Update: First Tombstones

So in my uber procrastinating form, I took my day off today to work all of 30 minutes on my tombstone project. I have two stones in the works at the moment. One is my very first stone, that is my Southern Vampire character "Bill Compton" tribute. My original vision is different than what I actually have now. It is a very basic stone with the Death Head on top and simply stating "William Thomas Compton    1840-186blah".

 I hand-carved the name and letters with a box cutter style knife. It being my first ever attempt I see every single screw up with the lettering. Also the numbers proved to be extra difficult for me. I used a "crack in the stone" to help hide my major screw up with the death date. I decided on this stone not to monster mud it, only because a) the drill I have is not powerful enough to mix it and b) I expect to redo this stone next year to match my original vision for it.
For Father's Day this year my wife and kiddos got me a "Wagner Project Sprayer" as a gift:

                                    

So today gave me the prime opportunity to try it out. I loaded up some black latex paint and sprayed a base coat on the stone.                                        

 

This weekend, since I have a 3 day weekend, we'll finish this stone up. (I know I say that now, but I plan on it this time.)

My second stone is in honor of our good friend Annie in Colorado. My wife has a theory as to why I am doing this stone... you see Annie and I had a huge falling out a few weeks ago over the difference between a scone and a beignet... (actually it was because of the way I pointed this difference out, but that's another story)... my wife says that this stone is as close to an apology as she will ever get from me... she's probably right... so Annie likes cats so I wanted to try a technique out that I've seen on bunches of stones... so after I cut the shape of the stone, I took out the dremel tool and carved this into it:

                              

I used the router attachment and a router bit. I think it turned out well. Then I decided that since I already had the dremel tool out, why not use it to carve the name and epitaph. So this is what I came up with:

                                          

In case the picture isn't clear it says, "Annie M  Loving wife of Brian A Voorhies 1878 - "  I didn't do the base coat today because I still have some detailing I want to do. Hopefully that will be done before the weekend and I will also finish this one. (I am still debating on whether to Monster Mud it or not...)

I have enough foam for about three or four more stones, and enough pink foam for an obelisk. We'll see if i am ambitious enough for that. More to follow, but until then....

Happy Haunting!!!!

~Bill

Seriously...WTF???

Fellow haunters...have you ever stumbled across a prop that made you shake your head and say "WTF were they thinking??" I just did....

Is it me or does the wolf appear to be humping the dead guy? This one is courtesy of K-mart's "Totally Ghoul" line. I can only imagine the snickers this prop would cause. Anyway, today's plans are working on the tombstones. I have two carved and ready for finishing. Off we go to Home Depot for supplies... Updates to follow ...

Happy Haunting !!!!

~ Bill

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A HAUNTAHOLIC WHEN ...

• you're pestered all year by kids who want to know what the theme for THIS year is.
• you find yourself thinking that one corpse is more attractive than another.
• you get more excited over a fog machine than a dirty movie.
• you have more help at your haunt than necessary for an old-fashioned barn raising.
• you have more than ten sound effect CD's.
• you have names for the skeletons in your closet.
• you play spooky music all year round.
• you spend more on one Halloween than on your spouse's birthday, Christmas or anniversary.
• you try to make Fido look like a hellhound every Halloween.
• your neighbors avoid you a full month before Halloween.
• your garage, basement and attic contain nothing but Halloween props.
• the only candelabra you own is in a spider web motif.
• there is a monster under your bed because your attic/basement/garage is full.
• your electric bill higher in October than in December.
• the family dog ignores masked individuals breaking into your house.
• instead of giving your child a cat or dog, you give them a gargoyle to play with.
• the guy at the paint counter at the hardware store sees you coming and starts stacking gallon cans of flat black on the counter.
• you go to "Goth Night" at a local club, armed with a pocketful of "volunteer recruitment" flyers.
• you can't watch a horror movie without jotting down ideas every two minutes.
• you're nervous about taking rolls of film in to be developed, for fear the police might show up at your house looking for the corpses.
• you have a room in your house reserved for special props/projects, and won't allow anyone in there because it'll "spoil the Halloween surprise!"
• people refuse to walk into your house at night.
• people refuse to walk into your house in broad daylight!
• you have a customized license plate that has something to do with Halloween.
• you start actually setting up your yard haunt in August...
• you judge homes by how well a haunt could be set up in them.
• your toddler's first words are "TRICK OR TREAT!"
• it's not uncommon to see a "Barbie" doll hanging in a noose in you're daughters room.
• your teenager wants his/her "own" coffin....

I found this a few years ago and copied it to a word doc... I don't remember where I found this or who wrote this, but it made me chuckle. I came across it while cleaning some files and thought I'd share it...

