■ 2016-2019 | WITCH PROPS
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■ The first witch we got was store bought... meet Esmerelda, lol, dubbed by my better half!
■ It served us well for the first haunt (2016) but I eventually set about making one of my own.
■ For the later year haunts, Esmerelda popped up outside the haunts with a donation bucket attached... so she served a useful purpose still lol.
■ 2017 | WITCH BUILD | MK.1
■ WITCH BUILD 2017 | Mk.1
■ First full build of the witch was in 2017. She stayed the same from 2017, but each year I upgraded the cauldron, stepper motor, and finally added a PWM controller to control the cauldron stirring speed.
■ I was seriously struggling with how to make a cauldron and after trying many attempts at making my own and being so close to Halloween, in the end I decided to go ghetto and buy a standard industrial bin, spray it luminous green, and get on with it.
■ The fire was the easy part. Loads of twigs and wooden sticks bundled together and held with a late night hot glue gun session, then just added in some coloured berry red LED lights. The effect was so good I kept that for the next two years, only adding a small riser for the new cauldron in 2018.
■ 2018 | WITCH BUILD | Mk.2
■ WITCH BUILD 2018 | Mk.2 (2018)
■ This time round I wanted to sort out the bin, and slow motor. So the main focus on 2018 was not only the zombie chamber but the witch prop upgrades.
■ The whole witch frame remained unchanged, but as you can see from the animated gif, the motor had way more torque and pulled her forwards and back, making her look even more realistic. Good job I didn't make her head move up and down, there was no need!
■ I had to make a small wooden riser for the cauldron to sit on, this helped with the fire effect underneath too. Adding in a light made a huge difference.
■ 2019 | LED SKULL | FINAL WITCH MK.2
■ In 2019, I added a skull head on the witches stirring rod.
■ It initially had red LED lights for eyes.
■ It topped off the prop superbly, but I needed to upgrade the LEDs, they just weren't bright enough.
■ Mid-way through Oct 2019, I upgraded those with some ultra bright green ones.
■ mounting the smoke machine close by only made the skulls eyes pop out even more.
■ 2017 | MAIN WITCH | HEAD
■ The wiring went round the back terminating in plug socket.
■ Roll on deodorant balls, for each eye, mounted inside a foam mannequin head.
■ Adding the witch mask, but I would have preferred a Jeff Death one!
■ Now the grim reaper hood
■ She's ready...
■ To cast some evil magic...
■ 2017 | MAIN WITCH | FRAME BUILD
■ The main frame was all made from PVC piping and connectors, screwed down at multiple angles to keep it steady.
■ Keeping the hand area free was crucial for the stick to move. Otherwise it would fall over.
■ Weighing down the frame base was important to stop it falling over or moving.
■ The initial tests proved troublesome, so the head movement had to go.
■ Checking the hand movement and centre hand
■ Motor mk.1. It was slow and underpowered compared to the 2018 wiper motor.
■ 2017 | WITCH PROP | FIRST INSTALL
■ Inside the haunt with some lighting, it started to take shape.
■ Trying out different red lighting against the green eyes.
■ Checking the stability of the base frame.
■ Full costume on, I knew it was going to look ok.
■ Spooky vibes...
■ Final 2017 witch prop. The main frame remained the same throughout 2018 and 2019.
■ 2018 | CAULDRON | MOTOR UPGRADE
■ Some of that insulating pipe that I would cut up to put into my candle props. Wrapped around a big builders bucket.
■ Lots of glue. Lots.
■ Big mess but the more glue the better, it helped it set as the piping was very tight to bend.
■ Paint it Black. Only.
■ Spray it all black. Leave. then respray again for a deep finish. Voila - one cauldron.
■ Serious upgrade from the small motor before. Windscreen motor from an Astra part from eBay!
■ 2019 | PWM CONTROL
■ The Motor PWM Motor was really useful for controlling the car wiper motor speed. This was added in 2019.
■ It allowed me to control the speed of the motor from this knob. Plus a nice click motion to turn it off.
■ Inside the new cauldron, note the light, from the previous year.
■ The PWM was hot glued to the side to keep it in place.
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