2012- Day Zero- Halloween is a definite GO!

Well congratulations Ghouls! We survived Frankenstorm with not too much more than an inconvenience. I can't believe it's actually going to happen. After 2 years of preparing this build, no question this is the most spooktacular ever! I promise to have pictures and video over the next couple of days. It's just too crazy right now getting things done at the last minute, but I have tested extensively and had plenty of time for that. It's going to go very smoothly. Believe it or not I am actually going to need a ghoul helper in the control room! Never had that happen before. We also have an actual entrance door to the haunt with light and sound while the guests wait to go in! Today's schedule calls for taking some tarps off of the vortex, connecting the end of the haunt to the vortex, putting up some more webs, obviously cleaning up, putting the night crawlers on the corpse (don't forget we have some high schoolers who think they're real tough and nothing can scare them!), more testing and a couple of run throughs before the guests arrive. Much more to come. Stay tuned and Happy Haunting to Ghouls everywhere!

2012- Day 2 -Riding out the storm

We put a bunch of tarps around the vortex canopy. Gusts are pretty high right now but everything remains intact. Just after landfall now and the storm is moving faster than predicted which will be great if we can get through tonight and tomorrow without power loss. That is the key. I had our elevator operator over yesterday and we went through the sequence a couple of times. I swear I will be flipping switches and pulling pulleys like crazy for 2 1/2 hours straight!
One adjustment we will have to make is the peppers ghost effect will not be moving as we had planned. There is no way we can have someone push the cart at the right time, reposition and still allow for the stone panel to move in and out of the same space. Way too much happening. Plus when we tested the effect the light falls away from the ghost as he moves inward. There is not enough space to get the effect to work right. No matter. The static apparition still looks great and there is plenty of room for that.

2012- Day 3- The Show Will Go On!

I think it looks OK for us. The brunt of the storm is looking like it will hit fairly well south. Basically just rain forecast for Wednesday. I had a couple of the actors over last night to review their scripts. One is stationed behind the drop panel, one is the 'Count' who will greet the guests in front of the elevator and will manage the sliding wall in front of the crypt door, and the third is the video operator who will work the snake projection image. Today I am having the elevator operator over. He has one of the more difficult jobs, namely pulling the elevator panel up and holding it there for several seconds until the guests leave the elevator. I did have to hire someone to do that! Once your haunt reaches the level where you need to start paying people to do jobs, maybe it's time to scale back? A bunch of weatherproofing steps also need to be taken today for the vortex ahead of whatever we get from the storm. Lots of testing over the next couple of days. I hope to have a bunch of pics and maybe some video.

2012- Day 5- 'Frankenstorm' or not

We are going to continue to move forward and prepare to run this build whether it happens on the 31st or not. Last year it was rescheduled for a week later but we were out of town. So I suppose if cooler heads prevail we can rationalize that it will happen but we're not sure when. I don't think there will be snow this time based on the latest forecasts. The question is the wind, how much, will power be out and for how long. You can't make this stuff up Ghouls, but we can't control it so we're moving on with the finish. Not much left to do. There is a foam entry door we need to set up, lot's of weather proofing between the garage and the vortex, one more sound byte for the ghost area, some last minute tune-ups for the vortex, mostly light-proofing and dot painting on the fabric. Finally we need to test everything over the next few days and go over the key actors and workers roles this weekend.

2012- Day 6- Storm threatens the show for second straight year!!

Major storm approaches from lower right heading north

I'm hoping this is just a bad dream Ghouls. The forecast grows worse every day. I suppose the only potential good news is the worst is expected for Mon-Tues which means there is an outside chance it will be improved by Wed. If the town does not call off Halloween obviously we will still run it. If there isn't much wind by Wed we might still be able to run the vortex. I really can't believe this is happening for the second straight year. Might have to rethink this whole operation if it gets scrapped again due to weather. Very depressing situation right now.

2012- Day 9

Vortex with fabric installed

Exit hall framed out

Steps going into the vortex- finally!

Another welcomed addition this year was a set of steps going into and coming out of the vortex. This also added stability to the bridge. The exit hallway was framed. Overall I think we're doing well at the finish here. The exit hall should be finished in the next day or 2 and we should be able to start on the entrance door. I anticipate many hours to test everything.

2012-Day 10- Scenes from the upgraded Mansion

Entrance hall. Notice the 'real' webs! Skeleton and stacked books prop with chandelier a little further back.

Chandelier view from the foyer

Ghouls, this was a huge upgrade from last year! We got rid of the cheesy scene-setter sheeting and replaced it with foam 'wooden' panels you can see on the right. Probably the biggest breakthrough this year was use of a web gun to create the webs. I'm telling you this stuff is amazing! Here is an instructional video from Haunted Props that explains how it works. These webs look and feel like the real thing. We installed the chandelier at the back of the hallway.