Happy Haunting!!!!
~Bill

Ghosts at Ft. Barrancas

So my 9 year old son, Gavin, has this desire to be like Zak Bagans from Ghost Adventures. About a month ago we were on the Pensacola Naval Air Station walking around Ft. Barrancas (for info on Ft barrancas go here ) As we normally do we allowed Gavin to have the camera. He's already caught moving orbs at the Pensacola Lighthouse so we figured what the hell... well, we were walking around and we came to the beginning of a corrider. Gavin started his usual banter of calling the ghosts out ala Zak and he just started snapping pictures....

Well, if you look down the corrider, you can see the figure of a person. We've blown the picture up several times and you can actually see a facial expression. We believe it was a soldier but we're not sure. Anyway, I know this wasn't related to home haunting or Halloween, but I wanted to share this pic...

Happy Haunting!!!

~ Bill

Family involvement

So the whole family gets involved with my halloween obsession. I guess they really have no choice, but I like to pretend that they actually like it as much as I do. Well, one of my girls, Vivianna (Vivi for short), has been working on her paper mache pumpkins. Instead of making it already "carved" with a face, she made it like a real pumpkin and I suppose as an after thought decided she would carve the face in it using a dremal tool....

So there she is... I'll post a finished pic later. She has really started to show her creative side. I suppose a normal adult might be a little disturbed with some of her "art" but I think it is cool... she used some old doll heads to make ....

Maybe she'll open her own e-bay store or something...whatever she does though I think we'll keep encouraging her creativity....
Happy Haunting!!!
~ Bill

My first Tombstone

I have made real progress on my first tombstone tonight. Those of you that know me also know that I have ADD. At times I can be what my wife calls me as "being shiny". My attention span can sometimes be that of a 9 year old and it gets worse when I'm tired or really stressed out. again those of you that know me also know that with my job I am working a crazy amount of hours and I am stressed most of the day. (Being a Plant Manager of a production facility means I am constantly fixing one problem after another.... but if it was easy they wouldn't need me.) So with that said, a few days ago Gavin and I started on this project. We measured and cut two equal pieces of styrofoam and I cut two slots in the back of one and placed pvc pipe (so I can slide the stone onto rebar for support.) I then glued them together with foam adhesive. Tonight, with me being hopped up on sinus meds I decided to cut the shape out. I made a template (I cheated... I have heard most people use photoshop or such to enlarge the template but I couldn't figure out how to print something as large as a tombstone so i just used Excel.) Here's a pick of me using the template to cut the shape.....

So I cut the shape out. I then used an electric sander to sand the sides down evenly and refine the shape a bit. I then decided that I wanted to have a base for the stone to sit on so I used some of the left over foam and made one. Here is a pic of that....

Notice that it is leaning. I've decided that since I am a Southern Vampire fan (actually my wife is...I just like True Blood) I am going to make this Bill Compton's grave stone. Since he "died" in 1868, I figured the stone will have settled by now and it being "crooked" just makes it more realistic. Tomorrow I plan on working on the engraving. I have an idea I'm gonna try using spray paint to "carve" the letters so it looks like they have faded with time. If it works I'll take pictures and describe what I am tried.

Well, that's all for tonight.. Time to go sleep, 3:30am comes awefully quick.

Happy Haunting!!!!

~Bill

Book Review - How to Build a Corpse by Di Stefano Productions

Sometime last September I was browsing a forum somewhere and there was a post about this website that had pictures of a baby with a corpse. So being the ever curious one that I am I immediately searched for it and found the website Corpses for Sale. As I looked around the site I remember thinking, "These are some realistic looking corpses if I ever have seen some."
On the site there isn't much about the author/corpse maker and at the time of my site viewing the site hadn't been updated since 2007. So in April of this year I sent an e-mail to the site asking if the book they offered was still available. I received a prompt reply that it in fact was still available. So my wife (the ever trooper that she is) sent the $24.45 ($19.95 + $4.50 p&h). A few days later, I received the book. As you can see from the picture, the book is put together a lot like Steve Hickman's series is. The book appears to be produced either from a home printer or at a Kinko's or store like that. My assumption is that these are word documents that have been printed and comb bound (like you would use one of these for http://www.binding.com/catalog.aspx?catid=plasticcombpunching ) The formatting does look good and the pictures in the book are clear. I would have prefered the pictures to have been color though. Now for my disclaimer: I have not tried any of the instructions in this book yet. With that said, it is definitely on my list of "when I have the time to do this I will". The book is divided in several "chapters" and they give clear and concise instructions on what to do. the author appears to have researched how the body looks and decays very extensively. The techniques in this book are unlike any of the other online instructions that I have seen for "corpsing" techniques. Some basic techniques for body casting are also included in the book. At the end of the book, there is a list of suppliers for some of the materials needed. I figured that if I followed the directions in the book exactly, I can build a very realistic looking corpse for about $60 out of pocket...
So the question... is this a must have item? No, not in my opinion. The corpsing techniques that you can find online for free will suffice for most. I do feel that for under $25 this was a good buy for me. I do, however recommend this for anyone that wants to bring the "realism" factor up a notch (or several) in their corpses.
Happy Haunting!!!
~Bill