I thought that I would have all day Friday to work on the video store prop,
but I got called in to work with a potential replacement for me at one of my
jobs. I ended up spending most of Friday working and sort of training
instead of getting anything done on the prop. I came home too exhausted to
work... So, at 2:00 AM this morning I woke up and couldn't get back to
sleep. I had a ton of work to do in less than 12 hours time.
I decided to just get to work on the prop for the video store. I needed
to have the grave jumper ready for delivery by 2:00 PM. The owner had
decided to go with a gravestone instead of the toxic waste barrel, so I had to
make some modifications to the pop-up platform and finish a grave stone.
| By 4:30 AM I had 90% of the grave jumper assembly built.
At this point everything is glued together and all I need to do is build
the piston and mounting bracket. Unfortunately, that takes an
angle grinder, so had to stop and wait until late enough in the morning
to run the power tools. |
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| I did some test fitting on the gravestone that I had
already started a week or so ago. It was a good fit, so I decided
to make use of it and save some time. The gravestone still needed
another coat of paint and some detailing to bring out the lettering. |
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| Since I didn't want to just sit around, I went ahead and
cut some PVC pieces for a small fence. I thought a little fencing
would work well to keep people from getting too close to the prop when
it was placed outside the store and add a bit more character than a lone
gravestone sitting on the cement. |
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| Once the sun came out, I finished the piston for the
pop-up and started drilling out holes for the fence.
I used 8 foot 1x2 lumber for the cross pieces. I just drilled 1
inch holes every 6 inches starting 3 inches in from the end. It
would have been better to drill 7/8 inch holes, but I couldn't find that
size bit anywhere in my tools. |
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| The 1 inch holes are a bit big, but the fence is only
designed to be a barrier between the prop and people and not the main
focus... I don't think anyone will notice the gaps.
The assembled pieces make an inexpensive and fairly sturdy fence.
It's light weight and looks convincing enough once painted. |
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| Our friends Tedd & Linda and their two boys came up for
a visit. I put Tedd right to work helping me get the first fence
piece painted while I drilled more holes for the second one.
Anyone who stops by our house before Halloween knows that they're going
to be put to work on something <laughing>. We ended up creating two 8
foot sections that were cut in half to form four 4 foot sections of
fence. |
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| I did a little aging on the gravestone to hide the
blemishes all over the foam board and help the lettering stand out a
bit. I just added a bit more black pigment to the base color and
watered it down to the point where I could get it to drip down the face
of the stone from the recessed lettering & design. |
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| I used a dry brush to pull the drips down the face and
added some additional dark streaks all along the top and bottom edges.
It came out pretty good for a quick and dirty touch up and managed to
draw attention away from the little scratches, dents and seam in the
foam board.
|
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| I called the video store to check and make sure that
they had picked up a costume and air compressor. It turned out
that they were not able to find anything this close to Halloween, so
Tedd and I worked frantically to dress the grave jumper in something I
already had and get it "pretty" for the store. We loaded up the car
with everything and headed off to the video store. |
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| Originally I was going to put the grave jumper in front
of the store, but the wind was blowing a bit and the sidewalk was a bit
narrower than I had remembered, so the owner and I opted to move it just
inside the doors and off to one side. The final result was pretty
nice. I miniature graveyard inside the store. You can click
on the image to the right to take a look at the prop in action. |
(click on image for video) |
| The girls had fun playing with Tedd's boys. It was
quite the madhouse at times and lots of fun for them. |
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We spent the evening eating pizza and talking with Tedd and Linda. The
kids played video games and ran around the house making up their own version of
hide and seek.
It was good spending the evening with everyone. It made me miss all of
my old friends and the Halloween parties that we used to have in Eugene...
