We Made The Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghosts!

Greetings, mischievous mortals! John and I are finally well-rested and back to our Haunted Mansion Halloween builds with high spirits. (If you missed our ghostly ballroom dancers, click here!)

Today I'll walk you through our build of those beloved cling-ons, the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

My favorite reference art of these three is by Doodleman Dan, an indie artist I've featured here before and know from local cons. Unfortunately his art has been stolen and sold by Etsy scammers, so I contacted Dan for permission first to use this, and also purchased his digital files, so he'd be paid. Even if it's just for a personal project, I always want to do right by the indie artists out there - and here's Dan's Etsy shop so you can do the same. (Plus you're really going to want to see his Figment & Slimer stickers, ermergersh. Bet you can tell which ones I already purchased. :D)

Now, on to the build!

First we base-coated a sheet of pink insulation foam in "Tantalizing Teal," a Sherwin Williams color we matched in a cheaper Lowe's paint.

 Next John worked some digital magic to fit all 3 ghosts onto a single 4X8 sheet of foam, as well as extending and detaching their arms:

 

  I traced all the lines in pencil:

 

Then John began cutting them out with a large craft blade:

 
I'm amazed how detailed John got with these cuts; no power tools needed!

Next I painted in the shadows with a darker shade of the same teal:

 
It's starting to look pretty cool, right?

This is not delicate work; I was fairly sloppy and free with the paint, which was actually quite fun.

And finally, using an even darker shade of the same teal, I painted in all the outlines.

This step made me very happy. Look how they came to life!

Ahhhhh they're just SO FUN.

You'll notice they've all been disarmed, though.

What's up with that?

WELL, I had this idea... and it's one of those ideas that morphed into something much bigger and cooler in the end.

At first I just wanted their arms to rock on a pivot, so you could bop them like a bobble head and get a little motion.

So we did that. John added PVC pipe joints, metal rods, and a little silicone lubricant so the arms rocked rather delightfully when bopped.


But THEN we got to thinking, "What if the arms were motorized, so you don't have to bop them?"

We've never motorized anything, y'all, so I can't tell you how proud we are of the Frankensteined contraption we came up with:

BEHOLD

 This was the result of some intense brainstorming, problem-solving, and at least one lightbulb moment when I realized we could speed up a too-slow motor with a gear. So satisfying.

Even better, the only thing we had to purchase was this 3-pack of mini motors for $16, which includes the connectors and electrical plugs. From there John made the wooden gear and twisted aluminum bars, which we already had. The lower hanging bar acts as a counterweight, and later we added even more weight to help fine-tune the rocking speed.

But wait.

There's STILL MORE.

In addition to making our ghostly cut-outs move, we also wanted them to transform at night.

Enter... BLACK LIGHT PAINT.

My good friend and prop master Kevin sent us some Wild Fire white, which is apparently the only industry paint that glows a true white - and even better, is perfectly clear in daylight. So after a little experimenting and a lot of swatch cards, I used a combo of Wild Fire with a greenish teal we mixed ourselves from cheap glow-in-the-dark paints.


Did you know cheap glow-in-the-dark paints fluoresce under black light? Before this, I didn't!

Because I was sparing with both paints they look the same color here, but in person you can see a variation in the glow from white/blue to green/teal, which I really like.

We've never used glow paint before, so here's something else that's cool: using a combo of both black light and regular light!


This is Gus before I added any glow paint...

And here he is after, same lighting:

SO COOL.

But of course the real magic happens when you turn OFF the regular lights:

I thinned out the Wild Fire to a watery consistency and painted in his robe, just for a hint of glowy shading. I used a very light hand with the glow paints, so I can tell you a tiny bit goes a loooong way.

Here's a fun shot of Phineas, aka luggage guy, on the table:

Here you can see the color difference between the white Wild Fire (top right) and our cheaper glow-in-the-dark teal mix (bottom left.) The two colors glow VERY similar on the actual cut-out, but if you look closely you can see them side-by-side on the carpet bag: one more blue, one more green.

Btw, be sure to paint IN black light when using black light paints, so you can see what you're doing. We bought this 4-pack of exterior grade black lights we plan to use around the yard for Halloween, and they're incredible. (And on sale right now for 20% off!)

This is before I painted out the shiny aluminum bars, but you can see it's a SUPER impressive transition from regular to black light:

Like magic!

(Oooh, y'all, I suddenly want to make giant Tamatoa cut-out. Eh? EH? Like a whole undersea Realm of the Monsters vibe?)
(Focus, Jen, focus.)

I'm not sure if we'll have this changing lighting effect for Halloween or not; the trick-or-treaters start long before dark here, so most will only see these fellas in daylight. It's nice to have a glowy surprise for the later visitors, though.

Yesterday we did the finishing touches on the bases and bars, and now, at long last, our Hitchhiking Ghosts are ready to follow you home:

One more transition, because it's so dang cool:

I hope you enjoyed seeing our Hitchhikers come together! John and I are already well into our next builds: the Victorian horse-drawn Doom Buggy for the yard, and a glowing ghostly bride for the roof. So stay tuned for progress reports on those, and please keep your suggestions/requests for other Mansion elements coming! (I still don't know what my costume will be. HALP.)

*****

P.S. I have to show you my new Fall pillows, because AHHHHH they make me happy:



I found an Eva pillow!

These are all pillow covers, actually, which means they're cheaper and easier to store later, a win-win.

Here's the other couch:

Can't believe I've never had orange pillows in here before. Or velvet pillows! So soft, so cozy.

Again, they're all pillow covers, so I just covered what we already had. (We also snagged a couple of $3 thrift pillows since the packs gave me extras.) And don't worry, I got you: here come the Amazon links!

- 4-pack of 18-inch Maple Leaf covers

- 2-pack of 20-inch velvet orange covers

- Black Cat & Pumpkins cover

Anything you purchase through my links or the Epbot Amazon shop gives a little back to help fund our Halloween builds and also feeding our cats, so thank you for helping support us while you shop!