Beyond the Grave

9/18/2005 - Feet Dragging

Posted in Props

Man, as far as prop building goes, I've really been dragging my feet lately. I guess I'm just overwhelmed at the moment by life in general. For one, we're in the midst of gettign the kitchen remodelled. It's nearly done, so that should free up a lot of my time and effort.

Secondly, my health has been slipping. I've been seeing my doctor to figure out why I keep waking in the middle of the night with heart palpitations. I wore a Holter Monitor to monitor my heart activity, and it came back fine, so at least it's not my ticker.

My doctor's suspicion is that I may have sleep apnea, despite the fact I don't fit the profile for it (usually it's with people who are overweight that suffer from it). So, I have to go in for a sleep study on September 29th to see what's up. If it is sleep apnea (an affliction where you stop breathing numerous times during sleep, depleting the body's oxygen levels), there is a device I can wear to help me sleep and keep my airways open. I'll essentially be Darth Vader when I go to bed because I'll need to wear a mask over my nose and mouth.

Anyway, I still have a few items to finish before October rolls around. For one, I need to build my LED spotlight system. I need it to be weather proof, which I think I have it all worked out as to how I'm going to do it. I'll be posting a how-to for both the building of the LED spotlights as well as their power supply, both in weather proof form.

I also have to finish staining bones for various uses, build a frame to mount my FCG rig to (promised wifey no holes in the new bathroom ceiling), finish the "In Case of Vampires, Break Glass" box, and build a pneumatic web shooter.

The vampire box and FCG frame should come along this week. I'm just awaiting the arrival of the lid for the box (Black Widow, thank your husband for building it for me), and building the FCG frame shouldn't take more than one or two evenings.

On the LED front, I'm still awaiting the arrival of the DC connectors and 24 guage black power cable I ordered. Those, I'm told, WILL be here this week.

Things should start to come together this week.

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7/29/2005 - Made Some LED Spotlights Today

Posted in Props

Wow, work was boring as hell today. I had nothing to do, so I ran home at break time and grabbed my LED-building supplies and got to work. I managed to build four spotlights this afternoon, to fill an order that grapegrl placed with me. If all goes well and she's happy with them, I think I may take some more orders from fellow haunters to help offset the cost of my own spotlights and to help pay for the web site.

I must say, I'm most impressed with the Green and UV spotlights. Very intense for such a tiny little light.

Here's a photo of the finished project on my photobucket album:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y32/Zombie-F/Spotlights/

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7/21/2005 - I Love Free Stuff!

Posted in Props

I was driving home for lunch today and saw something outside a neighbor's house that caught my eye in terms of "Prop Usability". It was in with a pile of other junk all labelled "Free". I couldn't lift it myself, so I had to wait until after work so I could get a little help from a co-worker to lift it. Thankfully, it was still there and nobody had snagged it yet.

It's a freakin' wood stove!!! It's in pretty decent shape, with the sole exception being a slight crack in the back of it. Have a look:

I think I'm gonna load it up with bones from a Bag of Bones I bought last year, put in some flicker flame bulbs, and remove the access panel in the back that's meant as an alternative outlet for the chimney pipe and pipe fog in through there. This is a pretty kick ass prop for free!

I love props like this. It's something you didn't even plan on, and one day you see it, the idea is born, and bam! It's done! Free stuff rocks my socks.

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7/20/2005 - Maintenance Almost Done!

Posted in Props

So, yesterday I dragged out the Cemetery Columns... they work!

Today, I dragged out the Monster in the Box to re-fit it with its (now) rusty chains and give it a quick once over to make sure it works. No surprises this year. The new construction of the mechanism that lifts the lid works beautifully now.

I also tested out the three foggers. After a few quick bursts from each, I'm confident they'll be fine for this season.

That just leaves me to test the Shaking Skeleton in the Cage. I forsee no problems with it, but I do want to remove the sound module from it as I wasn't happy with the effect from it. I may also buy a better circuit to drive the motor with than the homebrew one I made for it two years ago.

