# Cement Line Stanchions



## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Hello everyone- long time no post!

So our event is growing and we thought we should upgrade out facade and queue line area this year with some custom queue line stanchions!

Since these are to be outside we decided to make them out of cement so they would be durable, couldn't be knocked over or carried away.

I've made a lot of molds over the past few years but this is the first cement mold. After using the google-machine to figure out how its normally done- this is how I did it!

First the finished picture (and I apologize for the crappy low res pics in advance):










Now if that tombstone looks familiar, it's because it is. I modeled mine after a plastic Spirit Halloween tombstone for a couple reasons. First- its cool. Second- practically no undercuts to deal with.

So I made a sculpt out of 2" pink foam slabs.










This is where a hot wire table saw comes in real handy! Of course I didn't have one sooo I had to build one of those too! Joy!

After that is where I learned something everyone else probably already knows- pink foam sands down SUPER easily! I was totally amazed by how awesome it is to work with.

Anyway after a few hot wire cuts I just smoothed it out with this foam backed sand paper my wife had laying around.










Then I needed the decoration for the sides. I had a single plastic skull that I ground down to the profile I liked and the quickest way I could think to make a mold to pull plaster copies was a simple box mold with a latex inner mold supported by polyfoam backing. Bing Bang Boom- copies...










I glued them to the sides and hardcoated the whole thing with monster mud (latex paint and sheetrock mud and some latex caulk) to smooth and preserve the surface in case I want to make another mold later.










So that completes the sculpt part. Next is figuring out how to mold it!


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Obviously I'm moving quickly here but I will answer questions if you like.

So this whole thing is designed to be poured from the bottom... which means the mold must be hung upside down... not gonna happen with this shape unless some kind of rig is built.

The next pic shows the sculpt screwed to a wood plate that was PVC end caps bolted to the corners. These are to receive the PVC legs the will hold everything up when inverted. It will become clear a little later.

The pic also shows the first few layers of latex on the sculpt. I think I ended up with 8 brushed on layers and two-ish layers of cheese cloth reinforcement mixed in there. Now they make latex specifically for concrete molds, but I just used what I had- mask latex. It was a gamble, but it paid off and works GREAT! It took about 2 gallons of latex.










The cross part was tricky because of its shape, so I had to engage both brain cells! After the explosion I cut a thin piece of plastic sheet and caulked it onto the sculpt. I then formed more plastic into a funnel, glued it on and coated the hole thing in latex.

Later, after the fiberglass support mold was finished and removed, I slit the latex along the edge of the plastic, pealed the latex back and removed the plastic sheet. The plastic sheet was the "dam wall" you normally made out of clay. Maybe sounds crazy to do it this way, but trust me- it was the best way.




























Here is the body with all the latex layers complete and the clay dam wall attached in preparation for the fiberglass support mold.

You can see I filled in the eyes and smoothed the edges around the skulls with unrolled cotton balls and latex. This helps the latex hold its shape and I don't have to fiberglass down into the eye sockets which could cause binding, under cut issues or tearing. Basically the smoother the outside of the latex is against the fiberglass, the easier things are going to be to separate after a pour.


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Alrighty- heres the body after the fiberglass is laid but before the edges are trimmed. I think I laid 4 layers of glass with just regular poly-resin from Autozone. It probably took a gallon to do the whole thing.










And here it is with the support halves removed.










Alright I have to go do some work, but I will be back to post the rest later!


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## bobzilla (Nov 13, 2008)

Wow.....nice work!


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## elputas69 (Oct 27, 2014)

Awesome stuff and really detailed! Nothing more real than the real thing, eh?


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Thanks guys!

The love of spooky things and making stuff sure will drive you to some extremes! I almost didn't do it because it was a lot of work and what the heck am I going to do with a bunch of tombstones later down the road? Well as it turns out just about everyone that has seen them now wants one for their rose garden... freaks! lol.

So the next pic shows the latex inner being rolled up and off the sculpt and then an inside shot. It worked!



















One of the things I learned about latex molds is that they can take quite a while to fully cure and strengthen- like a week in warm temps or WEEKS in the cold like it was here when I made it! Just so happens I have a rather large oven... which no self respecting mad scientist would go without! So I baked it at 350 for 6 hours. The shop DID NOT smell like cookies....










If you are wondering- we use that oven to bake foam latex prosthetics. Normally I would never be able to own such a thing, being that they are around $3k new, but I just happened to pick it up at a surplus auction for $125 bones! Woot!

Next up- the rig to hang this beast.

So... FYI cement is heavy. Now I wanted it to be heavy, just not THAT heavy and I also wanted to make these with the minimum amount of materials to save production cost, so I built an inner plug so as to make the tombstones hollow. Again, I bashed my two brain cells together and BAM! - a wooden inner core with its own latex sleeve complete with strappy things to tie together to hold it up when inverted.

The next pic shows the wooden plate with the pour hole in the center, the legs, and the cavity plug without the mold. The cavity plug is removable and held in place with bolts/wingnuts.


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Ok, we're almost home!

Another thing I learned was formulas for relatively thin and delicate cement statuary casting. I was concerned about breakage so I found a recipe for concrete counter tops that seemed suitable and durable. Basically standard bagged cement (a certain brand), an admixture (fancy name for an additive that helps reduce water and promote higher strength), and fiberglass strands (a reinforcement).

I tried three kinds of bagged cement and liked standard Quickcrete brand the best. It just seemed to set faster with better strength. It takes 2.75 bags. I used Reiteks 7000 admixture and 3/4" fiberglass strands.

So here is the mold assembled and poured. I bought a Harbour Freight concrete vibrator to help settle and remove trapped air.










I let them set for 48 hours before demolding and they seem to be pretty firm. Some of the first few had some breaking on the cross piece because I didn't let them set long enough. I think it actually helps them look more aged and worn.

A fresh pull.










Has a few air pockets, which got less and less as I went, but I think it ads to the worn appearance.

Size reference










A close up of the detail capture


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

And finally the painting detail.

I was torn on how to paint these guys and the plain cement looked ok, but I felt it really needed a push.

I took the simple route and used rattle cans to base them, added some rattle can stone texture to some of them and then did a 3 color latex paint wash to add streaking and grunge.



















Well thats it- I'm now super officially strange for making real-ish tombstones!

Hope you enjoyed my travel to insanity!

-Rob


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

You came up with some beautiful stones and all it took was bashing two brain cells together

Seriously, these are gorgeous.


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## elputas69 (Oct 27, 2014)

wow!


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## Kennyw76 (Jan 30, 2015)

I like this a lot good job


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Thirty tombstones later and we are done! Man it seemed like forever, but only have one mold will do that! In the end the mold held up extremely well and could go another 30 pulls without a problem.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Man, I feel like such a slacker - 30 tombstones!


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Holy tombstones, that is awesome!!!


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