Thanks guys  
 
@ Tony - if I had my way I would leave it up all year round too  
 
heres my masks -
 
I actually did the Hockey Mask last year - it started as just a plain white mask . I notched it and then painted / weathered it . I still want to replace the stretchy straps with some actual real leather straps ...
 

 
heres the hood - I bought it last year and modified it to make it fit better and be more comfortable . I had to make the eyes bigger and completely cut out what was there in the nose and mouth areas . It looks really goofy on me without the hockey mask   With the hocky mask on it doesn't matter though and it is wayyyy more comfortable and I can actually breath  
 
I decided the hood needed more work this year - I just finished customizing the paint , added more detail and shading . I also had to change the overall paint color to match the rest of my costume pieces ...
 


 
heres the mask and hood togeather :



it looks better on Halloween because I put black arround my eyes  

still quite a bit more work to do as I piece everything togeather but at least I have most of the main components done  

James, the mask and hood are awesome mate, very realIstic  
Not long to go, Halloween's getting near

Thanks Andy  
 
yep , Halloween is nearly here   As usual I seem to have more projects planned than I will have enough time to do  

This is my most recently completed project -
 
here are before and after pics of a prop head I bought to use on my Leatherface dummy :
 

 
The head actually looked okay under my Leatherface mask but not quite good enough . I added eyes and the fake teeth , did a little latex buildup around the eyes and a little paint and shading ...
 
I could have done more but since most of the face is covered by the Leatherface mask anyway , it was passable for now . Here it is with the mask on ...
 


I had actually bought the cheap Leatherface mask and customized it already last year to make it look decent  

James, the finished piece looks great there mate, you have done a classic movie proud  

 I'm really enjoying following your progress Jim, your attention to detail and make up effects are brilliant, you have a real artistic talent for all things horror and gore  thanks for taking the time to take pics of all your creations and for posting them up for us to see.
You should be doing this for a living on film sets mate, keep up the good work :grr:

Nico wrote:

James, the finished piece looks great there mate, you have done a classic movie proud  

 
 
Thanks Andy  
I love me some Texas Chainsaw  
 

chris.75 wrote:

I'm really enjoying following your progress Jim, your attention to detail and make up effects are brilliant, you have a real artistic talent for all things horror and gore  thanks for taking the time to take pics of all your creations and for posting them up for us to see.
You should be doing this for a living on film sets mate, keep up the good work

 
 
Thanks Chris  
 
I would love to do speacial effects for a living but I am pretty far from that level of skill - I still have alot to learn  
 
I haven't finished any more new props yet but I should have a couple more done in the next day or 2  
 
In the mean time here are a couple closeups of some older props that I don't think I have shown closely yet ...
 
This one hangs in my torture chamber until Halloween night when it is replaced with a "Live" victim . Just a combo of a couple cheap props - the skull is a cheap hollow plastic one that my wife covered with paper mache and I painted it ....

 
This is a cross I made out of 9 cheapo hollow plastic bones - I pieced it togeather and then glued/screwed it ...

 
closeups of my Buckethead head - it started as a plain white foam wig head ...

 
closeups of Zombie Baby ...


 
our owl we painted ... sorry , its a little on the cheesy side

still working on props but I finised a few  
 
I made these legs out of a pair of old boots and cut off jeans , inserted a couple cheapo hollow bones and filled the boots with "Great Stuff" (a foam insulation product) and then a little paint . I know the bones are not the correct ones for that part of the leg  - all I had on hand was a couple of femur bones (thighs) . I just turned them upside down and put them in the boots , I figured it was good enough for a Halloween prop and I doubt any kids will call me out on the improper anatomy  
 


 
Here are some ears and fingers that I plan to make necklaces out of and then give them to some of the kids on Halloween night . I thought it would be funny to ask the kids "do you watch the Walking Dead ? " - if the answer is yes they get a ear necklace (ala Darrel) if the answer is no I give them the finger necklace   
 
All I did to the fingers was repaint them but the ears got more work - they had crappy molded fake blood puddles arround them   I cut the fake blood part off and then stuffed the backs of them with papertowels and Latex , then repainted them to give a slightly more realistic gorey look ....
 




