Enhance Halloween Props - Rats

In addition to my collection of skulls, I've collected several rats over the years - some of them expensive, but some of them just the typical Dollar Store variety. Here are a few basic enhancements that can be made easily to bring them up to a more realistic level.

Step 1 Supplies and Tools

Dollar Store (or the equivalent cheap-goods store in your country) plastic rat
Whisk broom - black bristles, again from the dollar store.
Craft needles - regular needles may be too thin, so get some heavier duty ones. My dollar store had these too!
Wooden dowel - size that fits comfortably in your hand. You may also use the handle of a wooden spoon, I think the dollar store sells those too.
Small side cutting pliers. Guess where you can get them if you don't have some already? :-)
Small bottle/tube of liquid latex - places that sell Halloween makeup usually have this, so try your pharmacy, department store, or your favourite Halloween store, or possibly even the dollar store - you don't need much.
Gloss Mod Podge or other GLOSS sealant - your craft store should have this, though check at your dollar store in the craft aisle.

Comments

[l8nite]

love your rat collection ! I get a lot of possibilium and even props from the various dollar stores including a good number of these rats which we scatter throughout the haunt where a lot of detail really isn't needed. However, if we do decide to create a scene with a focus on rats I'll have an idea how to kick them up a notch ! Thank you for sharing your work

[mary candy]

I loved the haired black one!

[ArtisticBabe]

Why not buy rats that look good to start off with? Time is money after all so you're really not saving that much money in the long run. Its fun that you're into realism though, Halloween rocks when decorations and props are done realistically.

[peanutgnome]

There are a couple of reasons - I do buy some more realistic/grotesque props and even most of them didn't come with whiskers, even though they were in the $25+ range. Another is that some people just demand on buying cheap props and shop at the dollar stores for their decorations exclusively. This is a way to add a little realism on a budget and get people into realizing that creating halloween props really isn't that tough. They might start with this little tutorial and eventually build themselves a larger, more elaborate prop that they never would have undertaken previously. It's fun to turn people into "doers". Thanks for the thoughts on realism, and the name/origin of the tool below. I knew I'd seen it somewhere, but never knew the name.

[Kiteman]

It's a neat idea, probably useful for other beasties as well. I especially like the tool - is it your own idea, or a neat way of cheaply copying an existing tool?

...real whiskers aren't in multiples of two...

If you bend your whisker very close to the end, so that one side of the V is only a couple of millimetres long, more like a number 1 than a V, then the short end will disappear right inside the "flesh" of the rat. It may even lock the whisker in place more firmly, I'm not sure.

[ArtisticBabe]

He's copying an existing tool here, its called a splincher and is used in doll making/wig making to insert hair into a dot matrix to simulate hair follicles, or plugs.

[peanutgnome]

I might be wrong, but I thought I saw or read somewhere about the pros using a similar tool - though finer, as is the hair. I saw the broom and thought they'd make good whiskers, so went looking for some needles to test it out. If I need longer whiskers folding them into a 1 should work pretty good, thanks for the input!

[hollasch]

Cool idea! My first thought was the same as Kiteman's. I have another alternative idea that might be work pursuing. Get a hypodermic needle. It should be the diameter of the whisker. Stick the needle into one side of the muzzle and out the other. Insert whisker in the needle until it protrudes from the sharp end. Grab this end of the whisker and retract the needle, leaving the whisker going in one side and out the other. This should also be more secure.

[hollasch]

That should be "... might be *worth* pursuing...".

Also, the *inside diameter* of the hypodermic needle should accomodate the diameter of the whisker.

[peanutgnome]

This would work well, but might not be as fast - it's hard to get the bristles between the prongs, I'd have a tough time "threading" them into a needle. On the other hand though, if I need to add a bunch of whiskers to a large prop you could fit several into the "needle" end of a turkey baster. Might not work as regular whiskers, but I bet you could have some strange aliens this way! Thanks, I'll have to try this next year.