# Articulated body form



## beelce

Articulated body form
Here I go again with a "how to follow along" which means I'll add to the thread as I progress with the form

This project was seeded by Systematic Chaos at this thread http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=14614










These are arms...upper arm, lower arm, and hand
After some quick calculations, I sized these arms to fit in the suit jacket










The hinge is 2 fence gate lock parts from Home Depot

















A few washers, a nut and bolt, and some treated 2"x2" pine










So far I have 2 hours in the project, and I am really surprised at how smooth the joints move and how well the stay where I pose them


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## beelce

My plan is to build an articulated human frame with off the shelf parts
In this case I went with the spring tension method to hold the joints stiff after posing the figure










I found this 3 piece suit, shirt, tie, and shoes at Goodwell ...$8.


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## beelce

Here is the spring tension set up....3 lock washers with flat washers on both sides


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## Sickie Ickie

Extremely clever!


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## beelce

Thanks Sickie.......here are some more










Got the legs made tonight.... and screwed on the shoes










Here is the shoulder set up.....the hanger came with the suit, and it holds the coat in a natural shoulder pose...I will bolt on the shoulder joints to it tomorrow.


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## Systematic Chaos

This is really great!!!! I can't wait to see more. Thanks a bunch!!!!


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## Sickie Ickie

Are you using 1 x 1's or 1 x 2's?

also, any chance on measurements?


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## dave the dead

Nice job Beelce! I like where this is heading.


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## RoxyBlue

This is going to be one snazzy looking dude when he's done.


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## turtle2778

Hey keep this coming!! Your doing a great job. Do you have a parts list and possibly a cost estimate for those parts?? Also how did you screw the shoes on? I can't wait to see this when its done.


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## pyro

im liking this


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## beelce

OK folk here is todays work...










Here is the finished torso...you can see the shoulder and hip joints...










I was shocked....he stood up the very first time I tried!










Posing is easy....If any joint is too tight or loose just need 2 wrenches to tweak them


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## beelce

He is about 6' tall....weighs about 25 lbs










If I could only get him to mow the yard while he sits on my tractor


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## beelce




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## Sickie Ickie

Awesome!


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## Mr_Chicken

Excellent work beelce, this is turning out better than I expected!
So do you loosen the joints, pose, and then tighten, or is it such that you can move them, but they still hold?
Think he's strong enough to hold a prop in his hand?


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## sharpobject

Very impressive. How much was the cost for the wood and hardware?


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## hpropman

Cool! he may need some filling out with pool noodles and such but nice progress.


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## ededdeddy

Man That thing is a great frame. Looks like I got an idea to steal.


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## Monstermaker

Excellent work Beelce......just plain excellent!


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## turtle2778

Awesome!!!


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## Ghoul Friday

Really great! I love how easy it is to change the poses. Smart work.


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## PerfessorEvil

Very nice... I need to make a bunch of these this year.


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## RoxyBlue

beelce said:


> If I could only get him to mow the yard while he sits on my tractor


Well, really, what can you expect? He's not dressed for yard work:googly:

Great work - he's going to be one wonderful prop, and very versatile - switch out a head, switch out an outfit - every year, he can be reborn as a new prop.


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## beelce

Roxy....no wonder, when I asked him to to mow he just responded with 1 finger


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## Mr_Chicken

beelce said:


> Roxy....no wonder, when I asked him to to mow he just responded with 1 finger


Wow, that _is_ an impressive prop, seeing as he doesn't have any!


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## Silent Requiem

i love this! how much did it cost to make, though?


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## beelce

thanks for the good words everyone!!!

Sickie...I used 2"x2" treated pine as the primary material, but also there is a few feet of 1" x 2" pine and 1" x 4" and 3/4" plywood...It took me 2 hours to figure out what parts to buy at Home Depot and 6 hours to design/build the standing form...I think the next one I build will take less than 3 hours

Turtle and Sharpobject and Silent Requiem...I spent about $60 on hardware (metal) and about $10 on wood and $8 on the clothes...so he is not cheap, but still well worth it for the long life this prop should enjoy

RoxyBlue...you hit the nail on the head...this guy is versatile to the max. He can pose new every year as well as becoming a new character every year










Mr. Chicken and Ghoul Friday....what I found is that he is extremely easy to pose...If I tighten the joints about 3/4 of the way, I can pose him repeatedly without re-adjusting the joints and he will stay right where I leave him. However the hip and knee joints do better if I tighten them 100% after he is posed.

Hpropman...filling him out with foam will be the next part of this project

By the way...the form looks just as good in an old prom dress that I picked up at Goodwill


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## beelce

Mr Chicken....I do think that he is strong enough to hold a prop or two....I'll try him out and post some new pics


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## Dr Morbius

I always miss the good threads..So, better late than never...
KICKASS!! I love the way you think. Terrific, terrific, terrific!


