Volcano - If you build it, they will come.

[Devils Chariot]

Ever since the start of Haunted TIki Island we have pondered if we should have a volcano, and what it would look like and what it would do. Would it be a little cardboard cutout in the background, or just a paper mache mound in the middle of the yard? I drew out a little sketch this year, and I liked it it alot. What brought about this idea was that this year Patty (the Homeowner) said she wanted to include the porch this year. For the last two years, we had just haunted in the yard. That gave us more room to decorate, but made it so you had to walk in and walk out the same way which turned into a clusterf*ck. So this year you walk into the yard and then thru the flower patch and onto the porch. To span the flower patch we were going to build a bridge. Then we wanted to cover the porch for black light fun, then the walk way, and then the bridge, so this idea sprang from that.

So here is the sketch:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3549478590_cfbca1604b.jpg

So then I tried to make a real sketch, one to scale that I could use as plans. I used Google Sketchup to make my plans. It was great to visualize the the whole thing and it lets you put in measurements, so if you make your 2x4 2x4 and your plywood in 4x8 panels, they fit together like they would in real life.

With skin:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/3813415157_22a27f020c.jpg

Just the framework:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3462/3818128117_da9dec689a.jpg

All this is fine and good, but what are plans without actions but a fart in the wind?

Today.Is.The.Greatest.Day. I.Have.Ever.Known.:D

(dunh dunh!!!)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2544/3847224228_7ecee5eca0.jpg

Dang that's huge. It's hard to imagine 10 ft tall till you see it. Here is where the camera batteries died. I actually got it all the way to the stage you see in the google sketchup images #2.

Now this Genie is out of the bottle and can't be put back. Should be awesome X2!!!

More posts to follow till its done.

check out the Volcano - a set on Flickr:

[Mr_Chicken]

AWESOME!
So cool to see it finally coming together!

[The Watcher]

Great project DC. Can't wait for the night pictures of it live.

[ithurt]

SWEEEEEEETTTTT!
I love your whole set up and I spend alot of time checking out your pics

[billman]

Yeah Great Stuff!!

[steveshauntedyard]

Man that is going to be freaking cool!

[RoxyBlue]

I dunno, DC, the guy in the mouth of the volcano doesn't look at all like the one in the sketch:googly::p

That is going to be one impressive prop!

[Otaku]

Very nice! Now I see where those timers are going - that's gonna be impressive. The Fire Gods are restless on the Haunted Tiki Island!

[Wyatt Furr]

The Gods have been angered by all the celebrating...
Quick, throw a virgin into the volcano.
No virgins?
Toss a Hostess cupcake, I hear they like chocolate too.....
Great job so far, cant wait to see it done.

[waldiddy]

I love seeing the huge props you guys build and display on these boards, but how do you plan on storing it?

I can see this prop working as a background prop, but why a doorway? If you've got ToTs walking through the mouth, will that take away the illusion of a distant mountain?

I can't wait to see it finished. It looks great already!

[IMU]

WOW DC ... looks great so far!

[spideranne]

That is a great idea and it looks awesome. Thanks for posting the extra pics. The house has the same layout as mine with the walkway to the front door going up the side of the garage. I've thought of doing a tunnel to the door before, but never considered how that might impead traffic. I'll be looking forward to seeing this finished.

[Front Yard Fright]

Very nice! Can't wait to see it in it's final stages!
Keep us posted!
:).

[Terrormaster]

DC that is totally wicked dude! Looks like it's coming together real nice for ya! All you'll need when it's done are a few virgins (um yeah, good luck with that one hahaha) to please the tiki gods.

[fritz42_male]

I see you come from LA so no chance of finding any sacrificial virgins there then!


Nice prop!

[Kaoru]

Oh Wow thats coming along very nicely! Looking forward to the finished project. If you cant find virgins go for the innocent squirrels or rodents if you want! hehehehe!

[Devils Chariot]

More progress!!!

We skinned the volcano this weekend. The face is made from white beaded styrofoam insulation board we broke up into small stone shapes. We attached them with alot of glue sticks maybe 150 of them! Then I used low-expanding foam around the bottom to fill the cracks and used great stuff as I got closer to the top to make more of a lava looking flow. The great stuff also acts as a glue to help hold on foam on the side panels which are flexible luan.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/3959829979_9bbfdee106.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3519/3960599196_1cc847ffdb.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/3959820233_8ce9d9db6d.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2640/3959819309_0734f8057d.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2425/3960589548_21b7f34bfb.jpg

I had to run off to Knott's Scary Farm a 1pm on sunday, and this is where I left it. Joe was going to hit it with some black vinyl paint using his airless sprayer on both sides, so it's waterproof.

