Johnnys Ghosts

Cloaked FCG

2010-10-25T00:16:00.000-04:00

Quick post to show my new Flying Crank Ghost based on Pumpkinrots Cloaked Ghost.

Leer ghost is complete

2010-09-22T21:46:00.001-04:00

The Leer Ghost is done, I think I will be challenging some TOTers this Halloween. First the video. This was taken in my garage with a small fan providing a breeze. You can make out the door underneath, so this gives perspective of what it will look like on Halloween night. Its not on a motion detector, I just walked up and turned it on.

This ghost is MUCH simpler than the WallBreaker, and I think very suitable for a kit that will be simpler, less expensive and more robust. I am also making a second Leer Ghost on commision, if you are interested in commision work please contact me.

Next up I am redoing my Flying Crank Ghost after getting turned on to Pumpkinrots cloaked ghost, which has also been done by Grim Hollow. Every FCG I have ever seen has a head of some sort, and most have hands of some sort. I am trying to make one with a void for the head and hands.

Some closing shots of the Leer Ghost.

leer ghost body and arms

2010-09-16T10:56:00.133-04:00

Next step was to build a body. I mounted the leer ghost where I could reach it , then used cardboard strips to form a body. Some of the strips are held with sheet rock screws; the body will be built with these screws in place, which later can be used to remove the body to fix the internals if needed.

I used hot glue (I love hot glue), with clothes pins holding things in place while the glue hardens.

As I tested the ghost I decided that the arms/shoulders were to narrow, so I rebuilt the mechanism so the shoulders were outside, not inside the mounts. This again demonstrates how easy it is to modify or fix the wood block/dowel construction.

Once the body was formed I used strip mache to cover the form using Stolloween's mix. Now I have tried several mache mixes, and I like Stolloween's the best. Once I had the strip mache on I decided to use more of Stolloween's techniques pulp mache to add some dimension in the form of ribs. In case you haven't seen his mache work, you have got to check it out.

Next I added cardboard cutouts to form the elbows. I did this by slowly adding cardboard, running the ghost to make sure none of the parts hit, and trimming where necessary for looks and movement. When this was finished I used strip mache to cover the elbows.

I also made a 'neck'

You don't have the worry about the slots at the top of the arms, they will be covered with cheese cloth later. Next I add some more Stolloween mache pulp to the arms to give them some texture. I really exaggerated the features so they might be visible through the cheese cloth. In addition I filled in the eyes with mache pulp and carved out vertical slits for the hot glue later.

Next came a good coat of flat black latex, followed by polyurethane.

To make the LED eyes, I first made a cardboard piece to hold the leds and secured it in place temporarily. Then I temporarily attached a couple of AA batters to an LED, position the LED so it was shining through the eye hole clearly and secured it with some hot glue.

Once both LEDs were in place, I pulled out the LEDs and wired them with a 270 ohm resistor so I could attach them to the 12v motor power source. This is then glued back in place, making sure the LEDs shine throught the holes in the eyes. The final step is to fill the eye slits with hot glue.

Then it was finally time for the cheese cloth. First I used the dunk and squeeze method to apply a double layer of cheese cloth to the ribs, then a single layer of dunk and squeeze for the rest of the ghost. I try to leave gaps, and to mix small and larger size pieces of cheese cloth.

A quick test of the eyes, and it's time to assemble everything.

I tried something different this time, another idea from Stolloween in which I took several pictures during the assembly and turned them into a short video. Each piece was tested fitted, including running the ghost to make sure no parts hit, then securing each piece with a small drop of hot glue so it can be disassembled later if needed. Additional peice of cheese cloth were added to cover the gaps in between the form peices, and to add to add some peices hanging down. This was down by holding the chees cloth in place and 'gluing' it with soe fabric stiffener and a small brush.

Building Wallbreaker Forms

2010-08-30T00:34:00.001-04:00

This post will describe how I built the forms for the wallbreaker. This approach will support cheesecloth in a way that will keep it away from all the strings and moving parts. You can either use this approach or use it as a basis for your own.

