sculpture the other day and threw it in some silicone!<br />
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The first cast came out pretty good. There were few problem areas I had to troubleshoot bubble-wise. The eyelids are molded separately so the eye can be inserted, then the lid glued on top.<br />
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I've got plans for a mechanical version that are starting to seem doable in my head, but it made sense to get it finished off as the static prop first so that <br />
1) there's a starting point to work from for the animated version<br />
2) I've got something complete to show for my time so far before embarking on that adventure.<br />
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I'll be able to cast up a hollow version to modify for movement down the road.<br />
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Because of the variations in paint on the real parrots, I had some decisions to make when it came to painting mine. I played around on the piece a bit, and ended up following the basic color scheme of the talking version, as it gets the best close ups in the film. I tried to approach it with a washy, watercolor-like thought process, as I thought that best matched the feel of the film's design principles, looking in particular at the matte paintings of a dreamy London cityscape, and the actual prop <a href="http://miehana.blogspot.com/2013/08/practically-perfect-snow-globe.html">snowglobe</a>. Not too clean and polished, but not overly heavy handed, either. A lovingly handmade piece.<br />
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Here's where I ended up!<br />
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-24092408907164733632017-10-21T17:27:00.002-07:002017-10-21T17:27:36.841-07:00Strange Mask Making Continues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I really got the mask making bug doing those <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2017/10/monster-masks-rewind.html">retro monster mask repaints</a>. While I was working on the Frankenstein, an idea finally gelled that had been floating around for a few years now. I had the sense that, with his strikingly textured face, Glenn Strange's incarnation of the Frankenstein Monster would lend itself beautifully to my <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/how-to-make-wacky-zombies-new-video.html">wacky zombie corpsing technique</a>. <br />
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I had originally envisioned doing a full bust of the character, but, at 11:30pm on a Monday night, I realized it had to be a <i>mask</i>, so I pulled out some clay and got to work.<br />
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I used some <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2014/04/sculpting-with-model-magic.html">Model Magic clay</a> that I had kicking around on top of a reject casting of <a href="http://www.chickenprops.com/p/sybil.html">Sybil the Clairvoyant</a>. At this point I was imagining that I would leave everything attached to the hollow Sybil face as the structure for the mask, but I realized after I finished sculpting that it would be too heavy with the amount of clay required, so I slathered the sculpture in vaseline to release it from the subsequent layer of paper mache. Had I known it would go this way, I would have used a non drying oil clay. It would have released itself from the mache mask and been easier to work with. Oh well.<br />
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I didn't worry about getting a perfect likeness, because my other source of inspiration, besides the movies themselves, is the fantastic Don Post "Calendar" Mask of the character, which has its own over the top exploration of the design, and only almost hits the exact likeness.<br />
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Two layers of newspaper and thinned school glue make up the shell of the mask itself. It gives it structure, but isn't totally rigid, which is kind of nice in a mask.<br />
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Then two layers of "chicken mache." The first one smooth for extra structure, the second with all the wrinkly goodness. Check the tutorial linked at the top of the post to see how it's done.<br />
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And then we paint. drybrushed pale green highlights and thinned down, washy purple shadows. What color is he supposed to be? I don't know. You can't forget the Glenn Strange mole, though!<br />
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From there I added hair, monster hardware, and an elastic strap.<br />
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And now I'll probably have to make some more.<br />
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-25984556574849721542017-10-19T08:05:00.002-07:002017-10-19T08:05:58.064-07:00Monster Masks RewindTarget put out a line of Universal Monsters themed Halloween products this year, and what caught my eye was the cheesy vacuum formed plastic masks. They had the bones of vintage Ben Cooper and Collegeville Halloween masks, but the paint job was lacking.<br />
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I picked up the Creature from the Black Lagoon to have a go at painting it up retro style. This one had a really cool vintage counterpart with an almost identical sculpture from Collegeville, so I had a clear direction. Here's the before and after.<br />
