Step 3 - Setting the Arms and Legs

Okay, so this is the step, that i wasn't sure if we were going to do, and I'm glad we did.
Using Paper Maché Art Paste, we paper machéd the arms and legs to add smoothness and durability.

 This is the paper maché stuff we used. You can find it for $3 at WalMart.

See how nice and smooth that made the legs? This will also add some durability to them since before they were very "loose" and nimble.
 We repeated the same method on the legs.

Next post will be on finally decorating the legs so they can actually take shape and look like the real thing!

Step 2 - Leg Assembly & Back Assembly

So, anyway, Leg assembly.
Here we just basically did the same thing with the legs as we did with the arms. We simply wrapped newspaper and taped it tight. Since Nicole needs to be able to strap herself into the safety harnesses, we're going to cut off the part of newspaper that covers the calves, and attach Velcro for easy attachment.

For the back, we got an old button-down t-shirt. We simply stapled newspaper to the shirt itself and added extra newspaper to give it that "hump" look.
For getting the proper shape, i had Nicole wear it. Below is the inside view.

And this is the outside view.

We made sure that Nicole was in the proper position while constructing this. We had to make sure that the back piece fit in nicely with the arms. Also we made sure that it covered all of her body.

Here's a link to my YouTube account where you can see Nicole trying out the costume so far. For some reason, Blogspot would show an error when trying to upload, so i just did this via YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBn8Pm1bzTs

Spirit Walker - Step 1 - Arm Assembly

Now, with what I've been seeing on the web is a lot of people building the arms using foam, chicken wire, hot glue, gorilla glue, gorilla tape, and other stuff that seems expensive and unnecessary.
We used newspaper and duct tape.

Here we sculpted the arm and created a cone-like shape going up the crutch.
We would then get a long, thin strip of duct tape and tighten areas to give definition of a calf muscle. Just so that the arm doesn't look totally plain.

 

To help keep the shape of this cone, we jammed old grocery bags into it to help keep its shape.

 Here we have Nicole, my assistant, trying out the stilts and the one completed arm. We would constantly have her get into the position so that we can see what needs to be adjusted. As you can see, the arm's height needs to be increased.

We obviously then repeated this with the other arm.

Here's a picture of our arms. Here you see the back piece we started. Which I will discuss on the next post, but disregard that. The main focus is you can see how the arms look.

Spirit Walker - Supplies

So anyway, the main reason i wanted to make this blog was to recreate the famous "Stilt Beast".

Original Stilt Beasts
I originally saw a gif on tumblr of this terrifying and mystifying creature and i was inspired. I also encountered another blog on here with a girl's triumphs of making an awesome replica, but unfortunately some information is missing or incomplete. Here i wanted to make a blog with a walk through of how we made ours. Oh, and we like the name "Spirit Walkers" so that's what we'll refer to them as.

So here we go!!

1.

 

XL crutches! These crutches, designed for people who are 6'7" work perfectly. We extended them to their maximum length. These were about $30.

2.

 

18"-30" Drywall Stilts by YescomUSA. We found these on eBay for $85 with free shipping and handling. Unfortunately they only came partially assembled so we had to put them together. We kept their height at 18". We felt that if we made them any higher, it would be uncomfortable for the wearer.

3. Black Duct Tape - $3
4. Black Spray Paint - $1 @ Wal-Mart

5. Lots of Creepy Fabric and old shirts. Creepy fabric can be found for like $1 at Wal-Mart.

6. Newspapers
7. Stapler and staples.
8. One creepy, blank, theatrical mask.

These are just some of the supplies that we know we are going to use. We might add more, but not too many. I know that my friend who is helping me build this is suggesting that we use a type of paper maché to help provide durability to the costume. So I will let you know the details of that.

Introduction

Hey everyone! Welcome to my blog!

So anyway, I figured that my first post should be about what this blog is about and why I created it.
Back in High School, a classmate of mine proposed an ambitious idea to transform the high school into a Haunted House. She was a good friend of mine, but I, in all honesty, thought that it was over-ambitious and was going to crash and burn.
Surprisingly, her ambitions came true and "Haunted High" was a huge success. For the following years I worked alongside her diligently.
When we graduated, we really didn't know what was going to happen to HH. We didn't throw away any props being hopeful that someone could take it over. Well, unfortunately, someone did. Someone we did not like. Someone who, our senior year, decided to dress up in one of the rooms as a
&quote
"A punk rock diva fairy from Mars"
&unquote

Yeah. Needless to say, one of her rooms was a "France" room, because her intentions were to have creepy mimes when all it had was a boy in a striped shirt with a mustache sitting at a table with a baguette. Frightening. Oh! And there was a "Kill Justin Bieber" room. Which had several androgynous teens partying in a room to JB music. No killings were actually involved. Needless to say their revenue was so low that they didn't make any profit. But all of the money they made went to the Red Cross, which is good and all, but she left nothing for the following years of HH.
Next year, my brother and his friend took initiative decided to lead it. Some of my friends and I, who were also participants in HH in high school, came down to help out.
Their first year was a success, but unfortunately, they didn't make much revenue due to the local Trick-Or-Treating on Saturday and it was also the weekend before Hurricane Sandy hit, so on Sunday, it began to rain and we got high winds.
But even with those events, they still made for money that the year before!
Nevertheless, this year we are hoping that this will be the greatest Haunted High. There is a possibility that this will be the last year, since anyone who would be deemed as "determined enough" to carry on will graduate. Everyone else doesn't seem reliable or determined enough.

So anyway, since this year will be the best year to date. And since we are making some snazzy props, I decided to post some of our creations. If there's a few things I learned in Haunted High it's these:

1. Anything is possible with Duct Tape.
2. Do NOT fret about the finer details of things. People are running through the attraction, terrified, in the dark. They're not going to say "Oh wow! The brush strokes on this wall painting show an advanced understanding of the fine arts!" They're going to say "Holy shit, there's a man with a chainsaw chasing me, I knew I should have brought an extra pair of panties!"
3. There's always an easier solution to what you're trying to accomplish.

So without further ado,

Welcome to my blog, where you'll find awesome and intriguing creations for your very own haunted house~