The Prop Shop

The Afterlife on Reverbnation

2012-01-18T18:45:00.000-08:00

The Afterlife.flv

2011-12-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2011 Indoor

2011-11-03T19:08:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics of the indoor set I built for the halloween party. Link to Halloween Party Pics

London , Whitechapel , Anno 1888

2011-10-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

The murder scene is finished. I can't give away any information regarding the setup . The reason for that is because we're having a party next week. The town is ready to go and here's a spoiler pic of one of the wall partitions. Of course , I modified it to keep it somewhat exciting. The real pics will be posted after the party , as well as some how-to's of the build. The scene is a mixture of

Slow moving !

2011-06-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Haven't done much lately for the Halloween party. My vacation is coming up so it will be July before there will be more updates on "the town". In the meantime , I hope you all enjoy the rest of my blog ...for those who haven't scrolled through the whole thing.

The town Day 2

2011-04-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

Tried some different things but I still have to make up my mind what exactly I want to accomplish. I made the archway that leads from the main street of the village to an alley way. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I'll have to think about it for a couple of days. These wall panels are the same as the ones I used last year for the Egyptian Hieroglyphic walls. This year I painted the back side

The town Day 1

2011-04-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

Started building the town for this year's party. So far I got the skeleton wall partitions up and some cardboard for the facades. I'm still trying to decide how to paint the facades. I'd like to reuse some partitions next year .

Halloween 2011

2011-04-21T05:49:00.000-07:00

Finally getting some stuff done. I'm building the " set " for this year's halloween party. This year's theme will be detectives/crime scenes. The set will be 19th century London , Jack the Ripper style . The framework is finished and ready for cardboard and styrofoam panels. Still need to decide what colors we'll be using for the facades. Stay tuned...

Dead...

2011-03-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot going on at the prop shop. Have been busy doing other stuff , non-halloween. I can't believe I haven't been around since Jan 1st. Anyway , I'm still around and hopefully some new updates soon.

Happy New year !

2011-01-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. Now it's time to start planning the setup for the 2011 Halloween party. More to come...

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T05:58:00.001-08:00

A happy Thanksgiving to everyone !

Pumpkin monster

2010-11-17T05:43:00.000-08:00

We decided to get rid of the old pumpkin monster and make a new one. The old one was made out of pvc pipe , covered in newspaper . He served us well for the last couple of years. The new one will be made out of electrical conduit ( metal ) to make him last longer. To be continued....

Styrofoam cutter

2010-11-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

I finally finished modifying my circle styrofoam cutter. I decided not to use the motor to spin my pieces of styrofoam. Instead I'm gonna use a 3" nail as my center point. I also added a spring to the hot wire to keep the tension on the wire when it's hot. The wire tends to loosen up when it's hot.

It's over.

2010-11-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

Another Halloween has gone by. We closed up shop last night at 8:30pm. Not very many ToT's out on the streets , probably because it was Sunday night. We are ready for next year's theme , which will be "detectives". We'll be building crime scenes , alley ways and dead people. It will a little gorey which is usually not up my alley. We're not making a horror movie here. I'm more interested in

Halloween party

2010-10-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

The party yesterday was a success. We're fortunate that we have such great friends and I feel that my work is appreciated. If it wasn't for the guests , the party would be dull... So , thanks to everyone who was able to make it . I was also VERY surprised that a lot of people showed up in costumes that matched the theme ! WOW ! That gives me even more courage to outdo ourselves next year.

Hieroglyphs II

2010-10-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Finished the walls for our Egyptian theme this year. The partitions are made out of 3/4" styrofoam with the hieroglyphs burned in and then painted. Here are a couple of pics of the finished walls...

Hieroglyphs part 1

2010-09-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

For my party , I will need 9 wall partitions. I got white styrofoam panels ( 4x8) 3/4" thick. The reason for that is so I can reuse the panels next year using the back side. First ( and important ) thing to do is to take off the plastic layer of the styrofoam because it'll be hard to get the paint to stick on plastic and it's easier to burn graphics into the foam. I made

Hieroglyphic walls

2010-09-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

Work has started on the hieroglyphic walls for our indoor party. Every wall section will have a puzzle ( in hieroglyphs of course ) that will lead the guests from one section to another and eventually will reveal the Riddle of the Pharaoh. The wall sections are constructed out of styrofoam . The hieroglyphs will be burned into the styrofoam with a wood burner and then painted . More to come...

Hot wire automated styrofoam circle cutter.

2010-06-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a step-by-step to build your own automated stryrofoam circle cutter for dirt cheap. Mine was free since I had all the parts laying around the shop. The reason I made this cutter is because I need to cut round pieces of styrofoam that will be glued together to make large pillars. The automation part is just a windshield wiper motor that is hooked up to a computer power supply . The power

Mummies and deadies....

2010-06-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is almost a wrap. Still need to make one hand for one of the mummies .Another cheap and easy build. I guess we spent about $2 worth of lumber per mummy , the rest was free.Here's how they were made. The skulls were cast out of fiber insulation a couple of years ago. The fiber insulation can be bought at your local home improvement store. For a pic of the insulation , check my gargoyle post.I

Old stuff

2010-05-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a step-by-step for making a five foot gargoyle out of paper , pvc pipe and some plastic bottles. I built this prop last year .

It's a wrap !

2010-05-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

Finished the Anubis statues today. They look like they're worth something !

Anubis update May 22 , 2010

2010-05-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

We finished the paper mache on the Anubis Statues.Thanks to my lovely wife who gave me a hand to mache the second statue ,we got that one done in a matter of hours.Next step is glueing on some saw dust.Then it's ready for painting.I have some sand color concrete paint that I can use to spray the statues , so it'll only take me a half hour or less to paint them .Then I need to dry brush them with

Started the papier mache...

2010-05-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

A couple more Anubis pics

2010-05-18T11:14:00.000-07:00