Just some cemetery "work in progress" shots & a night time video.
I've cut down the hostas & cleaned up the flower beds since I took these.
This needs a repaint. I like the epitaph, but the paint job is lousy.
The critters finally came out to play!
I *adore* my chickens!!!
The 'haunted CB' radio will go in there.
A project on the books for next year... replacing all those cheap foam headstones with simple plywood like the rest. I used to think they were fine for "filler" stones but I'm just not happy with them anymore.
The critters finally came out to play!
I *adore* my chickens!!!
A project on the books for next year... replacing all those cheap foam headstones with simple plywood like the rest. I used to think they were fine for "filler" stones but I'm just not happy with them anymore.
Regarding your next year project of replacing your foam headstones:
ReplyDeleteWe have been using wooden headstones that were custom built for us back in 2000 by a company that existed at the time that made them for professional haunted attractions. They are thick and heavy, made with what appears to be pine boards stacked on top of each other for thickness and are covered with a hand troweled veneer, and covered with a layer of what is most likely polyurethane. They have held up fantastically over the past 19 years and were well worth the investment, but we've learned some tricks of our own over the years. For starters, there's a paint made by Behr called "Textured DeckOver" and it's designed for restoring old worn wooden decks. It's thick and looks like stone/cement when dried. We use a couple different shades of gray and blend it together on our props. It's like painting your prop in heavy duty outdoor armor. Secondly regarding foam headstones: We too had used foams ones we found in stores for filler when we did a larger cemetery for our haunt, but they didn't last long as sold. Some broke off their plastic stakes with a good gust of wind first time out of the gate. After that experience, we made the store bought foam ones more durable by placing them on top of thin wood project board, traced the shape on the board, cut out the shape on the board with a jig saw, and used a strong construction adhesive to permanently mount the foam headstone to the board. Then you can either repaint the entire headstone to your liking or can just paint the backing board prior to gluing the foam headstone to it. From there it's easy to add a home made wooden base for standing the headstone wherever you want, or adding dowels to the back for sticking the headstone in the lawn.
Thanks for the info! I bet those custom stones are beautiful!
DeleteI have all my stones coated in DryLok, so there's texture and some protection from that. And I put thin plywood on the back of the cheap foam ones but even with the DryLok, the fronts are "squishy". All of them have U shaped conduit hangers on the back that slide over rebar in the lawn.
I'll have to check out the Behr paint, I'm curious to compare it to DryLok.