... and now for something completely different

Constantin

Vampire Pig
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May 19, 2017
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... warning, this is quite off-topic. :)

We've had some free time on our hands and due to a family health emergency I never got to put on a proper Halloween display as normal last year.

So we built a thank you for all the care givers, essential front-line staff, vaccine researchers, and ordinary folk following sound medical advice.

Today it was quite windy and the conduit holding up the Corona virus actually buckled.

Good news, the ghost survived its fall and I have some shorter conduit around that hopefully won't be as likely to fail.
 

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Apollo

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Nice.
Your avatar, now, makes a lot of sense.
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
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May 19, 2017
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It's a lot of fun. The Vampire Pig was our first DIY project about 9 years ago. Vampire Pig now greets visitors in the lobby at work.

If there is interest, I can post some pics of the other projects.
 

Redcoat

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Constantin

Vampire Pig
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P1030282.JPG
Pig.jpg


The Vampire Pig. My first go at it before I discovered the joy of primer. So much paint!

To this day you can still read the newsprint. The Beware sign was my first and only foray into trying to use glue made of flour. It was such a smashing success (that sign was supposed to become a wing for the pig) that I never used flour-based glue again. These days, it's a 50/50 mix of elmers regular glue and water.

I'll upload the next set later. It's a bit time intensive to find the old stuff.
P1030249.JPG
 
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Samuel Tai

Never underestimate your own stupidity
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That looks like an overized piñata! It's amazing!
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
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Next Year we built a Calimari being taken for a walk by a french fry. The eyeball trees came from the school where I started collaborating with the funhouse.
 

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Constantin

Vampire Pig
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The next year we built a Chinese dragon. I’ll try to add some night-time pics later. The day after Halloween, we had a neck failure.
 

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Tigersharke

BOfH in User's clothing
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IMHO, what is crazy is that you may be one of the few who is using a gradeschool craft (we know we all did some Papier-mâché at some point) for some amazing decorations. the rest of us likely never even considered it (forgot all about it?) and usually buy such things.
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
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May 19, 2017
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The year after that we built a space turkey along with a UFO. What can’t be seen in the pics is how I used a teensy LC to create a rotating full rainbow chaser around the perimeter of the UFO.

the arms for the turkey were recycled from the calimari.
 

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Constantin

Vampire Pig
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The year after that we built a 17’ diameter Ferris wheel. The eye of sauron went to the funhouse and some other creatures came back with it.

The wheel rotated thanks to the use of a 1” diameter polished bar along with 8 bearings. A drum captured the conduit that made up the wheel. No kids were sent up though, just Halloween creatures.
 

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Constantin

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The year after that I made a carnivorous star-mouthed mole for the funhouse.

At home, we likely built my favorite creature thus far, the spider crab. It had a 20’ open span underneath.

thanks to the usual October rains I was so pressed for time that the crab was still wet got the touch when the first trick or treaters rolled in.

the crab ended up being quite sturdy. I didn’t take it down until February.
 

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Constantin

Vampire Pig
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Messages
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The next year after that we went for a Australian theme. A drop bear, a saltie, and a rainbow serpent were constructed. The saltie went to the funhouse and came back, the drop bear and the rainbow serpent were painted on the day of Halloween.

thankfully no one was around when the drop bear suffered a undercarriage failure followed by a face plant. I eventually lashed it to the house until I could dismantle it.

the saltie came to work with me and now awaits restoration in my office. Note the reuse of the hands from the mole for the drop bear. The ears were a total loss but I was able to salvage the mouth, eyes.
 

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Constantin

Vampire Pig
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Last October was hard. I didn’t get to spend anytime at home so the only part of the kraken I finished was the tip of the tail (in September)

fellow funhousers came to my rescue with donated content that we supplemented with painted cutouts.

the compound curves for the kraken tail were some of the most challenging work so far.
 

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Apollo

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Lots of imagination and great execution in the forms and colors.
Is this hobby of yours something you do for a living or is this just a side hobby?
 

Constantin

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May 19, 2017
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It’s all for fun.

I’m a consultant by day, with a usual focus on the marginal cost of energy efficiency (EE), potential impacts on OEMs due to higher EE standards, etc.
 
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Constantin

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Ok time for some more pics from the COVID project. Also, I didn’t realize that the fiber reinforced tape I use to secure metal joints does not like heat. The glue turns to jelly so all stressed joints let go. So it only lasted two months. Thankfully, it’s cooler now.
 

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Constantin

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Now Halloween work is on the menu. Working to build a frilly lizard.

I’m abusing two old hose cart wheel assemblies to make the thing portable. Neck is self-supporting though I worry I may exceed allowable limits in a wind storm. The whole thing got knocked over once already.

most worrisome is the joint between the head and the neck as that’s a single 2x4 holding the head in place. I put some massive GRK Deck screws through that joint along with Polyurethane glue. Wish me luck!

left are all the nubs on the back, neck, etc along with the frilly ears, a prime, a paint, etc. and yes, I was lazy and made use of the tail from last year, along with the claws from 2018. The rear claw still needs to be attached and repaired.
 

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