Bone - Daddy

In cleaning out older emails, I found this one I had sent to Doombuggyproductions.com (when they were still active). It explains how we made the Jack Skelington (and how to make similar figures). It never made it on their before they were lost so I'll post it up here.



For the body of Jack - we used pvc pipes - the grey ones are electrical conduit ones - they were cheaper than the water ones. The joints are all pvc fittings. The chest was bulked out with layers of 1' foam and bubble wrapped to soften the edges.





The costume was cut from scrap material and hand sewn. The limbs were covered in black foam pipe wrap and the legs and arms were glued together after the costume was attached.
The head was sculpted in plasticine and a copy was made in paper mache. Blank newspaper was torn into thumb-sized pieces. Instead of fiddling with dipping them into glue and applying them, slightly thinned (with water) white glue was painted on, a few pieces were applied, and more glue was brushed over them. The teeth were more fiddly, so facial tissue was used there. After about three good layers were applied, the head was flipped and paper mache was applied the same way to the back of the head - not quite overlapping. The two halves were gently removed and the plasticine was removed - using a plastic spoon and fingers mostly. Two small squares of foam with holes for the neck were paper mached to the front piece and then the back was paper mached on. Once the two halves were joined by more paper mache the face was painted - primed black then off white.




The hands were wire around a foam palm. The fingers were wrapped in masking tape and the entire was painted - primed black and painted white.

The suit still needs the pinstripes painted on and the spider bow-tie needs to be made. All told he is about 8' tall.