Making a Crypt the Hard Way by Deathtouch.
If you are just starting out
making a crypt, I would suggest going to CC’s site to check out how he designed
the crypt’s frame. Most of my frame is
from CC’s site at
ImaginEEIRing. The only thing
different is the roof, steps, and the façade.
He has a parts list for the crypt and he tells you how much is going to
cost before you actually start building.
These figures are pretty close on the money. One thing to remember about building a crypt is that it will take
you some time to complete, unless you have a lot of help. Which I
didn’t. So be prepared to give it the
space it needs for a while.
After following CC’s directions, I
felt that the frame needed a little bit of a boost. So I made another frame on the base with 2x4s. I also made steps on the front from 2x4s and
1x4s that I had. Keep in mind that my
crypt is 4x4x6. This isn’t counting for
the roof. You may also notice the gate
in the front. That is made with metal
frame gate hinges, 2x2s, and pvc pipes.
I drill holes in the 2x2s and put the pvc pipes in and glued them with
gorilla glue.
On the picture to the right I
started putting the roof on. I think in
CCs design, he puts notches on the sides and then sits them on top. I didn’t do that I just put them on the
outside of the crypt. Which didn’t hurt
the design at all. You might have to
build up parts of your crypt a little more with foam, but it will look flush
with the rest if you do it right.
The
picture to the left shows the foam panels being put on the walls. As long as you follow CCs design, you should
have no problems with the foam go right over the frame. You can get the foam at Home Depot or
something similar.
You are probably wondering how I
carved the stone into the walls. The
first thing I did was to make a template for the wall. I made one brick, like you see on the left
and just went over the whole wall with this template. That means get a ruler.
You might want to practice on this design with a scrap piece of foam. Make sure it looks good and that the depth
won’t cause problems. Then you want to
give the stone depth by taking a torch, the ones you find at Wal-mart will
do. They are not too much money. Then start going over your wall with the
torch. Don’t be afraid to melt it good
in spots. It will make it look like
real stone bricks once you are done.
But remember it is best to practice on a scrap piece of foam before you
start. Just in case. You will also notice that the gate now has
skulls on top of each pole. I bought
plastic skull maracas from on-line. I
can’t remember the on-line site right now, but just do a search and you might
find them. I just had to pour the filling out of each head and glued them to
the top of each PVC pipe. Using gorilla
glue works the best for keeping them down.
At
this point I put up trim along the spots that were showing and started doing my
painting. Painting was the hardest
thing for me since I couldn’t find the right combination of paint for the
crypt. The first thing I did was buy
black latex paint and painted the whole crypt from inside to out. The inside really needs to stay black for
the effect of the ghost. Once I had the
black on the crypt, I bought three different shades of latex gray paint and then dry brush that
onto the crypt. If you have never dry
brushed before, here is your chance. Because you will get a lot of practice. Dry brushing is really simple to do. Basically you dip your brush into the paint and wipe most of the
paint off of the brush onto a paper towel.
Pratice with the different shades of color that you have with one of the
stones on the crypt. Don’t worry if you
screw up because you can always paint over it.
Just
to give you an idea of the finished paint process, the picture to the right
shows what it looked liked after I dry brushed. It came out better than I expected. I am surprised that it came out that good, because my painting
skills are not the best. You will also
notice the cross on the top of the crypt.
I took a piece of 2x2 and nailed it to the top of the crypt. I bought a cross
from a craft store and tacked it on top.
Like I said, it came out better than I expected.
At
this point you can see the foam skull and the wall light that I added to the
crypt. When finished booth sides would
have a skull and light. The lights
actually work and are controlled by a light controller from Animated Lighting. The foam skulls I bought from Terror Syndicate. They have a nice selection of foam skulls to
choose from. They worked really well
after I painted them. You can guess I
used gorilla glue to adhere them to the wall.
If
you remember I said that the wall lights actually work. Well, the picture to the right shows the
controller, which is mounted in the crypt’s roof. The controller also controls many lights in my graveyard as
well. Made it really eerie.
Here are the finally pictures of the crypt. The picture on the left is my first picture I took after the compleition of the crypt.
The picture on the right is during the first week of Oct
2005.
If you would like to see the video on the crypt, you can
click here.
The video should be on the bottom.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me
at: Webmaster@hauntseeker.com