First, prep your styrofoam head. You can use your fingers to press in and shape the head the way you want, and use a razor knife to cut out eye sockets, and a saw for the cheeks and mouth. Then add any details under the skin, like veins or deep wounds. Also I used half-moon shaped pieces from the eyes as a base for the ears.

Next add the teeth. I trimmed them with scissors and glued them on with liquid nails. Dry fit them first. You may need to cut more of the mouth out to get the look you want.

Next comes the paper mache. I ripped off all the edges around the paper towels, then ripped them in quarters to start. Mix up 1 part Elmer's glue to 3 parts water. It should look like milk.Completely dunk the paper towel piece into the mix and squeeze out the excess. Then place it on the head, smooth down and repeat. Make it smooth, wrinkly, whatever you want. Mold your ears, lips, and eye details first, then cover with larger pieces. You may need to use smaller pieces in places. Experiment!

When done, let dry overnight. Now it's time for paint. I used a base coat of a tan interior satin latex (Dune) I had left over from my living room. Use what you have. Tan, brown, black, green, grey can all be used as a base coat. When that dries you can add other colors as you want. I added red for blood, black for shadows, and very lightly dry brushed dark brown all over it. I used purple and blue chalk to highlight the veins.

Then I glued some strands of hair from an old halloween wig to the head, and for eyebrows. For the eye I used a gooey eyeball from a gumball machine. You can use whatever you like. There you have it! Have fun creating your own unique Zombie! One note - If you plan to use this outdoors I strongly suggest you spray several coats of urethane or polyurethane over it for water-proofing. Happy haunting!

Now that you've made your "ghost", you can use fishing line to hang her. Use a dark colored fishing line. Many clear line glows under blacklight and that would ruin the effect. When in doubt, check it. The main line will run from the head, through the eye hook (or pulley) on the T-frame and attach to a stick on the fan. The arms will simply attach to your T-frame in whatever position you desire. Next step is the fan details.

The main drive motor for this prop is simply an ocillating fan moving back and forth. Attach the stick to the fan grill as shown (I used zip ties, but wire or string would work) and attach the line coming from the head and through the eye hook, to the stick (see arrow). It's that simple! When the fan moves back and forth, it pulls the line which raises and lowers the body of the ghost. You will have to adjust the placement of the fan and the line. If the line angle is too steep or the line is tied to far out on the stick the fan will not be able to lift the ghost. I got approx. 12" of up/down movement.

The T-frame is just 2 pieces of wood attached to each other in the shape of a "T" laid flat. The hands are tied to the cross part of the "T", and the line that goes from the body to the fan runs through an eye-hook on the long part. It is very simple and should be self-evident. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Happy Haunting!

This is with no whitening of any kind! It looks pretty good! Enjoy yours!

2007 UPDATE - This prop worked flawless for me during the haunt. I had no problems, and everyone loved it!

First drill holes in the top and bottom of the skulls. My foam skulls were filled with sand, so I had to empty that out by shaking. Then brush paint the skulls with the Krylon GLOWZ and let dry. You can test the coverage of the paint by using a black light to see if you missed a spot.

You then feed the line through the skulls. I taped the line to a straight piece of wire coat hanger to feed it through. I used 3 separate lines with 2 skulls each. To keep the skulls in place I tied a small finishing nail under each one. Each line went up to the ceiling, through an eye hook, then down to the fan.

The fan was painted black to blend into the background. The stick is attached to the fan in the middle. On one side of the stick the two outside lines are attached. On the other side the middle line was attached. If you have more than 3 lines just continue to alternate.

To finish, I placed in front of a black background, and mounted a blacklight above the skulls. As the fan moves back and forth, the skulls rise and fall opposite of each other.

As seen from at least 4-5' away it looked very cool. I still need to get a good pic of it in the dark. I would like to make a whole wall like this eventually. In that case a fan would not be practical.

The goal was to build a prop that "twitched" or moved when activated by a motion sensor. This one shook it's leg. The prop had to built entirely from scrap on-hand, due to finances and maintaining marital harmony ;).

The motor (from an ice-crusher) was mounted horizontally, with swiveling lever attached to transfer the circular motion into an up / down motion (think bicycle pedal). A reostat (dimmer switch) was wired in to slow down the speed. In hindsight I would not recommend this at all. Use a slower motor, like a wiper motor.

Here is a close-up of the motor and drive. I had to epoxy a piece of wood to the plate that was attached to the motor, because it could not be removed or drilled. Then I screwed the rest of the lever into the piece of wood. This was actually strong enough and did not fail at all.

Top view of the motor and frame. This was also quite noisy when running. I was able to mask it in the haunt, but that is something that needs to be improved as well.

This is a back view with the "guts" and pants on. The right leg of the pants was split all the way down underneath to accomodate the moving leg lever. The legs and waist were stuffed with plastic shopping bags to fill it out.

This is the front view as seen by the public. I was actually very pleased with how it looked. It was very creepy in the dark with the red spotlight I had on it. Not bad for $10 total. Here is a video of the action.

To make good guts all you need is a can of expanding spray foam insulation (Great Stuff, Tuff Stuff or equiv.), paint, and some imagination. For my Twitchy prop we sprayed the foam on a piece of cardboard sized to fit in the pants. The best surface to spray on is plastic sheets or bags. The "guts" are easily removed from the plastic.

We simply made intestine-like shapes, and added bits of twine and stuff for veins, etc.

When dry, we spray painted a base coat of gloss red acrylic. Then we highlighted some areas with brown primer. To finish we lightly dry-brushed black into the creases and folds to add depth. You can use whatever colors you have - purples, pinks, green, have fun!

Be careful when removing the finished guts. They can break or crack if too much force is used, but they are easily glue back together.

Here is the finished product! Just add some additional blood and place accordingly and ta da -you have a horribly gross Halloween prop!

This is very simple to make. First you cut out a 12" to 16" section out of the top side of the downspout (or PVC pipe) somewhere in the middle. Then you cut a hole in the cooler the exact shape of the downspout on each side towards the bottom. Then you carefully slide the downspout through the holes in the cooler and center the downspout cutout in the middle of the cooler facing up.

Next, you take the scrap piece of styrofoam and cut it out to fit the inside of the cooler to act as a center divider / baffle. It needs to go from the bottom to up to the inside lip (approx. 2/3 of the way up). Make sure it's a good flush fit on the bottom and sides. Be sure to fill up the the hole in and around the downspout. The object is to completely seal off on side from the other.

When all this is complete, seal up all edges and seams with calk or silicone around the downspout and baffle.

Then cut a piece of wire mesh / fabric to fit on the inside lip. This is where the ice goes. I also put ice in the bottom up to the downspout. Every little bit helps

Fill with ice, add your fogger and presto - instant ground-hugging fog. I completely fill a 24' x 24" garage with this chiller and a 400w fog machine.

The top may need to be sealed. I use duct tape and a heavy weight on top. With that no fog escapes from the top.

Happy haunting!