# New to the Haunt forum



## Conductor481 (Aug 12, 2014)

You can call me a Newbie to the haunt Forum, but an old master to the haunt. I have been doing haunted graveyards since I was 13 and have been doing them for that past 46 years. By Profession, I am a fabricator and exhibit tech for the Children's Museum of Houston and have been working there for 11 years after 26 years in the computer and electronics industries. I am the Haunt Master in my subdivision and people come by ever year to see what I have set up as I change the theme every year and always add new things each time. Every year I will add more Skeletons, tombstones and pumpkins and whatever I create that year. Most of my displays have been the classics based on 1930's to the 1960 Horror and Sci-fi , skeletons, skulls, bones, tombstones , crashed Flying Saucers and such, I don't go in for all the Gore that some like. I use fog machines and sound effects and lighting to highlight certain areas of my grave yards. This past year I have started adding animation to my static displays with a bookcase of skulls that follow the movement of people as the walked by. I got the idea from watching an episode of Dr Who. and it turned out very well. It was a simple design using one servo per shelf to move a rods that the 8 skulls on that shelf were connected to which were pivoted in their bases. The skulls were cheap plastic ones that I purchase at a local Dollar store. I also added several talking skeletons as well as one that played the dueling banjos that I purchased from Walgreens. The Highlight of the display was a Steam locomotive that had a 3 feet tall skeleton driving, with a 3ft tall skeleton on the pilot playing the banjo and a flat car with a coffin and two other 3 ft skeletons that talked to the visitors. I used a fog machine inside the boiler so the fog would come out of the smoke stack and also had an Mp3 player with steam engine sounds playing.

This year I hope to have a couple 5 Foot Skeletons with 3-axis movement of the heads and have them talk as well. More later.


----------



## scarycher (Aug 4, 2014)

Welcome  wish you were on here before I moved from Houston, would have loved to see your display


----------



## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

Welcome to the forum.


----------



## kauldron (Oct 17, 2011)

Welcome to HauntForum.


----------



## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)




----------



## Evil Queen (Mar 8, 2008)




----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Welcome to the forum, Conductor


----------



## Copchick (Apr 10, 2012)

Welcome! BTW, we LOVE pictures! Would love to see some of your displays you've done.


----------



## SPOOKY J (Nov 20, 2009)

Hello and Welcome!


----------



## MapThePlanet (Nov 12, 2010)

Welcome Aboard!! Sounds like you are off to a fantastic start!! And yes, What CopChick said!!


----------



## Conductor481 (Aug 12, 2014)

Well according to the rules I have to make 10 postings before I can post any pics to the haunt. I pulled some of my Halloween items down out of the attic today, so I can start working on animating at least one skeleton with a 3-axis skull and if I hear back from Halstaff at SOS, about availability of a couple of their boards, I hope to have it talk as well.
I tried to purchase a couple of the 3-axis skull base kits from Triaxiel, but their website does not list them, so looking at some photos of a 3-axis rig that someone else made I think I worked out the mechanism today at lunch and assembled it using a few 10-24 nuts and 10-24 x 2 1/2 screw, a small tie-rod end that has a hole just big enough for the 10-24 screw and three servo control horns. I'll cut the skull and make the mounting plate tomorrow of Thursday, so I should know if I am on the right track. I think I have come up with a method of moving the skeleton arms at the shoulder to be able to raise and lower them, but more on that later.

thanks for the welcome.


----------



## SHIVERS HAUNTED HOUSE (Aug 9, 2014)

New To Forum Just Wanted To Say Hello And Anyone From Tx


----------



## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Welcome to the forum! Seems you're far from a newbie. If you want to make posts quickly, go to the games section. You can knock out the required posts in a few seconds. Can't wait to see your prop pictures.



Conductor481 said:


> Well according to the rules I have to make 10 postings before I can post any pics to the haunt. I pulled some of my Halloween items down out of the attic today, so I can start working on animating at least one skeleton with a 3-axis skull and if I hear back from Halstaff at SOS, about availability of a couple of their boards, I hope to have it talk as well.
> I tried to purchase a couple of the 3-axis skull base kits from Triaxiel, but their website does not list them, so looking at some photos of a 3-axis rig that someone else made I think I worked out the mechanism today at lunch and assembled it using a few 10-24 nuts and 10-24 x 2 1/2 screw, a small tie-rod end that has a hole just big enough for the 10-24 screw and three servo control horns. I'll cut the skull and make the mounting plate tomorrow of Thursday, so I should know if I am on the right track. I think I have come up with a method of moving the skeleton arms at the shoulder to be able to raise and lower them, but more on that later.
> 
> thanks for the welcome.


----------



## Conductor481 (Aug 12, 2014)

Thanks for the welcome. I will post pics of my haunts as soon as I reach that 10 post mark. I have a question that I hope someone knows the answer for. I read on some post that the owner of Triaxiel skulls died. Is this true. I have been trying to purchase some of the 3-axis skull kits for use at the children's museum I work at for out Halloween exhibit. I am trying to animate the skeleton that plays the Pipe organ. I have also tried to contact Halstaff about getting one of his Frankenstein board to use to animate the head and make it talk, but I have not receive any reply to emails I sent through his home page. If it is true that Triaxiel is out of business, is there an alternative 3-axis unit available? Any help would be appericated. Dan S.


----------



## JesterLex (Jul 22, 2014)

Welcome fellow Texan! Can't wait to see your haunt!


----------



## Goblin (Jun 3, 2009)




----------