I am also just about done with my Jason costume and will get pics up in the next day or 2  

Nice work    those hacked off legs are cool. Be funny if some kid does call you out on those wrong bones though

Artoo_Detour wrote:

Nice work    those hacked off legs are cool. Be funny if some kid does call you out on those wrong bones though

 
 
Thanks Paul   Glad you like my legs  
 
yeah it would be my luck some little smart ass kid will come along and point out my anatomical errors  
 
well I finished my Jason costume finally  
 
I have shown alot of the seperate pieces but here it is all put togeather :
 





 
Overall I am pretty happy with it but it still needs improvement . I got a bit carried away cutting up the outer shirt and there are a few spots where the black T-shirt (that I glued the latex chest and back pieces to) shows . I don't have time to do another outer shirt now but I will do a different one next year   .
 
The gloves are something I haven't shown yet - I just finished them yesterday  
 
Happy Halloween Guys  
 

great pics and an awesome costume  

Awesome costume!

Hey James, I'm just wondering if you where able to make any little kids and adults pee their pants last night. 

Fantastic costume james, outstanding attention to detail there mate    

I still like your legs  

I somehow missed the last few days of this!

Fantastic Jason costume, James! WOW!
Such dedication to it!

I hope your Halloween wasn't cold and rainy like it was by me. I felt bad for the kids... actually, I didn't see many at all it was that crappy out.
Hope yours was a blast!

James I was also wondering how it went. I hope it was a great success.

That costume is BRILLIANT James!!! Having followed your progress, it's great to see you finally wearing it.  

I too can't wait to hear how the evening went.

Thanks Guys !!!!!!!!

It actually went very well - the weather was perfect and we estimate that we had at least 50 to 60 kids come trick or treating  

Yes - we did scare the crap out of most of them  

unfortunately (for me) there were alot more really young kids then it seemed in years past so I couldn't go full out on alot of the scares for the wee ones   The little ones are already scared enough by the decor and we had a few that were so scared they wouldn't come to the porch ... a couple even cried just looking from 40 feet away   .

One cool thing was that quite a few of the kids thought I was the real Jason  

My friend Curt wore my Myers costume again , Cecilia was in the Torture Chamber , my wife was Regan from the Exorcist again , our friend Joni was a Vampire and her son Bryan dressed in the Rooster suit from my avatar pic . He actually got alot of good scares because no one expected that prop to come to life  

I made a few last minute props that I will get pics posted later this weekend - I'll have my wife take some good pics before I start packing everything away .

All in all we had a great time and we gave alot of kids something they will remember for many years to come  

We actually even had quite a few repeat victims from years past that only came because they liked it so much last year - 2 little boys (I remembered from last year that were terrified the last time) made their parents bring them back this year - the parents said they had been talking about our house for a month in anticipation of returning and we were the only house that they wanted to come to  

I love Halloween and the speacial effects involved but the real reason I do it all is to try and bring the holiday back to what I remember from being a kid - if I can even make one kid love it as much as I do it is all woth the effort  

Happy Halloween Guys and thank you all for your kind words and support  

Sounds like a good success with 50 to 60 kids. Did you give out many of the neclaces that you had made? I cant say that I blame the kids for crying from across the street. I am a grown man and I think that zombie baby is frankly one of the freakiest things I have seen. Combine that with the rest and I would probably be across the street yelling for my kid to go ahead without me.  

trappedtexan wrote:

Sounds like a good success with 50 to 60 kids.  Did you give out many of the neclaces that you had made?  I cant say that I blame the kids for crying from across the street.  I am a grown man and I think that zombie baby is frankly one of the freakiest things I have seen.  Combine that with the rest and I would probably be across the street yelling for my kid to go ahead without me.  

 
 
 
 
Thanks Bryan  
 
yes , I gave away my ear and finger necklaces to the kids that seemed to really like Horror  
 
here's some more of my last minute props and/or parts of the display I never showed good pics of ...
 
Needed a corpse for my coffin so I made a quick Norma Bates prop (Psycho) ...


I didn't make Norma until the night before Halloween so she was fairly rough - she will be improved next year .
 