Building the forms
I have made some templates you can download and use to create the cardboard pieces used in the following steps, available here. These do not have to be perfect, in fact these forms give you a starting point which will be trimmed at least once while you fit the forms to the wallbreaker and test run the motor to make sure everything clears. I used corrugated cardboard,to follow these steps you will need to cut out the number of forms specified below for each step. I also use a hot glue gun to fasten all the pieces.

Chest

Cut out the templates for the chest as shown above. The form is built using hot glue as shown in the following pictures.

The completed form is pushed onto block #19 as shown below. Run the ghost and make sure the dowels turning the head move in the slots without hitting the form. You may also need to trim away part of one of the C3 pieces so the head is able to turn freely back and forth.

Shoulders

Cut out and assemble the shoulder forms as shown in the following pictures. The dimensions for the large piece of cardboard are provided in the templates you can download above. Cut out the piece of cardboard, then cut slots at the shown intervals. Cut out 1 S1 and 2 S2's. S1 is glued along the middle of the large cardboard peice, with the slots sticking out to either side. Glue S1 so the short side is next to the thinner slots.

Once S1 is glued onto the shoulders, position the two S2 pieces as shown below, sliding them down over the dowels.

Next, place the shoulder assembly onto block #12 and attach it with a screw.

Now use hot glue to attach the flaps to the S2 pieces as shown below. I like to use small pieces of masking tape to hold things in place for the couple of minutes it takes for the hot glue to harden.

You will likely need to cut some out of the S2 peices where strings need to go. Make sure to check al strings, and run the ghost to make sure everything clears.

Lower Arms

I use cardboard tubes left over from paper towels to build the arm forms. Cut out 4 of the IR2 forms, cutting the slot as shown in 2 of the 4 pieces. Cut out 2 LR2 pieces. Cut a paper towel tube in half lengthwise. You should end up with pieces as shown below.

Glue the IR2 with a notch 2-3" in from one end, and the one without a notch in about the middle. Glue the IR2 piece onto one of the center blocks at the elbow (block #8 or #9, see below). Note that I cut off one of the tabs sticking out, and I positioned LR2 so it would not hit the lower arm dowel as it moved.

The form will sit on the lower arm, with the IR2 piece with the notch down by the hand, and the other end sitting on the LR2 piece at the elbow (see below).

With the form cut, it needs to be trimmed to fit. Position the form so it sits on top of the arm or slightly out by pushing the IR2 with the slot down over the lower arm dowel, then mark and cut a notch by the elbow that will allow the upper arm dowel to move up into the notch. When you see the video later, you will see how the upper arm will move into this notch when the lower arm is pulled up, and how the form will slide out onto LR2 when the lower arm is lowered, but not slide off. For now, make sure the notch is just wide enough so the dowel can slide up into the notch without getting stuck (see below)

Trim enough from the form by the hand so the hand can hang freely, and the hand does not hit the form when the ghost is in motion.

Upper Arm

The last form is the upper arm. I also made this using paper towel cardboard tubes. Hold the tube up and cut the tube a little more than the length you think you will need. Cut one for each side.

Cut each tube once lengthwise so it can be opened up. Cut out 2 each of forms UR1 and UR2, and glue these into the open tubes as shown below. Make sure UR1 and UR2 are mounted in different directions for watch arm (see below)

These forms snap onto the upper arm, with UR2 above UR1. Trim the cardboard tube up to the edge of UR2, this gap will provide room for the moving dowels at the top of the arm.

Trim the bottom so it does not hit the lower arm or form while the ghost is in motion. You can see the forms all mounted on the wall breaker below.

The next step is up to you, what do you want you ghost to look like? Just try to keep it light. For the original Wallbreaker I used black broad cloth (cheap at WalMart) and cut pieces that would drape nicely over the forms.

Next, remove the forms from the wallbreaker so you do not get glue or anything else in the lines. I used an Elmer's glue/water mix, dunked the broadcloth in it, squeezed it out and then applied to the forms. Hold the form up so it is oriented like it will be on the ghost, and apply the glue/water/broad cloth over the form, introducing wrinkles, etc if you like. The end result may look something below.

Next I used cheese cloth treated in RIT or whitening detergent, and fabric stiffener to add cheese cloth to the forms. This is a good time to start adding texture or accents using the cheese cloth. The result when shown in black light for my ghost is shown below.