Now that I look at it, I'll make the teeth bigger, and maybe the eyes.

Then next weekend I'll shot the lava around the top with some flourescent orange paint, edge the stone back with a brush, and then dry brush it. Then Kendra will add some ferns around the base and maybe some moss.

[Otaku]

Looking good, Craig! Can't wait to see the volcano in action!

[DeathTouch]

I want a Volcano!

[Spartan005]

that is just too cool. keep it up

[halloween71]

Your work is amazing!

[Ghoul Friday]

Looking good!

[Daphne]

That is incredible! WOW! I can NOT wait to see it finished, that is too cool.

I also want to know where you will store something that big?

FWIW, I saw a how-to somewhere on-line where they put flickering Christmas lights under great stuff to make it look like it glowed. That'd be cool for lava but I have no idea how you are supposed to get them out when one of the bulbs have to be replaced. I pull cotton balls out pretty thin and paint them black and drape them over the flicker lights from Party City for embers but don't know if that is helpful.

If you are taking requests for sacrifices to throw in, I would also like to vote for squirrels as well as mosquitoes. There are jillions of both here, how many would you like?

[Bone Dancer]

I like the look of the foam board broken bits to make the rock surface. I need to make a fake wall and that will work just great. Good thing you dont charge for all your great ideas.

[Devils Chariot]

I also want to know where you will store something that big?




If no one buys it after halloween or I can't donate it to a charity haunt or something, I'm just gonna chuck it. Yes, I am just gonna throw it away.:zombie:

[Devils Chariot]

I like the look of the foam board broken bits to make the rock surface. I need to make a fake wall and that will work just great. Good thing you dont charge for all your great ideas.


Right back atcha!

[The Watcher]

That thing is really looking good.

[The Bloodshed Brothers]

impressive!

[Mr_Chicken]

DUDE! That's AWESOME!
Looks even better than your sketches!

[IMU]

Doing a great job DC ... keep up the great work! :)

[JohnnyL]

Awesome job! Very original as well. Can't wait to see more.

[debbie5]

Is it going to have a foggger at the top to smoke? This is looking verrrrry cool.

[beelce]

LOVE IT DC !!! Fire that big b**ch up!!

[DarkLore]

lol Beelce...I'm wit u. Let's see that big SOB fired up....fog...fog...fog. Love the sketches.

[lwaldeck]

Very nice! As others have stated, can't wait to see this in action...

[Devils Chariot]

Is it going to have a foggger at the top to smoke? This is looking verrrrry cool.


we are trying to decide between a silk flame and fog, since the fan from a silk flame cant be used with fog, since it would blow all the fog away. Maybe a red light on a lite fx and fog would do, and little silk flames for the eyes. I'll have to suss it out and see which looks best at night.

[lewlew]

What about chilled fog piped in just over the doorway? The cooled fog goes down across the door (which would be a cool screen) while your fan mounted at the top blows your silk flames up. As long as the fog wasn't sucked up into the intake of your fan, you'd be OK.

[Devils Chariot]

To move abig flame i think there will be a lot of suction created on the back side of the fan. I think I'll just have to try both. It might look cool if the fog gets blasted into the sky by the fan. hmmmm :)

[RoxyBlue]

I'm starting to see why you only get 5 hours of sleep a night this time of year:)

[Devils Chariot]

I'm starting to see why you only get 5 hours of sleep a night this time of year:)

I've been catching up the last couple days. I took a day off work to relive some stress from my schedule.:googly:

[scareme]

I'm starting to see why you only get 5 hours of sleep a night this time of year:)

That was the exact thing I was thinking. It's hard to sleep with all this going on in your mind. Are you sure you have the same 24 hours in your day that I do? You get so much more done. Great job!

[Devils Chariot]

DC has no children and no friends, which offers him this chilling challenge - to get a life !!! bwa hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, of course, there's always my way.....

[RoxyBlue]

DC has no children and no friends,.....

What, not even imaginary ones?:googly:

[Devils Chariot]

ok I do have some imaginary children. in the cellar.

[beelce]

Hey DC...
I have been experimenting with the faux fire/fogger team, and I am really liking the effect. You are right about the fan blasting the fog straight up....it looks cool...err HOT. In fact, I have decided to add FBFF's ("fog blasting fire fans") to my "Gate of Death". The only problem is that the fog really does blast about 12' straight up, so I added extra spot lights that aim straight up past the top of the fog blast....works good, looks GOOD.