This next prop is a medical mannequin I picked up last year and planned to turn it in to a autopsy victim this year ... unfortunately I ran out of time and just set him out like this ...


 
Improved Vulture/Guts basket ...


 
Improved Freddie Area...



 
improved Finger Lamp ...


 
Improved Grill Area ...


 
Some severed heads that I detailed the paint more and also added much more realistic looking eyes...





The eyes are the same type as the ones I used on my Leatherface prop - they have pretty realistic looking pupils and irises but the white part is just too white . I didn't think to do more detailing on Leatherfaces eyes and didn't have time to redo them this year but all the others I just yellowed the whites up a little , painted bloodveins and added a heavy gloss to make them look wet

better pic of the legs I made ...


A baby doll my wife painted to make look like it is wearing a skeleton costume...



I put her doll with little Myers...

Julie also papermached the Myers "Escape Mask" from Rob Zombies remake of the original Halloween - it still needs a little more detail and paint but it is a pretty good start...


I also changed this part of my display a little...



well that pretty well covers everything I believe - I hope everyone enjoyed seeing the crap we made as much as I enjoyed showing it to you guys

   brilliant stuff. You and Julie have done a great job. I love the Freddy area with the stuffed bear and creepy doll. The severed suspended heads are so cool! I also like the medical mannequin - he kinda looks just cool as he is... like he'll look up any moment, get up, then start lumbering after you! And the vulture and eye is good too. The baby in the skelly decals is sweet and looks spot on with child Myers   Where the heck do you store all this stuff when it's not Halloween?!? Be cool if you could exhibit it all as part of some show/exhibition.

James why is it you don't run a haunted house? Some of your stuff looks better than some of the haunted houses that are in operation.   Enjoyed seeing the pics of your stuff, and that zombie baby in the swing is still the freaking scariest thing I have ever seen.

I'm loving the latest pictures James.  
(I trust you realise you've raised the bar for yourself for next year? But, I know you can meet the challenge!)
I think you should get a prize for 'most entertaining thread of the month'.

Thanks Guys !!!!!!!!!
 

Artoo_Detour wrote:

   brilliant stuff. You and Julie have done a great job. I love the Freddy area with the stuffed bear and creepy doll. The severed suspended heads are so cool! I also like the medical mannequin - he kinda looks just cool as he is... like he'll look up any moment, get up, then start lumbering after you! And the vulture and eye is good too. The baby in the skelly decals is sweet and looks spot on with child Myers   Where the heck do you store all this stuff when it's not Halloween?!? Be cool if you could exhibit it all as part of some show/exhibition.

 
 
The stuffed bear is a animated prop - when its triggered its head turns back and forth , the mouth opens and closes and he stabs himself in the chest over and over - all while playing a freaky little Rosemarys Baby / The Omen sounding song . This one was creepy enough when I bought it that I left it as is   
 
The greenish Zombie Baby is another bought prop I didn't do much to - just added a little blood , a finger to chew on , a real chain leash and I rigged his eyes with blue LED lights to make the glow at night ...
 
We have a nice elderly neighbor who lets us store our Halloween stuff in the loft of her garage -
Miss Mary ...

she's a bit of a Ham  
 
 

trappedtexan wrote:

James why is it you don't run a haunted house? Some of your stuff looks better than some of the haunted houses that are in operation.

 
 
We actually have been seriously considering renting or buying some old type of property for the last couple of years - it would be a dream come true for me   If I was able to leave stuff up year round and work on it constantly I could probably do a pretty decent Haunted House . I wouldn't be limited to the gore fest on my porch either - while I love the type of scene I created I can't really add non related stuff or it would start to look stupid   With a house setup I could have many other different scenes / horror genres represented  
 

cantina_patron wrote:

I'm loving the latest pictures James.  
(I trust you realise you've raised the bar for yourself for next year? But, I know you can meet the challenge!)
I think you should get a prize for 'most entertaining thread of the month'.

 
 
Thanks man - It makes me really happy to be able to entertain you guys  
 
Yep , the bar gets raised every year - I have a blast trying to come up with newer and better props and get to spend more time enhancing old ones too

Really enjoyed this thread James, you put a lot of work in, but defo worth it mate