The final step (if you like) is to add some more cheese cloth to fill the voids. Initially I draped some cheese cloth over the forms, but I did not like it (see below) and I decided not to go with this approach.

The next approach I used was to cut some pieces if cheese cloth that could fill some of the voids, and use small dabs of Elmer's glue to secure the cheese cloth in place. The result this looked like that below.

The video showing all of this in action can be viewed below

hands, head and forms

2010-08-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

Once the mechanism is built it needs to be covered so it looks like a ghost. This blog entry will cover prepping the head and hands, and getting the first layer of cheese cloth on. The next entry will cover building the forms for arms and torso.

I have been building hands using newspaper and masking tape to build a simple form, then applying paper mache over the form. I use my own hand as a model, then exaggerate the length of the fingers. You don't have to be too picky about the result in terms of texture and form, i.e. if the knuckles are a little big, or if a finger is a little crooked, or the finish isn't completely smooth you likely will not notice. The hands (and all the forms being built for the ghost) will be painted black and covered with cheese cloth. Only the cheese cloth will be visible when the ghost is in operation in the UV light, so that and not the forms are the focus for the final appearance.

I ball up some newspaper for knuckles, then role the knuckles in some masking tape to make the fingers. After making the fingers, I taped these to a piece of cardboard cut to the size of the desired hand (minus the fingers), then tape some additional small newspaper roles along the back to form the hand bones. For the leer ghost I bent the hands to cup them some and give them a 3 dimensional look, and curled the fingers slightly. Finally apply a couple of layers of paper mache, giving the hands a final forming to get the look you want.

While the hands are drying I got started on the head. I used a block with a 23/64" hole (that is 1/64" larger than a 3/8" hole, perfect for holding a 3/8" dowel) inside the skull, then used a scrap 3/8" dowel inserted in the block to hold it tight against the inside of the foam skull. Hot glue is then dripped in between the foam skull and the block. This will provide a good way to mount the skull on the ghost. The final step for preparing the head consisted simply of spray painting the foam skull flat black.

I have found 2 basic approaches to applying the cheese cloth with the cloth stiffener. The first approach consists of dipping the cheese cloth in the stiffener, squeezing out the excess, CAREFULLY spreading the cheese cloth out and applying to the form. The stiffener should be the consistency of milk, add a little water to get the consistency right. I cut several pieces of cheese cloth about 3" square to 4" square. Any smaller and the cheese tends to fall apart while you are trying to spread it out after dipping into the stiffener. Any bigger and it will be too big for the head or hands. The result of this approach is rather ragged looking, with the weave getting spread out, and strands rolling up. The result contains voids and what looks like veins. I like to use this as a first layer. Additional layers added later will build on this using a different technique.

With the eyes shaped by the cheese cloth, the next step was to add the LED eyes. I simply solder a couple of ultra bright 10mm LEDs together in parallel, along with enough wire to reach from the head to where the motor will be. For now I attached a 2 AA battery holder on the other end to power the LEDS temporarily. The LEDs are inserted into holes in the skull, and once in position hot glue is carefully added to the eye sockets. This will hold the LEDs in place, and diffuse the directional light from the ultra bright LEDs. If you make a mistake, adding a little more hot glue will re-melt the hot glue it touches, allowing you to adjust the eyes somewhat.

The hands are sealed with polyurethane, then cheese cloth is applied. I used the same technique of dipping 3-4" squares of cheese cloth, squeezing out the excess, spreading out and applying. In the case of the hands I purposely left some of the cheese cloth rolled up to simulate veins on the backs of the hands.

As a test run I mounted the hands and head on the mechanism. A picture and video of the result is shown below.

Leer Ghost Rebuild

2010-08-01T02:28:00.000-04:00

Okay, I lied. It's almost August, and I need to get busy building things for this Halloween, so I decided to put the Ghost Reader plans on the back shelf for now since it involved a lot of new things that might not work. I am finally rebuilding my Leer Ghost. This was my favorite last year, at least one TOTer never made it to the front door under this thing and instead when screaming across the front yard. I loved the idea, but the movements were limited and I was not happy with the straight lines and visible dowels.