As promised, I did go and upload my talking skeleton's dialog from last year. It's about 8 MB, so if you have a slow connection, download at your own risk. It's a little cheesy... ok, a lot cheesy, but it worked great. Most everyone that came to see them sat through the whole routine and even laughed at the bad jokes. The setup was these two skeletons were grim reapers that got to have the night off, so they decided to spend it hanging out and playing poker.

Have a listen!

Ooh! The new Oriental Trading Company posable skeleton and crow that I ordered to use with the big signpost arrived today. I drilled the holes for the crow's foot-wires to fit into, but I'm still unsure how I want to pose the skeleton. I may have him stand under the post with one of my old McDonald's McPunkin pails. I think that would look pretty spiffy.

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7/20/2005 - More Maintenance

Posted in Props

I think today after work, I'll be doing some more maintenance-related stuff. I'll probably break out all three fog machines and run them for a while to make sure I don't have any clogged nozzles.

I'll also be putting the chains back on the Monster in the Box since they've been outside rusting for a few days now. The muriatic acid worked wonders at removing the zinc plating and just spraying them with water has put on a nice aged look to them. It's bothered me since I built the prop that the lock looked old and beat but the chains were shiny and new. Now that's no longer true.

I'll also be modifying the shaking skeleton in a cage by removing the sound effects that went with it. Last year, I added a sound chip to it so when the cage started shaking, a sound played of the "skeleton" (me, with vocal effects) saying "let me outta here!" I didn't like how that turned out and the sound never played quite right, so I'm just gonna remove it.

If time permits, I'll also take out the CD of dialog I made for my talking skeletons and rip the track off the disc and post it to my web site so people can hear last year's routine. I may change the dialog for this year, but I'm not sure yet. People seemed to like it, but at the same time, I don't want to repeat what I did last year because I want to make it fresh for this year. I guess it all depends if I can write a better routine for them this year.

I leave for work in a few. Ugh. Wish I could work on props all day.

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7/19/2005 - Sigh

Posted in Props

I did wind up doing *something* today after all. Lord knows what the hell I was thinking. It was over 90 degrees with high humidity making the heat index up over 100.

I spent a few hours today taking down the crypt frame so I can get it out of the driveway. Between the heat and humidity, there was a mud wasp in the shed taunting me, making it difficult to put the thing away because he was just flying around where I needed to put the pieces.

Anyhow, I got it all stowed away up in the rafters of my shed.

Then I came in and watched "Dracula Rises From the Grave". Christopher Lee really is one of the best Draculas... ever.

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7/17/2005 - So Much For Taking it Easy

Posted in Props

As usual, I didn't take it easy today. I finished the lantern... then I set out about updating my web site with new how-tos for both the Haunted Signpost and the lantern. It took most of the day.

Now I AM gonna lie down and watch TV after I'm done cooking dinner. Mmmmm... Grilled Haddok and fresh corn on the cob. Yum

http://www.unpleasantstreet.com - The how-tos are under "Projects" and are at the bottom of that page.

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7/16/2005 - Today's Activities

Posted in Props

Ok, so in light of my crypt catastrophe, I've decided to just put it aside for now until I have more patience and the resources I need to finish it. Lots of suggestions from people, and I do appreciate them, but I have this grandiose vision of what it's gonna look like and how I'm gonna do it all worked out, and I simply don't want to compromise and "make do" with what I have.

Anyway, today I started working on converting a hurricane lantern into an LED operated lantern that looks all old and ratty. I plan on hanging it with fishing line from a tree branch in the graveyard so it appears to be floating. I'll have to redirect some of the floodlights so's not to illuminate the fishing line and ruin the "trick".

To age it, I etched the glass so you can't tell there's an LED inside and spraypainted black, white, and rust colored paint onto it to make it look old. I didn't finish it up yet though, because my soldering iron is at work and my wife, who was out for the day, had the keys to get in at work. I'll finish it off tomorrow. Still undecided as to what color I want the flame to be... yellow or red... or blue? I do have a photobucket album with my progress thus far.

I also took the chains off the good old Monster in the Box and dipped them into some Hydrochloric acid to strip off the zinc plating and cause it to rust a bit. My only gripe with the prop was it's chains looked too shiny and new, whereas the lock was all old and rusted.

I guess you could say it was a busy day!

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