Wicked Makers

So far, so good!

Progress yesterday and this morning so far has been great. We got the two columns mostly built, but the fronts don't go on yet because we need to install some LEDs on the inside, as well as do some runic carvings on the front faces before they get glued on.

The little panels at the bottom are actually filled with concrete to hold them in place, and there's two PVC pipes that stick into the foam base that will get connected to r...

It’s Working!! 😁 Assembling the Gateway Parts.

Weren’t completely sure if our plan for assembling these giant things was going to work but it seems to be going just fine! We’re using the water-activated gorilla glue technique we used on the tombstones, but aligning the pieces with toothpicks so things stay in place. From there, blue painters tape holds everything together while the glue dries.

These sub-assemblies are like 7’ long and 14-16” wide. 😅 But...so far ...

176 Board Feet of Pink Foam...😅

We couldn’t fit it all in one picture...but we’ve got all our pieces cut for the Gateway. Next we’ll start assembling all our main structural pieces.

Also, we cut all these on the table saw and it was amazing! Like a hot knife through butter. 🔪🧈

Gateway to the Underworld! 🔥🔥🔥

Well, not quite yet. 🔥👹 Right now it’s just a sketch I did with my finger. BUT SOON! Soon it’ll be so much more!

We’re getting started on this tomorrow so we’ll keep you guys updated as we progress. This thing is going to be MONSTROUSLY AWESOME!

Foam. LEDs. Projections. Lighting. VFX. So much good stuff in this one. 🤘🏼😎

100K Silver Play Button!!! (We’re Excited) 😄

We got our silver play button from YouTube for reaching 100,000 subscribers!! Thanks guys!!! It’s an exciting day. Just the beginning!!

We posted on YouTube that, along with making more YouTube vids, we’re going to try some new stuff! One of those things is doing live streams on Twitch. We’ll be doing DIY projects, playing games, and hanging out in the evenings. We’re also thinking about doing a podcast as well.

<...

We made more Candy Slides! 🕷🤡

Hey y'all! Wanted to show you a fun project we just finished with Party City where we built some candy slides using a bunch of props from their store. Basically we started with some of the off-the-shelf props and then modified stuff to plus it and create some awesome candy slides! We made a spider themed one and a creepy carnival one as well.

Typically we build props from scratch but modifying existing ones can be a lot of fun ...

Aftershow 💀 Graveyard Tombstones!

Hey y'all! Jaimie and I sat down this morning and talked about our experience making the tombstones from our last video. Enjoy!

How to make Graveyard Tombstones for Halloween! 🎃

The Tombstones video is live! We had SO MUCH FUN making these. 😁 Wee now have a foam addiction. Unbelievably satisfying and fun to carve and manipulate this stuff into awesome props.

We're planning to pour some wine and do an Aftershow tonight so Patrons can look forward to that. Thanks for watching! 🎃💀🔥

Tombstones: All Washed Up! 💀

Since these are hundreds of years old, the dirt/grime/mold/etc. that will have built up on them over the years is substantial. That means we need to layer in all kinds of colors and make them look really old.

This is where layering comes in. You want to "build up" the layers of color and it helps give the illusion that these have been sitting in a cemetery for 300+ years.

We started with washes, which are basically watere...

Textured and...Stonified? 🤔

Stoneated? Stoned? Err, we made them look like stone! 🤪 After using the heat gun to give the flat surface of the foam some texture, we then painted on a thick coat of Drylock, which is a waterproof masonry sealer. It’s basically like a sandy paint that protects the prop while giving it a sandy, rough stone-like texture. We cover this in a lot of detail in the upcoming video.

Once this is dry, it’s onto our favorite part....

Tombstone Progress!!! 🎃💀

Cut. Shaped. Engraved. Cracked. Making GREAT progress! Next up is texturing and then we’ll attach the bases. From there it’s onto the hard coat and eventually paint and details.

We’ve done lots of tombstones in the past but we’ve never spent this much time on a pair of them like this. It’s really fun to focus on the intricate details. The results up close are SO AWESOME. 😄 Can’t wait you show you more!

~J &...

Change of Plans: Tombstones!

We ran into some snags on the coffin build so we’re putting that one aside for a bit. In its place, we’ve moved our tombstone build to the front of the list! 🤘🏼💀

In this video, we’ll be showing how we can use 2” foam from Home Depot/Lowes, a dremel, dry lock and some paint to easily create realistic tombstones.

Also puns, lots of puns.

New Wicked Makers T-Shirts Are Available!!! 💀

Finally!!!!!!! You can find them here: https://thewickedmakers.com/shop 

We've now got our Wood Skull design as well as our Logo T-Shirts available on our shop. There should be a full range of sizes available but please let us know if something isn't there that you need/want and we can likely add it. 

Remember to use your monthly $5 Coupon ...

Halloween 2020 Projects - Updated!

We were going to build a new version of our stand up coffin door for this year, but we realized it would WAY MORE FUN to do an actual, proper coffin prop! We started researching features and so far we're thinking about a somewhat rotted coffin with cracks and holes in the wood, a skeletal hand reaching out, probably fog and LEDs inside to give it that creepy, supernatural look.

Suddenly super inspired and excited about this. :D...

What’s on our Halloween Project List this Season? Help Us Decide!