The plan is to use what I learned from the wallbreaker, and this time make the mechanism less complicated, more reliable, able to handle heavier ghost parts, and easier to reproduce. I also want it to look much better, more like a ghost and less like moving sticks. It always starts with sketching out the basic movements

First step is to rebuild the mechanism. It will use the trusty vent motor, and I will try to round off the measurements and use only 3/8" dowels.

Since I have the jigs for making the wallbreaker parts, I will use blocks with the same dimensions as the wallbreaker. The leer ghost will have a single axis around which the head (neck) and arms (shoulders) will rotate. The leer ghost will use 5 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" by 1" blocks with a 3/8" hole in the center and in one side. Thats a lot simpler than the wallbreaker. There will also be 2 blocks (same size) that will have the 3/8" in the center, and 3/8" holes in opposing sides at 20 degree offset.

The leer ghost will have upper and lower arms that move independently, and the head will swing down to leer at TOTers standing underneath it.

Once all the parts attached, the leer ghost is painted flat black and is attached so it is in the corrcct position and the spiderwire is added. In the leer ghost, each line only goes through a single eyebolt, and the result is the motor works a lot less so I should be able to have heavier limbs and other ghostly attachments than I did with the wallbreaker. I ran it for several hours today, no problem.

I am reusing the head from the original leer ghost, and I am borrowing the hands from the wallbreaker. I will be making new hands for the leer ghost, that will be covered in the next entry, along with building the forms to cover the mechanism (and hide the dowels)

The final result works quite well as can be seen in the video below. I also try to show how the various movements work.

Wallbreaker howto update

2010-07-24T22:39:00.004-04:00

Quick update on the wallbreaker. First, I was having trouble with the line sticking to the eyebolts using monofilament. Several people suggested I try spiderwire, so I picked some 20lb spiderwire twine, and it worked great. Nice smooth motion, no need to apply oil (though there was probably some residual on the eyebolts). I ran it for 9 hours Friday without a hitch, this is the verion built for the how-to using the A/C vent motor.

Thanks to building 3 kits today, and feedback from Erebus over at HauntForum, the how-to has been updated with several fixes and improvements, including the use of pulleys for the torso movement. If you plan on using it I suggest you dowload the latest, which is always available on the top right of this blog.

Below is a quick video of the wallbreaker built with the how-to (minus the hands and foam skull), including the pulleys on the torso movement.

Ghost Reader 1

2010-07-19T11:42:00.013-04:00

I plan on remaking the ghost reader prop for the Haunt Forum technical challenge. I cannot win a prize, and I don't expect to compete with the prop controllers and servos sure to be entered, but I thought it would be a lot of fun to extend on what can be done with a single small gear motor.

The original ghost reader can be seen below. It uses a Boris talk through skull hacked with a computer speaker, and a wood frame covered with chicken wire to support the cheese cloth. A wiper motor swings the porch swing.

I think I have the movement figured out. Using an A/C vent motor will give me 4 RPM, or 15 second cycles. The idea is to have the ghost look at the left page for 7.5 seconds, look at the right page for 7.5 seconds, look up and left while the left arm reaches over to the top right of the book for 7.5 seconds, and finally look right and up while the arm returns to its position at the upper left of the book for 7.5 seconds.

For the arm movement I am going to try attaching one end of the arm to a pivot, with a plate moving back and forth to give the arm the reaching motion. The figure below shows the arm movement from the top, and from the back. Notice how as the plate approaches the center, the distance from the pivot to the plate shortens, causing the end of the arm (the hand) to raise up some as it swings past the center. You may need to click on the image for the animation to work.

The second part of the movement was to figure out how to move the arm every other cycle. I came up with the contraption pictured below which will hopefully work.

More to come....

Howto is finally done!

2010-07-11T23:45:00.004-04:00

I have posted the how-to for the wallbreaker mechnism. It took way longer than I thought it would, but I wanted to do it right.

Wallbreaker How To

I have done my best getting everything right, but if you find problems or have questions please post them here.

Now I can get onto my next project. I will rebuild either the leer ghost or the ghost reader for the next hauntproject contest. I cannot win, but it will still be fun to enter. I will update here with my progress.