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It was pretty fun, and the Instagram kids seemed to dig it, too, so I sought out the others. I found the Bride of Frankenstein next. Turns out the vintage paint jobs on these were just about the same as the new one. Snooze. So I pulled from some vampire lady designs, as well as the Frankenstein ones to come up with what hopefully comes across as wild yet pretty. It's certainly prettier than the factory paint job, so there's that.</div>
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I had to order the Frankenstein Monster, as it was all sold out locally. This one is sculpted pretty boring compared to the old ones, but we can save it in paint!<br />
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And here's the terrible trio!</div>
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-45690906578005034112017-08-12T12:13:00.000-07:002017-08-13T09:44:32.924-07:00The Raiders Idol<h3>
Or: Jeepers Creepers, Why Are Your Peepers Moving?</h3>
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You may have noticed I've got a thing for movie MacGuffins. One of my favorites has always been the golden statue from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Arc. The stumbling points that have kept me from it are acquiring a decent casting of the real deal (they are out there), and figuring out a solution to gold plating it. But I think I got a satisfactory solution to both, so here's my process.<br />
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First problem solved: Someone appears to have scanned a (perhaps modified) copy of the stunt version of the idol on <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2197485">Thingiverse</a>. So that's handy. The only thing is the stunt version has a different expression, and this one has some other quirks. If I were more of a digital whiz, I'd have fixed it in the 3D model, but I printed it as is and modified it after.<br />
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I like to give my PLA prints a rough sanding right off the bat.</div>
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Then a coat of filler primer</div>
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The primary issues here are the downturned corners of the mouth, the face of the baby, and the hairline.</div>
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After a few passes of primer and sanding, I corrected those with Apoxie Sculpt, which is an epoxy putty that sets up in a few hours and is nicely sandable.</div>
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Now once I got this far, I figured the project might actually turn out all right, so I started thinking I might as well take it one step further. Most people have never noticed, but the eyes of the hero prop in the movie were not only glass humanlike eyes, but moved back and forth. I had to take the challenge.</div>
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If I had planned it this way from the beginning, it might have been easier, but I didn't, so it wasn't. I had to dremel out all the support material from the inside to fit an eye mechanism.</div>
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I ordered several different plastic eyes to decide what would work best. The one you see below was my favorite looking, but I ultimately decided to use another without a corneal bulge, because a totally spherical eye would be able to fit tighter to the rigid eyelids while they're moving.</div>
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I prototyped out the mechanics with some pins and scrap plastic. The actual design had the servo on the other side.</div>
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One of the puzzles I wanted to solve was the hatch to access the mechanics. The original had a somewhat awkward cut across the top of the head so the whole back of the head could come off. I wanted to avoid anything conspicuous, so I devised a door on the underside of the hair. This is where having the model in two pieces worked to my advantage, because I could have easier access to the back of the eyes to set things up initially.</div>
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I had originally planned to build the eye mech out of brass stock, but I was inspired by the mechanical designers I've been working with at the ol' 9 to 5, and I ended up modeling the eye mech in Fusion 360 for 3D printing. The first time I built it, the eyes were just a hair too far apart to seat correctly, so I had to redo it, which is fairly trivial when the computer is doing most of the work.</div>
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When I got it how I liked it, I mounted the whole mech inside the head with magnets. There were two reasons for this. 1) I wanted to be able to easily remove the mech if needed, and 2) I wouldn't be able to get any conventional tools up there once the body was sealed up. Okay, 3 reasons. 3) I like magnets.<br />
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I 5-minute epoxied the magnets to the mechanism, and then used propoxy to mount the ones in the head, using a bit of plastic wrap as a barrier. You can see the controller board here. It's a Pololu Micro Maestro. I've become fond of these for this sort of simple animatronics control. It's small and, unlike an Arduino, is designed for smooth servo movements. The software is not as easy to program as VSA, but that's the tradeoff for being self-contained.</div>