[Revenant]

Um... beelce... you DID shoot some pix/video of this experimentation, right?

Looks progressively more awesome, Craig. Keep updating!

[Devils Chariot]

I finished painting the volcano this last weekend: Did have time to st it up and test it, but it looks much scarier now. I mane the eyes more glaring and give it some bigger sharper teeth.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2540/3986252406_c7a70c4ece.jpg

Here is where I sprayed in the orange:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3533/4003382719_791c0a5ac7.jpg

Then Zac and tricia edge in the overspray with black:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2573/4003385083_ee8855260e.jpg

The we dry brushed in some gray to bring out the texture:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2521/4003381009_dc54e78f0c.jpg


I dont know if I'll have time to set it up this week, but its going up and staying up the weekend after that. I'll post some new pictures then.

[DeathTouch]

DC doesn't have any kids but he does has a sweat shop. Look at those people work. I wish I had a sweat shop. I have to send mine overseas.

Awesome work on that! I love it.

[Devils Chariot]

DC doesn't have any kids but he does has a sweat shop. Look at those people work. I wish I had a sweat shop. I have to send mine overseas.

Awesome work on that! I love it.



I was just thinking that when I posted this, that I do have a great crew. They call me "Prop Nazi" but they love it. I will have to make special presents for them this year. ( I make little things to keep them excited about haunting through out the year). Last year I made a dvd of the 2008 haunt and included a section with all the nice comments of the great haunters of haunt forum replying to my haunt pic thread. I know they have been watching it, because that section has "Halloween" by the misfits playing and I keep hearing them sing "I remember halloween".

[fick209]

Kids are going to LOVE it. Excellent job and keep up the good work.

[IMU]

Been following your blogs ... great work! I don't have much help building so I couldn't pull that amount of work off each year.

[Devils Chariot]

Last year everyone worked on their own props. They would get discouraged and quit the project or just be done with it. So this year I have been helping everyone with their props and morale has improved. And now I am getting more help with mine. Everyone is excited about the volcano, so that helps.

Now I am in the final stretch trying to finish all my props and I'm gonna finish in time but i ma gonna be so burnt out. I am tired everyday and don't sleep very well, but then its 5pm I start getting excited to work on my props when I get home.

I'll have to start in february next year to make time for sleeping and such in 2010.

[Devils Chariot]

Ok its done. and now cut up and thrown away. don't even ask. Time to move on.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2554/4079601474_17bee01c53.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2540/4075796615_9603dc3c0e.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2537/4076549784_16dbfe0462.jpg

Fogger is over heated in these lat two pics, but they are much clearer.

[beelce]

Super nice DC!! Love the look....

[ScreamingScarecrow]

Love the fog eyes!
Sorry to hear about Volcano's demise :(

[Devils Chariot]

Super nice DC!! Love the look....

Bummer the silk flame didn't work out. It was a time issue. It was good any way. The fog came out the eyes and kinda leaked thru the back making a fog wall.

[Devils Chariot]

Love the fog eyes!
Sorry to hear about Volcano's demise :(

i wasn't very storable. if you look you can see a seam between the middle and sides. That wasn't there when we first built it, but it broke so many times and got patched so many time by the time we could put it up (no thanks to high winds) it was pretty beat up. I think it was good, and people like to walk thru it/ were afraid to walk thru it.

Next year well have a similar fascade and it will be more durable thank to what we learned.

[Spooky1]

The volcano looked great DC. i'm sorry to hear it didn't survive for future Halloweens.

[nixie]

Amazing!

[The Watcher]

That came out nice. I know what you mean about the wind. It gave me sensor problems. It is a shame it broke on you.

[DeathTouch]

Oh Lord, that is Good! Do you think you could send your helpers over my to my house next year to help me?

[BackYardHaunter]

thats a really cool prop! i might just have to build my own

-BYH

[Devils Chariot]

thats a really cool prop! i might just have to build my own

-BYH

You must. the lord of darkness commands you. ( I just overheard him on the phone).

[Devils Chariot]

Oh Lord, that is Good! Do you think you could send your helpers over my to my house next year to help me?

no.

I need them for next year. With a whole new theme there is lots to do.

[BackYardHaunter]

whats his number? ill calll him up. lol yeah or something along these lines. like an arch over the door or something.

-BYH