Detailed directions on the way

2010-05-04T21:51:00.006-04:00

I have been building a second 'HJ Wallbreaker' and have been creating detailed directions. They will come in 2 parts, part one will provide all of the dimensions to prepare all of the dowels and wood, and part 2 will describe how to assemble them. I am taking requests for kits that would provide all wood and dowels cut, marked and drilled, along with eye hooks and line needed to assemble a wall breaker mechanism. Let me know if you are interested.

If you have not already done so, please consider voting for me in the HauntForum 2010 $20 prop contest!

2010-03-21T21:29:00.003-04:00

Click Here for Detailed How-to

This blog entry describes the construction of my wall breaker ghost. It is a cheese cloth ghost with 7 movements controlled by a single salvaged reindeer motor. The following videos show the ghost in action in UV and LED spot lights:

Moving Form
Form Construction. The moving form is centered on an A/C gear motor salvaged from an animated reindeer. The motor is mounted on a small piece of plywood using the screws that originally mounted a control arm to the motor. Then the plywood was framed with some scrap 2x4’s, this adds support and also provides a convenient place to attach the eye hooks that feed off the motor. EVERY line that comes off the motor FIRST goes through one of the eyes hooks in the 2x4s that encircle the motor, as seen below. I drilled several small holes around the edge of a 3/8” washer, filed off any sharp edges from the drilling, and then put the washer on the end of the control arm of the deer motor. The washer is held in place with a cotter pin (i.e. a piece of paper clip through the hole with the ends bent up).

Next step was to add all the moving parts. The key was to do it one movement at a time, using small eye hooks to guide fishing line back to the deer motor. Each movement was designed so that gravity would pull it one way, and the string attached to the motor will pull it the other way. All of the moving joints are simply scrap pieces of 2x4 with a hole drilled through it that will hold the dowel in place and allow it spin. All none moving joints are holes drilled in a 2x4 scrap, and the dowels glued in the hole. The whole process was very similar to building things with tinker toys (if you happen to remember those). When routing the fishing line from the motor to the movement, try to place eye hooks at points where you have a moving joint, this will keep the movement of one part from affecting another. For example, you will see a lot of eye hooks at the main torso joint, which the first moving point you get to from the motor.

Torso: this was the easiest movement, but it also takes most of the weight. I had to cut the original one out and redo it later in the project. Be careful that the moving dowel fits snuggly but still moves, I drilled it exactly 3/8” (for a 3/8” dowel), then used sand paper in the hole until the dowel fit just right. I also did not glue this dowel into place, making it easier to take apart if needed. A dowel coming out of the bottom of the torso joint controls the leaning in and out motion. In the picture below you will see where the lines comes from the motor, through an eye hook then back to an eye hook attached to this dowel. You will also see how I added a scrap 2x4 to support the torso joint at the bottom.

Head Up/Down: The second movement I built. I modified this later to add a turning head as seen in the image below, but the turning head did not change the way the head up/down works. The original head up/down is shown in the video below. A block mounted A line from the motor, through an eye hook at the torso joint will pull on the lever in the back, causing the head (which will eventually be mounted on the larger piece of 2x4 at the front of this movement) to go up. Notice how the head will only go down so far before it gets stopped by the shoulder (the next movement added)

The following video shows the torso lean and head up and down movement. You should note the single eye hook on the side of the torso joint, the guides the line for the head up/down.

Shoulders: Next I mounted the shoulders and upper arms. The supports for the shoulders (collar bones?) come off each side of the block at the top of the torso. The end of the collar bones have a block glued to them that holds a dowel that points down and forward from the shoulder. A line that is routed from the motor, through eyehooks at the torso joint, head joint, shoulder joint, then through this control arm will pull the upper arm up when the line tightens.

This video shows the form with the shoulder movement added. You start to notice the movement getting a little jerky, this is the first sign the first torso joint I made was too lose. The blocks half way along the collar bones are just temporary repairs as I adjusted the angle of the control arm that pulls the upper arms up. Once I had this right I replace with new dowels. One note, it is very simple to modify this type of form construction, simply cut off the old dowel flush with the block, re-drill the hole you want then remount the dowel.