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## Daphne

I love it! That is too COOL! 

I have to steal this idea especially since I have most of that stuff already on hand! 

We had a live actor who bought me a duplicate of the mask he wore this last year. Putting it on a static prop will drive people nuts. They stood and watched the actor for ages waiting for him to move, this will be hilarious!! (especially if he helps again and runs out from behind something while they are waiting on the static prop to do something!!

Very very cool, you have the best ideas!!


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## RoxyBlue

beelce said:


> By the way...the form looks just as good in an old prom dress that I picked up at Goodwill


A cross dressing prop? Now THAT'S versatility!:googly:


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## Daphne

I would have put money on Sickie Ickie being the first to make the cross-dressing comment ha, ha. Way to beat him to it RoxyBlue!


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## Sickie Ickie

I thought I'd behave myself just this once.


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## lowdwnrob

Very cool prop. I see people throwing fence out or giving it away on craigslist from time to time. You might if you look hard enough find your hardware for free. My search starts today because I need a few of these. Do you have the dimensions for the boards?


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## Silent Requiem

i love this!


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## beelce

Nobody said anything about my body's poor little shoes. First they ended up screwed to the wrong feet, and second they may be snazzy, but they are too small for him....



















So today I found a nice big heavy pair at Goodwill to help him stand a bit more stable on his feet...

tomorrow, I'll add some plywood to the feet stumps and screw on the new shoes


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## beelce

WOW....I wish that I had found this biped calculater before I started my project...check it out it is way cool....
http://zombietronix.com/calculator_biped.php


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## Lilly

Very Cool B..
Did you treat the wood at all?
The possibilities will be endless with this one.
Hey, His shoes are on the wrong feet.LOL..maybe thats why he is standing so good. 
j/k
I may take a stab at this also I have a ton of washers and stuff . Just need those nifty hinge do jiggys
Great Job


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## Phil

Nice! Great thinking on the joints. What would you estimate his weight to be?
And why does he remind me of Elvis?


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## Daphne

Honestly, I was so blown away by how cool this is that I didn't pay much attention to his shoes but now that you mention it, hmmm.... they are on the wrong feet and a bit small. I did think it was interesting to have "blue suede shoes" on it too. I did think about Elvis for a sec too but then went back to just lovin the whole setup. It stands up so beautifully and it just doesn't look like it should.

The new shoes will work much better.


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## RoxyBlue

Daphne said:


> I would have put money on Sickie Ickie being the first to make the cross-dressing comment ha, ha. Way to beat him to it RoxyBlue!


LOL, Daphne, I guess I've been hanging around this forum too much

Maybe Sickie will say something about the small feet:googly:

Every time I look at this prop, I have to smile. He's great!


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## Sickie Ickie

I'm great? thanks! but what about the prop?


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## wandererrob

How simple yet so completely brilliant! 

This is one of those "duh, why didn't I ever think of that?" sort of props. Well done! 

I hope you won't mind if we all lovingly rip off your idea now.


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## RoxyBlue

Sickie Ickie said:


> I'm great? thanks! but what about the prop?


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## beelce

I found that my hinges needed another set screw to keep them from rotating out of square...
So I drilled a new hole, and zipped in another deck screw


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## beelce

Here are his new shoes and his shoe inserts (3/4" plywood)










Turtle....this is how you screw on a shoe...










With his new bigger heaver shoes, he is much more stable on his feet ...You can see that he has most of his weight on his right foot










All dressed up and no place to go...until October 31st.....Got a great compliment from the dog.... When she saw this guy standing out in the yard, she barked at him for 10 minutes, with the hair raised on the back of her neck. Then she came to find me so I could check out the intruder.










Just for fun....


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## Sickie Ickie

I'm thinking carriage bolts would help keep those hinges more secure. They have a square shaft directly under the head.


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## RoxyBlue

He's just fantastic, beelce! And I'm still laughing about the dog running to you to check out the intruder


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## Scary Godmother

Wow, Beelce, this is awesome. You should sell them! When I first saw this it reminded me of Pinocchio, them when I saw it with the suit on, I was reminded of David Byrne from the Talking Heads with the big suit on in the video, LOL.


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## Lilly

looks great...
I like the stance
nice touch up on the skull ..LOL

when did you get another dog?


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## beelce

She is a neighborhood dog Lilly....Very sweet and spends about 80% of her time here at my place. She hates the meter guy and the fed-ex people, but loves the kids and running through the woods.... She grew up here playing with old Jack....she helped me bury him, and she decided to stay near us. Her owners live 3 houses down from us, and that's where she eats everyday, but from sunrise till late at night she lives in our yard. Her name in Nala....a small mixed yellow Lab.


