Well, I've been slowly (too slowly, but I think it will work out) ramping up projects for this year's Haunted Trails.
I'm mostly taking the trail off this year, due to residual tiredness from directing *last* year. Just making a half-dozen special props and guiding. Hardly anything at all. Oh, and I may be doing some makeup during runs. Just a token effort, really.
So far I've cast ten plaster cores for the spider egg item. The next step is to cast a one-piece mold for these and then cast the actual eggs in glow-in-the-dark "squish" (e.g. hot-pour PVC).
I went to pour the mold and - tra-la! - my polyurethane Part-A had congealed. I guess I was just lucky to have been able to create the core mold itself. Though it was probably the exposure to our evil humidity when I opened the bucket that caused the congealing (and I even sprayed the protective gas blanket on it). Oh well, it was well past it's use-by date.
So I ordered more, but this time a nice silicon mold material because, frankly, polyurethanes are nasty and poisonous, unless you _like_ cyanide. And I ordered a nice gram-accurate scale that goes to 7kg (13 lbs) so I can mix it properly.
I had a choice between buying a $135 set of mix-by-volume silicon or $85 of mix-by-weight and a $65 scale. I went for the scale. Of course, the cost-per-unit is about the same, I think, for the two types of silicon. The by-volume has two equal parts, both about a gallon. The by-weight has a 10:1 ratio, so I expect to get a lot less of the final product out of it. But the initial outlay is less. And I can use the scale for many other products, increasing the range of materials I can now use.
Now to get a vacuum degassing chamber. Heh.
I built up the mummified arm and hand, doing some decent work defining some musculature, knuckles, and stuff. This will look better than past dessicated parts, though the fingers are still a bit more tattered than I want. It's tricky working with sticky wet latex and cotton in those tight quarters. I think I want to give it fingernails, too... gotta work that out soon.
The latex itself is several years old and very chunky. It's getting close to the time to throw it all away and start fresh.
Now to paint it so make it look proper. The dark grey latex makes a decent base color, but I'm looking at more browns and blacks for the final.
I went to cast the silicon hand for Robert (from Deadbacks, damn I am late on this project), but after much searching, realized that this silicon hadn't been delivered yet. I could have sworn it had, but UPS claims it is due today so I couldn't have gotten it already.
The two projects I haven't started yet are the dead dog thing (which will contain an item, so I'll make it very disgusting on the inside) and the ice-cold water station. That needs to be built on location, so I'll need to go to the Basin soon and supervise that.
I should check to see if there are projects not listed here, that I am neglecting. Hmmm.