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It is time to prepare the skull for our unhappy fella.
Fit his ocular cavities with
approximately 1/3 of a ping pong
ball which can be cut easily with a
pair of scissors. Once fitted hot
glue them in place. Unlike the
skull we prepared for the Crypt
Keeper, we will be leaving the LED
eyes in place for Larry. I dusted
the skull with some gray paint so
if any of his skull were apparent
after his skin were applied, it
wouldn't be quite so white.
 Here was my goal. A realistic looking talking head. This is a simple mask
from Sav-On or some such place that came complete with hair. Remember, your
skull cap needs to remain removable to replace the batteries inside. So that
means the entire top portion of the mask is only attached to the skull cap and
also to the Stage Hand that holds up the head. To achieve this I cut the mask
from the corner of each side of his mouth in a straight line back to the back of
the mask, just under the ears. Then I placed the top portion of the mask on the
skull assembly and drilled through some of the fingers and the thumb of the
stage hand, through the mask and through the plastic skull cap. Then with a
razor blade I cut a star pattern on the top of each entry point in the top of
the hand so that the head of a screw would pass through. Then I inserted screws
into the hand and screwed the skull cap on tight. Next I pulled the bottom jaw
section of the mask up around the jaw of the skull and put in one screw through
the mask into the back of the jaw. The bottom of the mask was then cut off just
under the jaw and blood was splashed around the edges. Because the jaw part of
the mask is pulled up tight to the jaw, and the upper mask is just hanging
there, the movement of the lower section isn't hindered at all. Next I painted a
small round cornea of black in his eyes and followed that by a smaller round dot
of gray to complete the eye.
 Here is another close up shot of the head. Even with the neck moving and
both arms reaching out forward he was still stable in a standing position. I dressed him in some black levis, a white shirt and then went over the
shirt with a very shredded black sweater. Notice the large hole shredded in the
heart area for the red illumination to come through. For feet I used black
rubber boots that I slit down the back and cut a hole out of the sole with a jig
saw so it would wrap around the PVC pipe leg. The shredding was accomplished
mostly by using scissors. Once I get the general shape of the holes in the
clothes I use a wire brush on the edges of the fabric to give it a frayed and
distressed look. On the white shirt I used a small butane torch to tatter the
edges of the cut outs here and there to add more color and depth.
 For his voice I purchased a small boom box styled karaoke machine from Wal
Mart for about $20 that amplifies the sound from the sound repeater chip and
also plays it back. I simply placed the machine behind the camo net directly
behind his legs. When triggered his voice is now about the same volume as a
man's moaning voice. I find that used karaoke machines show up in flea markets
all the time with torn speaker fabric or some other problem like the cassette
player in it is broken, ruining it for other people's use, but for me it still
does everything I need. It amplifies as well as producing the sound and works
with a line in from a microphone or an external sound device.
In the off season I simply position his hands down to his sides and cover
him in clear lawn and leaf bags to seal him off from the spiders and he doesn't
take up much space at all. You can view him in all his gory
here. |