Lower Arms: The lower arms are similar to the upper arms; a block is added to the end of the upper arm with a control arm that will hold a line that raises the lower arm when tightened. The cardboard you see is from a later step where I used card board to cover some of the dowels before applying the black cloth.

The following video shows the form with the lower arms added.

Head Turning.

Later in the build when I was ready to add black cloth to the forms, it was suggested that I make the head turn. I barely had enough in the budget to do this. So I did. I replaced the block that held the ‘neck’ with a slightly large piece I could drill a 3/8” hole in. The ‘neck’ sits in this hole, held in place by a 3/8 washer. A small hole was drilled in the dowel for a piece of paper clip to act as another kotter pin to hold the washer in place. Then an inverted T was added under the neck, and new eyebolts and line added that would move the head back and forth. This was the most complicated movement to add, requiring several tried and eye bolts to get it right.

A video later shows the head turning back and forth.

Head and Hands.

The head form was made with tape and newspaper. I initially made the head with a very large chin which I later cut off. Once the form was complete I used black cloth dipped in an elmer’s glue and water mix to ‘mache’ the head. As I have described earlier I find this technique and excellent way to build forms for cheese cloth ghosts. Once the cloth had dried, I cut up and removed the news paper from inside, then added a couple of cardboard braces. Once I had a good idea of my budget, I found I had enough to add some hot glue led eyes. I made the eyes in the form deep, cut a small hole in the back of them, and then hot glued a pair of green ultra bright LEDs so the light would shoot out of the eyes. I then filled the eye sockets with hot glue. It took 1 small stick to do the whole thing. A few feet of cheap telephone wire was run from the eyes to a 2 AA battery holder I could attach to the base. Instant glowing green eyes!

The hands were formed out with cardboard, newspaper and tape, and then covered in black cloth/Elmer’s glue/water. I used my own hands for dimensions, making the fingers longer. I added a small notch at the end of the arms, and a hole at the base of each hand. The hands hang freely from the ends of the arms.

The following video shows the ghost in action with the head and hands added. It also has the initial forms for the arms and shoulders.

Black cloth and cheese cloth.

I made some simple cardboard form that could be attached to the dowels for the arms, back and chest area. I learned when making the Leer ghost that something needed to be added to the dowels where the cheese cloth would be draped, so this is my first attempt at using black cloth mache to do so. I added black cloth/Elmer’s glue/water to these forms. Once they were dried I put everything back together and trimmed where necessary so the pieces would not rub together.

Next I added the cheese cloth. The cheese cloth was soaked in ½ cup Purex laundry soap and water, the wrung out and hung to dry. This was done working with small pieces on the head and hands (about 3” square works best). I dumped half a bottle of Stiffen in a tuperwear container and thinned it a little with water. The cheese cloth is applied by dipping it in the Stiffen, squeezing out the excess, the carefully spreading it the piece back out and placing on the black cloth form. This causes all sorts of interesting patterns in the cheese cloth. I kept a container of water I could dip my fingers in occasionally when they got too sticky. For the larger forms I would use some 8” by 8” pieces of cheese cloth first, then follow up with the smaller 3” square pieces. This technique is described in past posts on this blog.

Next I added some cardboard to the back the form so the cheese cloth would not be straight and square where it appears to attach to the wall. I lightly spray painted the form with flat black spray paint. I had to restring everything after paint got on the fishing line. The final step was to drape the remaining cheese cloth over the form completing the appearance of a ghost.

Another Ghost Head

2010-02-14T19:59:00.000-05:00

Just finished the latest ghost head. For this one I built a form out of black cloth soaked in elmers glue and water, using a k-mart skull for the head and newspaper/packing tape for the bust. The great thing about this is that the result is pitch black in the black light, and even in the visible light it is almost impossible to see. Then I used the cloth stiffener and cheese cloth by dipping small pieces in the stiffener and then placing on the form. A small brush helps position the cheese cloth, and I tried to leave some cracks and voids, and allow the cheese cloth to role up some when placing it.

As you can see above, even in visible light you can barely make out the black cloth form.

It even looks decent in normal light.

