# Grim Grinning Ghosts



## Caustic (Oct 16, 2012)

On kind of a Haunted Mansion kick and inspired by others who have already created their own home GGG projects, I decided to build my own.






Here's a tutorial on how I did it:

1. First I built the base, minus the head. I followed basically the exact tutorial provided by the excellent and talented Halloween resource, Stolloween. The base is composed of a couple of CD cases, an empty food can, and some cardboard. Instead of proceeding with Stolloween's head design, I just planned on using styrofoam heads. Here's the base prior to assembly:










2. Then I mounted Styrofoam heads on the base. A wooden dowel connects the base to the head for added reinforcement. I added fast-drying Crayola modeling clay over the mouth and eyes to smooth out the face a bit and to create more of a semi-flat surface to project onto.










3. Using the same Crayola modeling clay, I sculpted hair and sideburns. I wasn't following any particular design, just making it up as I went along. Everybody has a receding hairline to maximize the projection surface . I also added a bit of cardboard detail to the chest area with ties and lapels:


----------



## Caustic (Oct 16, 2012)

4. Then I paper mache'd the hell out of it all, using a mixture of about 3 to 1 of generic school glue to water:










5. Painted with a coat of white latex paint. I put on a couple of coats to make it nice and thick to hide the imperfections. I then sprayed it with a glosscoat to protect it further - although in retrospect I probably didn't need to bother with the glosscoat.










I bought some plaster-cast columns from the local hobby store. They were initially yellow, so I painted them the same color white. The columns are about 12 inches tall. All together the busts + columns come out to about 2 feet tall each.

6. I also built a platform with adjustable feet. I'll be projecting in my front yard on a slightly uneven surface, so the adjustable feet will make sure I keep a level head(s).










7. I burned a video from a youtube video that I converted to .avi format. The video is the same four heads version that seems to be commonly used. The video is unfortunately super low-res at 240p. Would be great if somebody had a higher-res version to share (hint, hint).

I project from about 4 feet away using a decent projector - audio and video is provided by a cheap DVD player and a pair of computer speakers. I draped the platform in black felt, simultaneously concealing the speakers below and in front of the GGG's. I cast a blue spotlight on the base of the statues to light them up a bit and to provide some contrast.

8. And done! A pretty simple project that really only took about 6 hours total to build.


----------



## fwghost (Sep 30, 2013)

Well I'm impressed. Well done.


----------



## BillyVanpire (Apr 22, 2015)

nicely done,

here's a 4 head 480p version with music






and a 3 head version without music..acapella


----------



## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

Impressive work with the papier-mâché. Fantastic!!


----------



## Lambo (Aug 14, 2013)

Wow. Very cool. I'll have to try this one.


----------