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At this point I could superglue the two halves together.</div>
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I poured some resin in the feet to weight the bottom so it would be a little less top heavy.</div>
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Now there's just enough room to guide the eye mech until it snaps into place. The system works pretty well.<br />
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The eyelids needed a little resculpting to fit cleanly around the eyeballs. I wrapped them in plastic wrap before inserting them back into the head, and using Apoxie Sculpt to fix them up.</div>
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I also worked on the seam between the two parts, and the join on the trap door.</div>
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Nothing's a one step process. You can see even here there are print layers that can be seen and seams that need another pass of patching.</div>
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That hair took a lot of going over with a small, triangular file (thanks, Harbor Freight).</div>
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When I finished bodyshopping, I went into glossing it up. I decided at this point that I could get it chrome-enough with Alclad chrome model paint. As for the gold color, well, one step at a time. Now, I've always been told to do chrome paint over a black glossy base. The problem I've had with that is that you can't go too heavy with the Alclad, or it loses the reflectivity, so there's always sort of a darkness to the chrome from the black base. I went ahead with just three coats of gloss clear on the assumption that a glossy grey would lead to a brighter silver.</div>
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There were a few spots where I had sanded down to the black PLA before clear coating, and sure enough, I could see those through the chrome as darker chrome areas, so the grey experiment worked. The other bonus of a grey under layer is that, should the chrome rub away (and Alclad will tend to do that, though I've started applying it before the clear coat is totally dry to help it grab hold), a little exposed grey won't draw nearly the attention of a black spot.</div>
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The Alclad will never be 100% mirror chrome, especially with a rattle can gloss coat, but it's a lovely approximation.<br />
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So then I started figuring out how I'd tint it. The tricky thing is that most clear coats disrupt the reflectivity of the Alclad. I think it has to do with solvents causing the tiny metal flakes to shift out of alignment and/or not allowing light to pass straight through.<br />
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There's a "golden yellow" candy color that Alclad sells, but I found it to be too strongly pigmented for this. Eventually I stumbled upon a video by Gordon Tarpley, in which he suggested Liquitex Gloss Varnish (I used High Gloss) mixed with food coloring. Airbrushing this gave the best results in my small scale tests, so I went for it.<br />
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On the actual prop, however, the varnish would dry in one spot before I could get the whole peice wet, which meant it wouldn't level out smooth unless I really flooded it, and I didn't want to do that because more paint meant more intense color, so I ended up doing a top coat of just the varnish to bring back the shine. I did get some drips (which surprisingly don't show up much in the picture above), but I planned to do some weathering, and I figured I could just cover up the drips then.<br />
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I followed that up with a weathering pass of a few shades of acrylic sparingly stippled on with a chip brush.<br />
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Now, the end result is definitely not chrome gold, but it's surprisingly convincing as polished metal in person. I think the weathering pass gives a matte contrast to the gold that sells it. And the hatch in the bottom is barely noticeable when on battery power. If I want to run it off wall power, the cord can fit neatly in the slight gap at the bottom of the hatch.<br />
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Oh, and it does this.<br />
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-25957744656299565282017-07-16T22:13:00.001-07:002017-07-16T22:13:15.789-07:00Chronicling 2007<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: left;">I don't believe I ever posted about my article in the San Francisco Chronicle from 2007. This was on the front page of the Home and Garden section. Reproduced here for your enjoyment. It's not entirely accurate, but that's okay. May I also direct you to </span><a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2008/09/halloween-2007.html" style="text-align: left;">my photos</a><span style="text-align: left;"> from that year's setup to give a better perspective of what it was actually like?</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/The-Skeleton-s-Hand-a-Redwood-City-family-s-3235755.php">http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/The-Skeleton-s-Hand-a-Redwood-City-family-s-3235755.php</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After recent rains Jasper retouches some of the paint. Jasper Anderson,16, Redwood City with his Halloween robotic display at his home. Eric Luse</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Skeleton's Hand a Redwood City family's homemade haunt</span></div>