2012- Day 11- Air cannon reloaded

Almost the final countdown yet again! We finished putting the fabric up in the vortex. It's holding up fairly well but a couple of the sheets have shrunken a tad, maybe 3/4", so we taped the ends with masking tape and this enabled us to safely stretch it over to staple onto the end hoops. The chandelier was finally hung! Hopefully a video soon. And today's item, the air cannon, was re-installed as shown. I had a similar video last year. I am a complete pneumatics newbie, not counting last year since we never actually got a chance to use the darn thing! A garage haunt is not an optimal venue for serious pneumatic props, but this is different! It is actually fairly easy to operate and very compact. This is the one we're using. Apparently the price has gone up since I bought mine, but again, if you are not an expert in the area of pneumatics I would not try to build one from scratch! Major safety issues here Ghouls. The other component of this set up is of course the air compressor which you will need as well. I'm using an 8 pound Husky brand. If you have never used an air compressor before there are some key issues to be aware of. The big one is the power drain. As I mentioned last year I tried plugging into almost every outdoor outlet we have and was blowing fuses right and left. You are going to have to use an indoor outlet and find one that works by trial and error! We will have to keep the tank inside the garage, but this year I have designed a large work area so there will be plenty of room. Make sure you keep that in mind! Also these things make a ton of noise while the tank fills. Thankfully the cannon does not require a ton of pressure and it looks like one fill should last at least an hour or more. We could refill the tank during the short intermission if we have to. Finally make sure you close the drain valve on the bottom of the tank if you have previously opened it! Last year I opened it before storing the tank, forgot to close it, and tonight I was trying to fill the tank for about an hour and nothing was happening! There was nothing in the troubleshooting directions about it. Somehow I figured it out!

2012-Day 14- Vortex reloaded!

The vortex frame was powered up today.No problems. The rotation rate is about the same. 6-7 rpm. This seems to be a good rate. Not too fast and not too slow. The last items will be the fabric, lighting and this year hopefully a real set of stairs entering and leaving. We'll see what happens. Only 2 weeks to go! I know it's the same every year now for 3 years but it's always a great feeling when we get to this point and know it's going to work again. Let's face it ghouls, the vortex is what everyone is waiting for!

2012-Day 16- Rolling update

Vortex bridge reassembled!

Chandelier nearly complete. One arm needs to be reattached.

The vortex bridge assembly was completed yesterday. I had a friend come over to help and we finished it in just over an hour! No significant degradation yet of the wood components now in the 3rd year of use. Next we will test the motor and put the fabric up. So actually the vortex is right now a little ahead of schedule. The rest of the haunt is getting there but I think we're a couple days behind. The chandelier is about 90% done but we had a glitch with one of the arms coming off after the glue failed (see image above). The problem is the inner pvc is also glued and when you screw the arm into it, it might actually increase the stresses on the glue. So far 5 out of 6 arms look fine. We do have a 'plan B' which is to use wooden dowels instead of pvc which can be screwed into the base rather than glued.

2012- Day 19 Hoops done!

Attaching arms to the base. You can drill an extra hole in the base to run the wires through.

All 3 hoops reassembled!

It took 3 days to get the vortex hoops back up. Not too bad. We have the system down pretty well by now. Last thing will be the bridge and of course testing with the motor. Be careful though with the windy weather. We left one side of the canopy open to make the hoop assembly easier but this allows wind to get in there and potentially lift the other side of the canopy like a sail. That did happen with one significant gust! Meanwhile progress continues on the chandelier. A couple of arms are seen here attached to the base. I glued the arms to the base with some loctite cement and also used 1 or 2 screws per arm which allow for extra fixation into the pvc inner tubes.

2012- Day 21- Chandelier update

Corpse arms complete with collars. We will have to add the chain links to the collars in the next few days for the final installation!

We're working on putting together the pieces finally! The arms are done. You can see a couple of them here holding the candles. It is possible, Ghouls, to bend the fingers into a fist once the latex and painting are totally done. You might have to add a drop or 2 of glue to hold the candle in there depending on how the fingers can bend around it. Now you might have to touch up some paint around the knuckles after positioning the fingers but I think I will do that once the chandelier is actually hung. The collars are easily screwed into the forearms with a single screw after predrilling. You can see how they effectively hide the connection between the hand and forearm like I mentioned earlier! Two additional challenges if you wind up doing this. One is how to connect the arms to the hexagonal base which you can see toward the upper right of the image. I decided to overengineer the construction to increase the durability by first routing into the wood a depth of maybe an inch or so, then gluing a short pvc segment into it. This way I can screw the arms into the pvc as well as glue them into the base. The original design by Merlin has an additional collar on the other end as well as the wrist. My arms had to be much shorter because of space and I wanted people to be able to see the forearm detail so I left out the additional collar. The other design consideration is the electrical wiring. I bought the candles already wired, so these paired wires (one positive, one negative) can be fed through the pvc from the base of the hand out the end of the forearm pretty easily. You don't need an extra conduit to stick in there.

2012- Day 23- The Vortex returns!

Vortex under construction. This will be its third year in operation!

