Halloween Thread

#1,402
#1,402
theFallGuy said:
I've already loaded on candy corn for the season
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giphy.gif
 
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#1,408
#1,408
@larjoranj

Looking to change up my decorations this year. I usually do a whole graveyard seen, but i think we wanna do a camping theme. Any ideas on how to do a firepit with a fake flame/fire ?
 
#1,409
#1,409
the_todd said:
@larjoranj

Looking to change up my decorations this year. I usually do a whole graveyard seen, but i think we wanna do a camping theme. Any ideas on how to do a firepit with a fake flame/fire ?
Click to expand...
There are some good vids on youtube for making glowing coals/ fake fires at Halloween. Use a stiff cardboard or some very thin plywood, like vinyl floor underlayment, as a base. Lay some red and/or orange Christmas light strings on the base. Cover the lights with expanding foam (Great Stuff or Loc Tite) but don't completely cover them. Leave open spaces so the light can shine through later. After the foam has dried you can put another layer of lights then another layer of foam. Once it's all dry you'll want to paint the foam with black, red and some gray to get the color of embers and coals. At night the lights will shine through the gaps and look like a smoldering fire. Pick light strings that have different modes, like twinkling or flashing, to look more like a fire. There are many of those on Amazon cheap. Different vids show different ideas. One guy puts actual sticks in the foam before it dries to look more like a fire. Another guy puts some cheap vinyl or styrofoam bones and skulls in the foam to creepy it up a little and look like a body burned in the fire.

Search for DIY Halloween Fire Pit on youtube and you'll get plenty of good vids with detailed instructions.

Making a fake fire with larger flames is more difficult. I've seen a couple vids on youtube where they used sheets with orange and red lights behind them and a fan below to blow the sheets up. Those are usually done in the window of a house and look real. They look like that room is on fire. Gonna be harder to make fake flames from up very close. Look at a few of those fire pit vids and see if that might work for you. Good luck
 
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#1,411
#1,411
larjoranj said:
There are some good vids on youtube for making glowing coals/ fake fires at Halloween. Use a stiff cardboard or some very thin plywood, like vinyl floor underlayment, as a base. Lay some red and/or orange Christmas light strings on the base. Cover the lights with expanding foam (Great Stuff or Loc Tite) but don't completely cover them. Leave open spaces so the light can shine through later. After the foam has dried you can put another layer of lights then another layer of foam. Once it's all dry you'll want to paint the foam with black, red and some gray to get the color of embers and coals. At night the lights will shine through the gaps and look like a smoldering fire. Pick light strings that have different modes, like twinkling or flashing, to look more like a fire. There are many of those on Amazon cheap. Different vids show different ideas. One guy puts actual sticks in the foam before it dries to look more like a fire. Another guy puts some cheap vinyl or styrofoam bones and skulls in the foam to creepy it up a little and look like a body burned in the fire.

Search for DIY Halloween Fire Pit on youtube and you'll get plenty of good vids with detailed instructions.

Making a fake fire with larger flames is more difficult. I've seen a couple vids on youtube where they used sheets with orange and red lights behind them and a fan below to blow the sheets up. Those are usually done in the window of a house and look real. They look like that room is on fire. Gonna be harder to make fake flames from up very close. Look at a few of those fire pit vids and see if that might work for you. Good luck
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Thank you!
 
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#1,412
#1,412
I'm working on my new zombie. My kids got me this mask with a baseball embedded in the skull so I'm making him a baseball player.

baseball zombie 9.jpg

The mask has 1 normal eye and 1 socket where the eyeball is gone. I'm adding a bloody eyeball sticking out of that socket. I think it looks creepier. The pants are old. The jersey I had made on Amazon. I normally get the clothes at a local thrift store for a couple bucks but I splurged. I think the jersey is cool.

baseball zombie 6.jpg

I'll add arms and get some pics up soon. I've got a Lucille bat from the Walking Dead I'll have him holding in 1 hand. I may leave him armless on 1 side. Or maybe have a skeleton arm on 1 side. Of course there will be lots of blood splatters before I display him in the yard.
 
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#1,413
#1,413
I put the arms on today. He's holding the "Lucille" bat that Negan used in Walking Dead, with the barbed wire wrapped around the end. I took an arm from a plastic skeleton and used it for his left arm. Maybe the flesh has mostly rotted off that arm. I might "corpse" that arm later by adding a little more rotten flesh. I didn't use real cleats so I'll probably paint the adidas logo on these shoes. No kids will notice but I'll like it better. I'll scuff up the uniform. Add some dirt and blood stains.

baseball zombie 11.jpg
 
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#1,415
#1,415
Tin Man said:
In the early 80s, I lived in a neighborhood that induced me to hand out little bags of peanuts and little boxes of raisins.
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dey musta had a problem with barred owls in that neighborhood....peanuts and raisins kill the little fookers graveyard dead
peanuts and raisins also will kill pussums
you got fooled....again
 
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#1,418
#1,418
the_todd said:
@larjoranj - as i stated in an earlier post, im changing my decorations up this year. I have a posable skeleton that i want to stand by a grill to look like he’s cooking. Any suggestions on how to keep him standing up/posed?
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The way I stand most of my skeletons up, and the easiest way, is to cut about a 4.5 - 5 foot piece of 3/4" pvc and zip tie it to the back of the skelton in 2 or 3 spots along the spine so that the pvc runs all the way to the ground. Then drive a piece of rebar or 1/2" conduit in the ground and slide the pvc over it. It will stand up. Now, that leaves the pvc visible between his legs so I normally spray paint the pvc whatever color is in the background. If you have fescue and it's green, paint is green. If you have bermuda and it's turning wheat colored, paint it to match. If a bush or your house is in the background paint it to match that. Whatever is in the background. During the day it will still be visible some. At night nobody will see it.

If that leaves the pvc more exposed than you'd like you can do this - drive a piece of conduit in the ground directly behind each leg. The legs will mostly hide the conduit. Then zip tie the skeleton to the conduit. You'll have to do that below and above the knee to lock the knee joint. You may have to drill a hole in the conduit to place the zip tie so it doesn't slide up and down. He might still be too flexible at the waist and not stay in the position you want. If that's the case take 4" deck screws and stabilize the joint you want fixed.

Different brands of skeletons are made differently. I've seen someone drill a hole through the foot into the lower leg and then into the upper leg and drive a piece of rebar in the ground and slide the foot, lower leg and upper leg over the rebar. Not all skeletons are made to be able to do that.

If you need your conduit bent and not straight to match an angle on the skeleton you can use a pipe bender. You can bend the pvc with a heat gun.

You can get duct tape in many colors. If you need to lock in joints at certain angles duct tape will do it. If the tape isn't a close enough match, paint it.

good luck
 
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