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It looks scary, but this Redwood City teen's annual haunt is really a warm and fuzzy family affair<br />
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Susan Fornoff, Chronicle Staff Writer<br />
Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 31, 2007<br />
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Gawkers have been up and down Maryland Street for the past month, straining to hear the silly pirate jokes out of the mouths of skeletons Vern and Walter, watching to see if Will the mummy would rise from the dead, wondering what Maggie the witch is stirring in her steaming cauldron.<br />
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And, oh dear, what will costumed visitors have to do to earn a treat tonight? That's all up to the unworldly, all-seeing Magic Mirror and the brotherly wizards pulling the strings of the Skeleton's Hand, an elaborate, high-tech but down-home haunt in front of the Anderson house in Redwood City.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jasper Anderson,16, Redwood City with his Halloween robotic display at his home. Eric Luse</td></tr>
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The "man" behind the curtain is 16-year-old Woodside High sophomore Jasper Anderson, such a fan of Halloween that when he was as young as 4, he would design his costume and then go to the store with Mom (Donna Habeeb) to pick out the perfect fabrics and trims. His Harry Potter and dragon costumes won prizes in the local rec center costume contest, and, in July, an Associated Press photographer captured his getup as Lord Voldemort at a bookstore's "Harry Potter" release party.<br />
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A budding filmmaker, Jasper also loves old black-and-white horror movies and the more recent "Pirates of the Caribbean" films - skeleton Vern is named after "Pirates" director Gore Verbinski, skeleton Walter after Walt Disney, witch Maggie after Margaret Hamilton and mummy Will after William Henry Pratt, known more famously as Boris Karloff. (Jasper's got a sly sense of humor - there's also a Frankenstein in the haunt named Karl in another nod to Mr. Karloff.)<br />
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Four years ago, Jasper started getting ideas about decorating the front of the family's two-story house, but he got stuck in a Yosemite snowstorm and missed his favorite holiday altogether. That gave him a year to plan and build - and enlist the help of his brother, Ethan, and father, Chris - for what's become an annual display opening Oct. 1.<br />
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They're quite a team. Jasper comes up with ideas and sketches them, then papier-maches frightful faces for the figures. Ethan is only 12, but his is the engineering mind that deduces (with some help from his friend Andy) how to electronically animate the creatures with circuit boards in their heads. And Dad just happens to be a contractor who will happily salvage discarded wood and Styrofoam to fabricate the cockamamy creations his sons dream up.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jasper attaching the pirate to the ship above the garage. On the roof is his younger brother Ethan helping his father Chris attach the sail. Jasper Anderson,16, Redwood City with his Halloween robotic display at his home. Eric Luse</td></tr>
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"That's really why we're able to do this," Jasper said on a recent sunny Saturday, watching his father climb a ladder to assemble the team's newest feature, a giant pirate ship sailing out of the top of the garage that tonight will be animated with a computer-generated pirate projected onto the boat.<br />
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"He says 'we' but really it's him," Chris said.<br />
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"Jasper is the master and we all work for him," Donna chimed in.<br />
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Chris and Donna seem proud to serve, and a little awestruck by the workings of their 16-year-old's mind. "His creativity - I'm not going to stop that," Chris said. Donna said she would like to see some more cheerful scenes, "some little happy pumpkins," but she's appreciative of the restraint that Jasper exercises when it comes to not frightening the smaller kids. The Magic Mirror, for instance, is a jack-o'-lantern face that has a scarier side for older trick-or-treaters.<br />
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"He says he doesn't want to promote gore," Chris said.<br />
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"It's creepy," said Jasper, an honor student who hopes to go to film school, "but it's supposed to be fun. No blood."</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ethan,13, Jasper,16, dad, Chris Anderson and mom Donna Habeeb with one of Japer's Halloween creatures hanging from a tree in the front yard.</td></tr>
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The parents also appreciate the life lessons their sons are extracting from their annual exercise in creativity. Jasper and Ethan clearly enjoy it when a couple of neighborhood boys check on their progress and ask how things work, and pause to chat with seniors from the assisted-living home next door who walk by everyday to see what's new.<br />
