Halloween just wouldn't be complete without a few skeletons laying around. The problem is, there simply isn't a perfect solution commercially available. The Big Lots skelies (known by home haunters as Bluckies) are cheap, but they look like a bulbous mess. Then there's the defective medical teaching skeletons, but those will cost you an arm and a leg. So, I set out to make a cheap skeleton that was way more realistic than blucky, and settled on paper mache. My method is a little time consuming, but the results are well worth it.
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials
This is what you need to begin-- about 50 or so sheets of newspaper.
You'll also need some duct tape, scotch tape, paper mache glue (I use a flour and water mixture. It's cheap and strong, but won't be weatherproof until you seal it), and paint (I used a can of light brown spray paint for the base, and some dark brown acrylic for details).
You'll also need some duct tape, scotch tape, paper mache glue (I use a flour and water mixture. It's cheap and strong, but won't be weatherproof until you seal it), and paint (I used a can of light brown spray paint for the base, and some dark brown acrylic for details).
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If you're making a whole bunch of skeletons and four bucks turns into more like 40, you can pick up a couple of foam heads, wrap it in foil (or anything else to stop contact between your mold and the mache) and paper maché on to that.
To remove it from your skully mold, just cut down the middle, the foil makes it easier to pry off, then tape on the inside, maché over the cut and you've got yourself a pretty good paper skull and still have a mold to make more =)
Your instructable is awesome by the way, and your skeleton looks really well turned out!
A full bucky or blucky is a bit out of my price range, so this will be great to... Well... "Fill in the pieces". I plan on doing a full corpsing instructable when I get under way, and you will definitely make a it to the 'links you'll need' page.
Well its that time of year again and as if I didn't have enough going on I decided to give this a try. Not to bad, it only took about 2 hrs to make all the tubes and construct the leg and arm bones. I noticed that after measuring against my own bones and then adding the "bumpy bits" the bones were a lot longer... duuuuh..bit of l8nite brain fade I guess !. I added an extra half tube to the upper arm bone and used 2 tubes for each thigh and since the forearm and lower leg have 2 bones I added those in as well. I still have to coat the "bones" with my glue/paint/paper mix and of course make the ribs and spine....