In black light all of the irregularities really stand out.

2009-11-26T21:43:00.000-05:00

How to build a cheese cloth ghost sculpt.

Materials:

Go by Michaels and pick up some Stiffy( http://www.plaidonline.com/productDetail.asp?itemID=1550 ).
I get cheese cloth in the package at WallMart or Home Depot.
RIT brightner and whitener (http://www.ritdye.com/Fabric+Treatments.28.51.7.48.lasso?-session=thisSession:442A35C21b7e1339E7qQKg18D56F). I find mine at Publix.
Something to use as a form for the head; I use the plastic skulls that were available at Kmart last year.
Release agent, I use motor oil.
3/8” and 1/8” wooden dowels, scrap wood
Flat black spray paint.
Newspaper and duct tape.

I can provide the basic directions I follow, a lot of the technique is in how you form the cheese cloth as you apply the Stiffy. I suggest you experiment with different techniques and find what works for you. For example you can dip the cheese cloth in the Stiffy, wring it out then apply. You can also place the cheese cloth then paint the stiffy on with a brush.

Mix the RIT in some water, soak the cheese cloth for a while, then remove and let dry.

Rub some motor oil on the skull, making sure to remove any excess. Use the Stiffy and cheese cloth to cast the skull. I will cast the front of the skull, let that dry and remove it. Then I will cast the rear of the skull so it will overlap the front section some. Once both are finished I glue them together with Elmer’s glue.

Build a frame with the wooden dowels that will support the skull at the top, sides, back, nose and jaw. Ignore the wire in the frame picture below, that was an idea that did not work.

If you want to build a bust, form some shoulders dowels, newspaper and duct tape. Paint it flat black. When the frame is done, form the neck and shoulders with more Stiffy and cheese cloth.

Then attach the head to the frame with elmer’s glue. I use black cardboard behind the eyes and nose so they will be black in the UV light.

2009-11-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

More work on the ghost heads. I have made small frames with wooden dowels that make them easy to work on, and they do a great job of supporting the cheesecloth, and should provide an easy way to connect the heads to whatever, or hang them up. Here's a pic. I will have to take some pics of the supports to, they are very simple to make.

I tried hot glue and an ultra bright LED for a potential eye, and I liked the effect. I think I have figured out how to add these as eyes for the ghost head. Once that is done I am thinking about rebuilding my original FCG with before and after pictures, hopefully there will be a very noticable difference.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-10T21:32:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures from Halloween 2009. First is a picture of my new internal crank ghost. An old reindeer motor moves the arms and head, and a wiper motor raises and lowers the entire ghost. Gives a nice random affect. Video of the ghost in action is here

Next is my Leer Ghost. An automobile mirror motor raises and lowers the head and arms, making it appear to leer down at trick-or-treaters standing at my front door. I will be build a new one for next year, there are several improvements that can be made, but this is not bad for a first try. I plan on posting a how to when I build the next one. Video is here

This is a picture of the house where you can see all the ghosts.

Welcome to Johnnys Ghost Blog

2009-11-07T21:49:00.000-05:00

I am a home haunter, which means I have the house all decked out for Halloween. I started focusing on a new theme this year, ghosts, and now I have decided to stay with that theme and see how far I can take cheese cloth and black lights.

I have to give credit to Phantasmechanics for the original Flying Crank Ghost (http://www.phantasmechanics.com/), and for me at least the idea of making a moving ghost out of cheese cloth and sticking it under a black light. My original FCG has served me well for 4 Halloweens, but now it is time for something more. I will post ideas, experiments and ghosts here as I go along. Blogging is new for me, so the ghosts will not be the only things learning as they go along.

First experiment, forming cheese clothe using paper mache glue, while retaining that nice blue glow in a black light. I used a life size plastic skull I picked up at K-Mart last year (thanks to Dr. Morbius for letting me know about deal on these at K-Mart) as a base, then layered cheese cloth on the skull and applied paper mache glue (mix of elmers and water). I tried applying polyeurathane to the first one, and it really degraded the black light effect. The second one, without any polyeurathane is show to the left. I would like to extend this idea to include a textured hood, along with some reenforcement inside so these could be used as the head in ghost props.