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"I thought it would upset the neighbors, creep them out," Donna said. "But Jasper treats it like a set, changing things every day, so they actually enjoy it."<br />
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Jasper's resourcefulness includes funding. To raise money for his production, he mows lawns, handles sound and lighting at an area theater, and even created a sister to Maggie the witch for a neighbor. He can make an entire skeleton from 50 sheets of newspaper and sometimes finds defective medical teaching skeletons at half price. Fingernails come from plastic water bottles, heads from wig forms covered in Crayola Model Magic clay. A thrift-store sheet wraps a mummy, tombstones are sheets of Styrofoam lettered with the tip of an empty, hot glue gun. One of his gags is just a simple piece of paper rendered into a Lost Monster posting that can go up on a neighborhood tree for amusing double takes.<br />
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"Of course, the time to shop is after Halloween," he noted.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In his workroom Jasper works on the servo robotic skull that goes in the pirate ship above the garage. His brother will be the distorted voice for the skull. </td></tr>
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More elaborate are the animatronics skulls controlled with an airplane remote. The brothers use Adobe After Effects for animation, as well as Final Cut Pro and the free Audacity sound program. Jasper found the pirate jokes on a Web site and recorded them with Audacity, using his own voice, at quiet moments in the house.<br />
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Theirs is one of the bigger houses on their block of ranch-style homes, and that's because Chris built an addition a few years ago that includes an upstairs laundry/project room where creativity blossoms year-round. The desks are covered with paint, glue, art materials and electronica. Donna has her own projects - she makes jewelry when she's not managing Chris' business.<br />
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If there's a "make things" gene, it's surely in the family, and the Andersons will put it on full display this evening. Last year, more than 150 trick-or-treaters stepped up to the Magic Mirror, which had the face of a gargoyle and spewed vapors when it distributed treats.<br />
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First, though, it wanted a song or a dance. Jasper couldn't believe how many trick-or-treaters complied. Visitors this year might be asked for a cartwheel or a headstand - Jasper's not saying what the Magic Mirror's got in mind. He is, however, already thinking about next Halloween.<br />
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"Next year, I think all the skeletons will be a singing group in the garage," Jasper said.<br />
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Team Anderson awaits its instructions. Even Donna.<br />
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"Although my mom originally wanted to get more cheerful features in the haunt," Jasper said, "she is now shopping in the spooky aisles with me."</div>
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-39617994557102810862017-07-11T18:24:00.004-07:002017-07-11T18:24:54.251-07:00PhotosI'm sorry if you're seeing a bunch of error messages from Photobucket as you're reading my blog now. They recently issued a surprise change to their terms of service, and now won't allow you to see pictures that I've hosted there unless I pay $400 per year.<br />
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I'll be slowly migrating all ten years of photos (776 images) to another host so this blog can live on.<br />
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I know I have dozens of projects on HauntForum, HalloweenForum, and the RPF that are also affected, and I'll do my best to save those soon, too. But it will take a while.Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-1513340234545599782017-07-04T19:39:00.002-07:002017-07-04T19:39:31.918-07:00Wall PresserDid you see something?!<br />
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It's my new Wall Presser projection effect! Check it out!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zscKkHVyxO8?rel=0?ecver=2" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; width: 100%;" width="390"></iframe></div>
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This is one I've had on my list for quite some time, so I'm very excited to finally have it released.<br />
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Available now: http://www.chickenprops.com/p/wallpresser.htmlMr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-89941296335719318762017-07-03T08:12:00.000-07:002017-07-03T08:12:55.975-07:00Silly Bird<a href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4048/35306536200_8ec25d811b_b.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4048/35306536200_8ec25d811b_b.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
Before buckling down to Midsummer Scream prep, I spent a Sunday afternoon doing a little loosey goosey craft day.<br />