Hey y’all! Today we wanted to share our Halloween project list and ask for your feedback. We might not get to all of these before the end of October so we’d love to hear which ones you’d like to see most. 👊🏼💀

Please consider voting in the poll below for ALL the options you want to see. :)

Five Must-Have Tools for Creating Awesome Halloween Decorations
This one is already shot and in edi...

September Coupon Code for Patrons!

A little late on this, sorry folks! :) Here is your coupon for $5 anything from our web store, good for the month of September:

SKELETONCREWSEPTEMBER

Hope everyone is doing well in these crazy times!

~Jay

Sneak Peak: New Wicked Makers T-Shirt Design!

We've been working with one of our favorite graphic designers to come up with a bunch of new shirts and we finally wrapped up one of them this week!

We're still working on what company we want to go with for getting these printed, and we're doing some tests to make sure we get super high quality shirts and that we're happy with the service they'll provide to anyone ordering them. Hoping to get through all this in the next coupl...

Saving Halloween! ...with PVC Pipe? 🤔

With all the talk about Halloween and trick or treating specifically being somewhat...questionable this year in the midst of COVID, Jaimie had an amazing idea to create a way to safely hand out candy to trick or treaters from 6’ away!

We’re working on a fun build with PVC pipes that is basically a “candy slide” that anyone can make and can be decorated in a variety of ways to suit your particular Halloween aes...

Our Halloween Storage Shed 🎃

Doing some cleaning and organizing today at home and we thought y’all might enjoy a look at where we store all our Halloween decorations. Everything basically gets meticulously organized into this entire half of our shed.

There’s at least five of our project videos in this photo...and quite a bit more that nobody has seen (yet). 😄

In other news, we started a new video today!! More on that soon... 😱

~Jay 2020-08-29 23:18:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Concrete End Table Video is Live!

Hey y'all! Happy Thursday and here's our latest video! We tried out a very new editing style on this video and we'd really appreciate your thoughts on it. It seems more energetic, more fun, and hopefully more engaging for you guys but please let us know. :)

Normally we try to get our videos out at least the day before for Patrons to get early access to but because of the new editing we were actually up most of the night finishi...

The Finished Concrete End Table

Lots of really interesting and challenging things on this project but we made it to the finish line.

Wanted you guys to see it first! 😄

This epoxy pour was definitely tricky... 😅

This one was tough!

The risk with this epoxy inlay was that if we poured too much resin, the hexagons would be above the surface and not flush. We’d then have to heavily sand down the entire surface to get the epoxy flush with the top which would have taken hours of ultra messy sanding and polishing to get back to a finish we liked.

On the other hand if we poured too little, t...

Floating Concrete Table - First Look!

Things are cruising along with our for concrete table build! Now that we’ve got the top demolded, we’ve started building the hardwood base. We designed a “floating” top to offset the otherwise heavy look of the concrete. Seemed like a really cool contrast. 😄

Also, trying out a new “blueprint” style that shows the shaded model. Any strong opinions?

Concrete Table Demold = Success!

Hey y’all! Wanted to share this photo with you because we’re crazy excited right now. 😄😄😄

We just demolded our first major concrete tabletop and it came out basically perfect! After a week or two of experiments and testing we were super nervous that something wouldn’t be quite right but luckily it came out awesome.

The hexagons will get an epoxy inlay next. Will keep ya posted! 👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼👊�...

August Merchandise Coupon! 💀

Hey y'all! Here's your $5 coupon for anything in the store on our website. Thank for your continued support. 👊🎃

Coupon Code (Enter at Checkout): SKELETONCREWAUGUST

You can find the store here: https://thewickedmakers.com/shop 

Early Access: Making Disneyland's "Fireflies" Effect!

What's up Skeleton Crew!! HALLOWEEN IS FINALLY HERE! Well, sort of. It's August. So we're good, right?! 😀

To kick off the season, we created a simple, DIY version of one of Disneyland's most iconic props: the fireflies from Pirates of the Caribbean! (You're really going to like this one!)

Check out the video above and let us know what you think in the comments. :)

The DIY Halloween Season is Here! And our First Project is... 🤩

Hey y’all! As you can imagine, we’re excited to get going on this year’s Halloween projects.

We’ve got a huge list going already, but to start, we’re recreating the Fireflies from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean! It’s a relatively simple build (and cheap, about $3 per firefly) and at night they produce a really charming and realistic effect.

We finished our first one yesterday and tested it last night...i...

Early Access: Making an Epoxy River...Swing!!

Enjoy! :) As always we'd love to hear any feedback on the video or the title and thumbnail.

July Merchandise Coupon for Patrons! 💀

Happy 4th of July, folks! 😄 Recently, we added a new benefit for everyone supporting us at the $5 level and above: a monthly $5 coupon for anything in our store!

Right now we just have digital plans and stickers but we've just started working with an amazing designer to create some real shirts (FINALLY) so this summer we'll have some seriously killer stuff in there!! (More on this later...)

Coupon Code (Enter at Checko...

The Swing Changed Color? 🤔

So...just one day after hanging the swing outdoors, a single day in the sun completely changed the color of the tinted epoxy to a teal blue. Crazy right? We expected some discoloration but not so much, so quickly. 😅

Though, we both like this color better. Just not sure how long it’ll stay that way.