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## Lilly

Thats cool..
============
Are you using the clothes you have on your guy there ...
wasn't that your costume, for a party you went to?
It looks similar.


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## beelce

Here are some new pics.....










I picked up a thin long sleeve tee shirt and paints at Goodwill ($6)










I cut the jammies into arm and leg lengths. Using regular thumb tacks, I tacked one end to the frame. Then I used shipping peanuts to "sculpt" out the rough shape of the various muscles.










Now the clothes won't look so baggy










The cool thing about this technique is that I can add or subtract foam by popping out a few tacks making the adjustment and tacking it closed again. Also it is easy to move the foam around inside of the "bags" to make it look better.


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## RoxyBlue

That stance is so "Ninja Werewolf"

This guy just makes me smile (which is probably not the effect you were going for).


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## Bone Dancer

I just found this thread. That is an amazing bit of work. Not cheap, but built to last for a good number of seasons. And by the way, you do a great job with the photos also. Every thing easily seen with good close ups of the joints. Nicely done.


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## TERBobob

Although nice , AND expensive :eekin: ... little suggestion . That wood is gonna get wet , and STAY wet under those clothes and with that stuffing . You might want to paint/stain/varnish/seal your wood so there is no rot and not mold up and stink after you put it away for the next season , otherwise ... you might have to redo a lot due to mold and possible wood rot. 
Nice how-to , but my preference for builds will still be PVC and CPVC with sheeting for girth , due to its cheapness , flexablity and longevity and no rot/mold buildup


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## beelce

Thanks for the advice TB, but If you look, I used TREATED wood...This stuff will last continuously outdoors for 20 -30 years ....I bring my props in after the season is over, so they are not outside in the rain for more than 2 weeks, and they stay nice and dry in storage....I have used pvc and cpvc on my projects as well, they are easy to use and light weight, but they do not have the strength I need for some projects....For instance, My 10' tall REAPER (used 1" PVC) could not hold up his small faux flame cauldron for one night. The PVC just bent down under the weight. So I re-built him with 2"x2" treated wood, and he can hold anything I put in his arms for weeks if needed.
The articulated form in this thread can hold a real chainsaw, (if he is balanced correctly).
So for this type of project I will use the material I can rely on....wood


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## ithurt

very cool! man you ruined a good pair of Doc's


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## Indyandy

BeeIce, great project. When you make the next one, can you post a list of the measurements you use on the limbs? Thanks.


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## SpectreTTM

Hi there

1st I'd like to say Great prop. So many possibilities.
Thanks for sharing.

2nd I appologize if I missed this but what size Bolts did you use ?










They look like 5/16 x 3"


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## beelce

Indyandy...I just made my figure fit into the suit that I got at Goodwill....I think that everyone that builds this guy will want to use their own measurements...
take a look at this calculator....I'm sure that it will help you..
http://zombietronix.com/calculator_biped.php

SpectreTTM....I used 5/16th x 3 1/2", but if you look at my hinges you will see that 3" would have been better....I had to cut off all of those bolts that were much too long.


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## SpectreTTM

Thx beelce,

Here is a link people might find helpful.

http://www.boltdepot.com/product.aspx?cc=6&cs=7&cm=79&cd=78

I have bought many fastener's from this place they are great.

I'm not sure what Home Despot is selling the bolts for but this 
place has them for 0.19ppc in bulk + shipping of course.

I usually place an order for a few items at a time because the shipping 
averages out better that way.


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## whichypoo

I really like how this one is done


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## george_darkhill

going to buy parts for this right now


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## Deadrail

george_darkhill said:


> going to buy parts for this right now


Me too!


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## hubcapsally

beelce said:


> Here are his new shoes and his shoe inserts (3/4" plywood)
> 
> Turtle....this is how you screw on a shoe...
> 
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> 
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> 
> Just for fun....


Everybody was kung Foo Fighting....








Too Funny! Great job!


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## DreadfulNoise

Fantastic prop. That might just be my winter project.


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## ATLfun

DreadfulNoise said:


> Fantastic prop. That might just be my winter project.


Post is over 3 years old, probably could make this out of PVC a little easier with spiderhill prop works adjustable joint connectors, plus it would be lighter.









.


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## Spoonhead

+1 for the spider hill body form parts!


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## gjuan07

Can you post what materials you used and measurements...thank you


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## RoxyBlue

gjuan07 said:


> Can you post what materials you used and measurements...thank you


Beelce hasn’t been on since 2018 so you may not get a response to your question.


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## Front Yard Fright

I'll second the use of Spider Hill Prop Works' PVC system.

Was introduced to them last year and loved them!


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