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I sketched out a little scene that popped into my head the night before. It felt like a good candidate for paper mache.</div>
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I used some assorted spheres I had collected for the body shapes, a bit of aluminum wire for the neck and legs, old business cards for the nose and feathers, and a well used paint stick for the base.</div>
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It's been years since I did any actual paper mache (see Appendix B: "<a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/how-to-make-wacky-zombies-new-video.html">Chicken Mache</a>"). I used to do water and flour, but I never liked that much. I had some off brand white glue that I mixed with water and flour (for a little texture maybe?), and dipped my newspapers in that. I used paper towel for the worm and dirt because it's a little softer.</div>
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I stuck that in front of a fan for a few minutes and it was ready to paint.</div>
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I tried to get a sort of iridescent quality to the bird by selectively drybrushing some green and purple. Even if it doesn't read quite like that, I just didn't want it jet black. You'll see it's all a little dark here, but the clear coat on top (polycrylic-- I've been nursing a gallon of that for several years now) makes all the colors pop.</div>
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-49880843505066244902017-04-24T18:14:00.001-07:002017-04-24T18:14:31.217-07:00What's up with that Candle?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><br />The latest from Mr. Chicken's Prop Shop: a fake candle that's burnt out and still smoking! DIY Kit available now for pre-orders! <a href="http://www.chickenprops.com/p/smokingcandle.html">http://www.chickenprops.com/p/smokingcandle.html</a><br /><br /><br />
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-21809565595855263072017-03-29T13:21:00.000-07:002017-04-27T14:42:21.463-07:00Ghosts of Halloweens PastA recent post to the <a href="http://facebook.com/chickenprops">Mr. Chicken's Prop Shop Facebook page</a> reminded me that we're all just building on what's been done before.<br />
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I've shared quite a bit about my paper towel and latex paint corpsing <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/how-to-make-wacky-zombies-new-video.html">technique</a>, but I don't believe I've shared the origins. The paper towel idea came from a site called DeathLord.net. Here's an archive of the tutorial. The site is no more. <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20041012063602/http://www.deathlord.net/RottingCorpse/corpse.htm">www.deathlord.net ARCHIVE</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The DeathLord.net Rotting Corpse</td></tr>
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What's awesome is that when I go back and read it, <i>he </i>learned the trick from someone else in 1997!<br />
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The earliest archive is from 2004, but I believe it's older than that, because I know I had studied this for some time before I finally got my own Blucky to work with. That's another thing, by the way, you kids don't know how easy you have it with these fully detailed skeletons for $20-$30. Back in my day, you could either get a "Blucky" from Big Lots for $7.77 (later $8.88, $9.99, and so on-- I kid you not), or a fully accurate Bucky from Anatomical Chart Company for a pretty penny. But I digress.<br />
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This is the zombie guy I made in 2005, based on that tutorial, but with paper towels dipped in flour/water mix, and plaster bandages for the neck, as I recall. If you want to see how this guy in the coffin evolved into my first Wacky Zombie, check out <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2009/08/groundbreaker-zombie-take-3.html">this post</a>.<br />
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Now, how did I come across that site in the first place? There was an awesome resource called The Monsterlist of Halloween Project Links, curated by Mark Butler. He actually has a little <a href="http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/monsterlist_information.htm">info page</a> on how the link list was born out of the Halloween-L mailing list in 1999 (was that the first online haunters' group?). The Monsterlist is still there (<a href="http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/">here</a>), but it looks like it hasn't been updated since about 2014.</div>
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For me, the Monsterlist was the big thing. Before Facebook and Youtube, and even the forums, this was how you found out what people were building.</div>
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The page is organized alphabetically, with just a title of the project and a short description, so if you were looking for something in particular, command+F was your friend. It was always exciting when you checked back on the page to find it had been updated with a slew of new tutorial links, which might be a couple times a year.</div>
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Incidentally, Mark Butler did some how to's of his own, and I used one as the inspiration for my first animatronic talking skeletons in 2005.</div>
