Work Weekend

We spent all weekend working on Abbey panels.  On Saturday we finished texturing all the panels and on Sunday we painted them black front and back.

 

We also tore apart the donation box and rebuilt it to be sturdier and came up with a different concept than the mud guys holding it.  We placed it on an evil tree stump.

Mud-o-Vision upgrade

We are going to put a LCD panel into our old Mud-o-Vision prop so we can display color and to upgrade the electronics.   We pulled the old BW TV out of his head and began the process of building a new housing for the LCD panel.

This is Mud-o-Vision with his head blown apart.

New Idea

When we make foam panels stone walls we use a little rubber cement and the debris from texturing to cover the plastic washers we use to hold the foam to the frame.  We normally have to glue these a couple of times to get it to blend in.

This time we tried using a circle of foam cut from 1" foam and then cut in half so it was 1/2" and glued it with gorilla glue to the plastic washer.  We first sink the washer a little deeper so the foam disc can sink in.  Then we texture it and heat gun it and it blends right in and much better looking than the rubber cement and debris technique.

That could have gone better

We were going to dismantle the structure for the Abbey today.  We planned on taking it down piece by piece and labeling it all so it could be painted next weekend.  We started at one end and took out a couple of screws and backed off the end.  Once we did that the structure started to lean and then it fell in on itself crashing to the ground as we watched in shock.  No one was hurt and it only broke a rose bush branch and tore part of a canopy.   The pictures say it all.  At least it was down but not how we planned it.

Another Tombstone Workshop Success

We had some great students at our last Tombstone Workshop.  We did something a little different and did a stacked foam books and skull with candle project for those that didn't want to do a Tombstone.  It made for a busy workshop doing both and a large number of people but we had a great time and I think the students did too.

Afternoon Graduating Class

Morning Graduating Class

This is why we test fit

Abbey Work Weekend progress

We worked on the Abbey panels all weekend.  Got them all drawn and a lot of them routered and quite a few textured and ready for paint.  

New Foam texturing technique

For some of the larger stones of the abbey where we wanted them to be smoother but be pitted.  We found the perfect tool.