# Our New Cemetary Towers



## Spider Rider (Nov 8, 2006)

We finally finished the towers I had half done last year. There were 3 little ghosts on an extended FCG mechanism that would rise from behind tombstones.


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## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

They look wickedly cool, nice job!


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## jackielantern (Aug 28, 2007)

OMG!!! Wonderful....looks like a picture from a movie set. (i'm so jealous)


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## Ghoul Friday (Oct 6, 2007)

Those are really great. They have an organic look to them.


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## meltdown211 (Aug 2, 2007)

*Holy Crap!!!*

Those look awesome! Did you create a how to? I would LOVE to make those for next Halloween!! SERIOUSLY...tell me how you did them.

Melty


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## Spider Rider (Nov 8, 2006)

These are lazy man columns. The frame is 1x2 and the base is a square of 2x6 wood. I covered the skeleton with insulation board. I can't get the good pink board here in Sacramento. It's foil covered on the outside and kind of crumbly. I glued the insulation onto the frame and peeled off the outer foil. Then using a putty knife to cover it with joint compound (monster mud) in arcs to give some texture. I chipped out notches in the corners to look like chipped stone using the putty knife. A base coat of grey latex, a second coat of darker grey using the rag off technique to make it splotchy and then flat charcoal black the edges and where it would weather under the lamp and sign, I would rag off the black and also squirt water from a spray bottle to make runs like weathering and to blend the brushed edges. The moss I got at Party America cheap since she had rows of it and no one was buying. I used a spray adhesive and stuck it where I wanted. The top is open, covered with square grid chicken wire. This lets the green cfl bulb inside shine up on the gargoyle. The lamps I bought for a buck at a yard sale. I put flicker flame bulbs from Home Crepot in them. I will snap some pics of the frame tomorrow.


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## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

Those are some great looking cemetery towers!


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

very nice.


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## Spider Rider (Nov 8, 2006)

OOPS, I guess I should learn how to spell cemetery if I want to be a haunter. Thanks for the compliments everyone. Dave the Dead, my daughters' biggest dissapointment this year was that I never got around to building your Rising Spirits. We watched that video whenever we wanted to get in the halloween mood. Now to age the store bought tombstones and change the epitaphs. Every one of them says RIP


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## Ghostess (Aug 21, 2005)

That seriously does look like a movie set, kinda reminds me of The Haunted Mansion movie. Excellent work!!!


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

Wow, columns are on my todo list this year, and yours are giving me lots of ideas. Thanks for posting! Other pictures on your site are nice too!


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

Nice work


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## Seamus (Jul 29, 2006)

If these are your 'lazy man' towers, I would love to see what you accomplish when you try! Very nicely done.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Ditto. The whole haunt looks good, but those posts are just wicked awesome cool. Really look very very old. Great atmosphere.

Oooh hey... you wouldn't happen to have taken any video (or at least some stills) of your 3 little ghosts rising?

PS: To all other haunters that have kids... please include pics with the kids in them every year! It is so awesome to see "haunts past" photo collections that show the kids growing up in the haunt!


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## Spider Rider (Nov 8, 2006)

I added some more picture in the props how to, meltdown211. And yes I did take video of the little ghosts, revenant and will post a link once I buy a firewire and figure out how to upload to youtube. (my daughters will help me)


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## Amarande (Nov 4, 2007)

The atmosphere you have created is incredible


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## Mr Grimsley (Aug 23, 2009)

Spider Rider, I've said before how much I love your setup but this is the first time I've seen your rising ghosts in action! OMG! I have to do this! What a great (and different) use of an FCG mechinism! 

Thank you again for showing us all that! Again, sinply awsome!


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Wow, they look great.

I want to know your secret for taking such great photos. I agree with Ghostess, it looks like a movie set.


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## Spider Rider (Nov 8, 2006)

Thanks, a cemetery thread brought back from the dead :jol: I use Compact Flourescent bulbs (the swirly ice cream looking ones) in red, orange, green, blue and white. With a little white light in the scene I think it helps tie reality to fantasy. The lights are in reflector hoods that have squeeze clamps on them. I use a tripod or a chair back to keep the camera steady. These pics were taken late dusk, this keeps a little color in the sky and you can see more detail. If you take them at night things go completely black in the shadows. A good look for some pics but not how I did these. I try to bring texture out of the columns by having the light rake across. Try hand holding a light and moving it around side to side and up and down to see what looks good. Here's a pic of the spider where you can see 2 lights clamped to her leg.










Mr.Grimsley, I found out the hard way that "spiderwire" brand fishing line will either snap or the knots come undone. I ended up using regular fishin' line.


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## Creeper (Nov 7, 2008)

Your lighting effects along with those columns are just so darn cool. I'm taking my walk-thru haunt into the backyard for the first time this year and I only hope I can get half as cool a scene as that. Thanks for the posts and details with the how-to.


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## Tyler (Jul 17, 2008)

Wow, those are fantastic, Your lighting is afreakin'mazing!!


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