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 Here is the LED eye set up and two ping pong balls we will be using as well
as the correct drill bit for this particular size lamp. You may want to measure
your lamps before drilling any holes. I needed to bulk out the skull to look a little more like a face, so I
 sprayed down the entire skull with 3M spray adhesive and let it dry so it would
make the Crayola cling fast. Then using the modeling magic I filled in the sides
of the skull face till it was smoothed out and fashioned her nose around the
bone joint so there was a strong bond to hold it on. This stuff is absolutely a
 party to work with, so don't be afraid to jump right in. Anyone can use
it. With the hatch door lifted up on the back of the skull we see the ping pong
balls that have been hot glued into the eye sockets from inside. Then I drilled
a hole in back of each "eye" and hot glued the LEDs in place that
slipped in and stopped perfectly centered to each eye opening. I mounted the IC
board that runs the fading eyes to the back of the torso with a couple of pan
head screws and cable clamped the excess wire to the back of the neck.
Next I sprayed down the torso and the head with 3M adhesive spray again and once
dry I applied paper napkins soaked in a mixture of yellow woodworker's glue
using the corpsing method
 from SpookyFX.com as shown on my how-to on
Rotting Corpse. Now our little Regan is starting to look like a real lady. She was painted
over with spray skin colored paint and then over that very lightly with white.
For the gashes in her face I outlined each one with a bead of hot glue. Then the
space between the two glue lines was painted black. The glue ridges then were
painted bright red. The outline for the mouth and eyes was a green / gray
combination. The puke down her face and body is a yellow / dark green / light
green mess with speckles of red blood drops here and there. The teeth were
carefully painted a subtle yellow that doesn't show up in this shot with a black
pin stripe between each tooth to outline.
 The eyes were the most
demanding. With a black cornea and the rest in a yellow / green mix. Once she
was painted I went over the entire puppet with a thick coat of clear semi gloss
lacquer to protect everything. At the local thrift store I found a wig made
from real human hair and attached it to the skull with drywall screws. I
collected some of the hair into strands using some of the lacquer on my fingers
and then touched that up with red paint as well.
 Now that Regan is looking like a little lady, we return to the mechanics.
Most all of the animatronics I have made I have always built the unit as this one
now is and left it at that, with the sound usually being fed to the scene from
somewhere else. The air needed to be regulated in-line before getting to the
ram, the timer system hidden under a black sheet somewhere. For the exorcist I
was determined to make her fully integrated with regulated air, sound, power,
everything. So that once you plugged the air line in and plugged in the
extension cord, you had nothing else to do at all. No batteries, no switches,
nothing. That means that with
just 56" of frame to attach to, I
would need to keep it all very
compact! First I did a little
measuring to see what
 would
be the tightest package I could get
my air system down to and attach
that directly to the base of the
frame. This setup is exactly like you will
see on my how-to Air Trigger. This wrapped around the bottom of the frame next
to the air cylinder itself. The 3/8" air line fit perfectly around the existing
fitting at the bottom of the bicycle pump, so there was no
 need to use other
adaptors. I slipped it over and hose clamped it it tight. (Note; you will need
to remove the device from the pump that keeps the air from coming back out of
the tire between down strokes. This is usually a little rubber seal directly
behind the fitting that we are sending the air in through. Just take it out and
toss it.) The power going into the washing machine solenoid is coming directly
out of an event control timer as you will find thoroughly covered in my how-to
Motion Trigger. Above the ECT I mounted a power strip to the top of the frame
and ran an extended cord from it back down the frame to the floor and out. In
that power strip I plugged in a 9 volt 100 milliamp AC adaptor to feed power to
the ECT as well as the LED eyes.
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