Roof of the canopy assembled. Notice the black duct tape reinforcing the connections. This is a must if you are going to use a structure like this!

For the 3rd year now we start the vortex build right around Columbus Day! So here we go. We always start with the canopy. Actually I should say "I" always start with the canopy. I have by now perfected the one man assembly process, although I did get some help getting some of the materials out, particularly the wheel carriages! One thing that really helped was duct taping the connections on the canopy segments. They are pretty light weight but have proven very durable for this weather.After all it did survive the ' nightmare before Christmas' last halloween! Remember the 'feet' of the canopy were extended with additional pvc pipe to increase the height a couple of feet. Please refer to the 'spinning tunnel' page on the right for all of the vortex details.  The first year I had to spend a lot of time reconnecting a couple of the roof segments that kept sliding apart. The tape has solved that problem. Today I put together almost 2 of the hoops. It's supposed to be dry most of this week here so it should be done by week's end.

2012- Day 25- Corpse arms road show

Completed corpse hands and forearms. Don't worry about the apparent hand to forearm width difference. The collars will hide those transitions!

I have to work on the road this weekend and here at an old colonial inn in New England. This place could easily be a haunt. It would be perfect! Huge rooms with 30 foot ceilings and hardly any sunlight coming in here. Very few people here. Lots of empty space. At any rate I decided to bring the materials I'm using for the corpse chandelier. Today the rest of the latexing was finished for the hands and forearms. I had to shorten the forearms from Merlin's original design because I don't have as much space in the mansion hall. The hand to forearm transition will be hidden by the collars which I did paint but have not yet attached here, so you will not see the edge of the pvc against the hand like you do here. Tomorrow I will paint the extremities a nutmeg brown color. One thing I found was that in order to make the forearms look more realistic they have to be  a little wider at the base. I used the cotton balls but also added tissue wrapped around the base to hold the cotton in place after applying the latex. You can then use a toothpic or pencil etc to draw in the tendons and tissue planes

2012-Day 26 Latexed corpse hands

Corpse hands after latex application

Now we're starting to see something! This definitely works. You take some cotton balls, break them up and use them in combination with the latex to produce what you see here. Lots of fun! Although as I mentioned earlier, it does take time. Give yourself at least a half hour per hand. The latex takes a couple of days to dry. While it's drying you can pinch the surface and do some molding to create wrinkles.  Get a quart of the latex here. That should be enough. Merlin says in his directions (see last post) you can use carpet latex. I would get the real stuff. I don't think it will cost you any more. Looks better and cleans up with water very easily. Next we will do the forearms and paint. Monday is a holiday and we should be starting to put the canopy up for the vortex. More work planned for the mansion hallway as well. Have fun Ghouls! Getting down to the wire now!

2012-Day 29 Corpse chandelier update

One of the 6 corpse hands which will  be connected to the chandelier base

The final October schedule is under way. Corpse chandelier must be hung and entrance hall done by the 15th! As I mentioned in an earlier post I found this prop idea on the Monster page of Halloween project links.  Please bookmark this page Ghouls! There is a ton of cool stuff on there and there isn't any reason you necessarily have to reinvent the wheel as it were! Be forewarned this prop is taking a lot longer than advertised! Fairly cheap to make not including the candles, but a LOT longer than a couple of hours. Give it at least a couple of weeks. The hand shown here probably took about an hour by itself. The directions are clear enough. They can be found here. Thank you Merlin! When you make them be sure to familiarize yourself with a hand skeleton and understand there are multiple bones. Four segments for each except the thumb which has 3. The longest segment is at the bottom called the metacarpal. The rest are called phalanges. Notice the relative lengths of the individual digits and how the long finger (3rd finger) is the longest, index and ring are approximately the same length and small finger (fifth) is the shortest. Model your hands after your own. That's the easiest way to get the lengths right! You can get the bic pens at a dollar store for a couple dollars.Remove the pen portion, then cut the plastic tubes to match the lengths of the finger segments like you see here or in Merlin's tutorial. Take pieces of wire hanger and slide the segments over it. Use a 1-2 inch by 4-5 inch PVC piping to install the fingers onto. I used a hammer to flatten one end of the PVC. You don't have to crush the end totally. Just flatten it enough so you can drill 5 holes across the top. Start with the thumb hole on the side about 1" down from the end and use about a 1/8" drill bit, then drill the other 4 holes across the top about 1/2" from the end. You want the thumb hole set down and on the side a bit. Attach the digits by sliding the end of the wire into the holes. You can bend the end of the wire inside the PVC to stabilize the digit in the rough position you want. Then take your duct tape to secure them. If you are running wire through the arms make sure to leave an opening in the end of the PVC by the palm of the hand. Don't close it off with the tape. I have to wait and see if I am going to need an actual conduit to get the wire through the arm to the center of the chandelier. I don't think so. Finally if you plan to have the hands hold the candles you should cut the tape in the webspace between the thumb abd the index because you will need to bend that thumb way down eventually.