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All this to say, let's remember to look back on where our favorite projects come from. Any time you're making something, you're building on the ideas someone else was kind enough to share and explain about their tools, materials, and processes. </div>
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Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-86335033405032582017-01-28T10:11:00.002-08:002018-06-24T17:17:36.985-07:00Feathered FiendEDIT 6/24/2018: The raven is now available as a DIY Kit: <a href="http://www.chickenprops.com/p/raven.html">www.chickenprops.com/p/raven.html</a><br />
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I just realized I never posted last year's biggest Halloween project here!<br />
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A client wanted a custom built, fully functional copy of the animatronic raven seen in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Here's how she turned out:<br />
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Here's a taste of the build process.</div>
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I sculpted the head and body of the birdie first.</div>
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Then molded it. This is just the first layer of silicone going on the sculpture, but it looks so cool like that, right?</div>
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Lots of servos and hardware arrived. Thank you online shopping.</div>
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And I started to puzzle out the animatronic mechanisms within a vacuum formed copy of the body. There was a lot of trial and error involved to get it working the way I wanted.</div>
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Remember the Haunted Mansion wooden skull trim details? Here's the reason I made those in the first place. The raven would sit on a shelf that used these as brackets.</div>
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I saved the head from the water clay sculpture, and let it dry out. I thought it was kind of cool in its own way, so I mounted it to a plaque with the scientific name for a raven on it.</div>
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In her new home...</div>
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-39710331051279710022017-01-26T12:28:00.001-08:002017-01-26T12:28:35.305-08:00New Wacky Zombies??<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the first props I ever made for another haunt was a copy of one of my wacky zombie groundbreakers, about eight or nine years ago.<br />
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I've just completed three new weirdos, using the same techniques in my <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/how-to-make-wacky-zombies-new-video.html">How To video</a>, available for you! Head over to <a href="http://www.chickenprops.com/p/zombies.html">Mr. Chicken's Prop Shop</a> to grab one before they're gone!<br />
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<br />Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-6289063313615030872017-01-24T17:57:00.001-08:002017-12-31T15:56:22.715-08:00Spooks Arrive for the Midnight Spree<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I recently acquired another weird Haunted Mansion casting. This time of the face of one of the ghosts that rise out of the organ pipes in the ballroom.</div>
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Here's how they appear in the ride, materializing by Pepper's Ghost effect:</div>
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Thanks to behind the scenes photos like this, I knew what they were supposed to look like in person, so I set to work.</div>
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I originally wanted to do this in one go, without molding or casting. I thought I would bulk out the back of the head with aluminum foil and sculpt the missing surface detail with Apoxie Sculpt, but as I considered it, I realized that would result in a heavy, less stable piece, so I went at it with traditional clay.</div>
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Head on a spike, with WED clay in back. I have a writeup <a href="http://chickenhaunt.blogspot.com/2014/02/sculpting-tips-fright-radio.html">here</a> on different types of clays that may be of interest.</div>
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The beginnings of a Smooth On Rebound 25 silicone mold.</div>
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Cast in resin and primed grey.</div>
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A little paint, a little cheesecloth. Not too shabby, eh?</div>
Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018451826731318840.post-14506302935261613712017-01-24T14:00:00.001-08:002017-01-24T14:00:17.062-08:00Shadows and Things (New Projection Effect!)It's here, it's here!<br />
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I finally today put the finishing touches on the latest projection effect available at www.ChickenProps.com<br />
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This is a back to basics illusion, requiring almost no setup, and only the cheapest of projectors. Check it out, and let me know what you think!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7lfb3vtpITo" width="400"></iframe>Mr. Chickenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17788609552270797748noreply@blogger.com2