# Beloved Tombstone



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Note: This is a repost of an old tutorial whose links to pictures were broken with the software update at HF.

I tried my hand at making the Beloved Tombstone by somewhat using the instructions at Haunted Webby - Alice Tombstone. I got additional ideas from Kevin at Brewster's Yard haunt at http://www.fulcrumsites.com/haunt/html/new_props_1.html From what I can gather, the Beloved Tombstone was created by https://castleblood.com/ If anyone knows more history about this great idea, please let me know.










Okay, so you've decided to tackle this daunting project. KUDOS! I thoroughly enjoyed working on her in my spare time and I'm sure you will too.

You will need:
One and a quarter sheet of 4'X 8', 1-1/2" thick blue or pink foamboard
Fancy thrift store small-sized dress with a train, high neck and sleeves
Med curly long wig (named ‘Seduction’ wig)
Styrofoam head
Foamboard adhesive
Can of cheap flat spray paint
Monster mud (4 gal drywall compound mixed with 1 gal exterior flat gray paint)
1 gal gray Drylok, latex base
1 qt. exterior flat dark gray paint
1 qt. exterior flat white paint
Small tube raw umber acrylic paint
Chicken wire
Scraps of muslin fabric or sheet fabric
1 roll mesh drywall tape
Some wire (I used 16 gauge)
Pkg. model magic
10 pipe cleaners
1-2 tubes exterior caulk
4' X 2' plywood board
Elmer's wood putty
Bag of moss
Set of flicker candle lights (see candle tutorial)

Tools:
Dremel with cutter attachment and multipurpose cutting bit
Jig saw
3" brush, 1 1/2" angled brush, small and large detail brush
Drywall mixer attachment and drill
Caulk gun
Stanley SureForm Shaver










Make the stone: I didn't take measurements as I made this so hopefully these measurements will work. Using your jig saw, cut the following out of your foamboard:

Front: 28" X 28"
Back: 28" X 28"
Top: 31" X 18"
Bottom: 28" X 18"
Side A: 29" X18"
Side B: 29" X 18"
T-Brace side A: 28 1/2" X 12"
T-Brace side B: 28 1/2" X 12"
T-Brace center: 15" X 15"










In the first picture you will get an idea of what you are building. You are building a box with a center support. First cut out, with your Dremel, a 1/2" deep channel in the T-Brace sides so the T-Brace center will snug up into it. Glue together with foamboard adhesive.

Using the assembled T-Brace, trace out onto the inside bottom of the box. Cut another 1/2" channel with the Dremel. Glue in place.

Start to assemble, but do not glue yet, the box (use painter's tape to hold in place). Be sure that the top of the box is being nicely supported. File down with the Shaver, if needed.










Epitaph: Before gluing the box together, cut out your epitaph on the front foam.

In 'Word' find the font and size you like. Then go under the format tools and select 'emboss' to just outline the font and then go under 'spacing' and make the space between the letters bigger. If the words were too big to fit on one page, still print it but tape the letters together. Place it over the tombstone and transfer the drawing by tracing over the outline with a pen. It would leave an impression on the foam. Remove the paper and make a clearer line with the pen.

Use the Dremel with the multi-purpose cutting attachment to cut out. For very small or detailed fonts, go shallower. If not, the centers of 'e', 'o' and 'a' would flake off.










Glue and Shape Stone: Now you can glue your box all together. Don't worry if your cuts aren't perfect, that's what the wood putty is for. Glue with foamboard adhesive and hold all together with painter's tape and weigh down. Let dry overnight. Repeat if some sides still need to be glued down (I had to turn over the box two additional times).

File down using your Shaver to make it look more like rough, aged stone. Then, fill any open seams with wood putty.










Spray Paint: Now, the fun part. Take outside and hit it hard with strong sprays of cheap, flat spray paint. You are trying to get the dissolving effect when spray paint touches raw foam.

Note: I’ve since moved away from using spray paint and exclusively use hand-applied acetone. But, using spray paint is still a good and fast way to add damage and decay to the Styrofoam so it doesn’t look so new.










Beloved's Body: First off, I wanted her to be a very small woman. So, her scale is more like the size of a 14-year-old girl. I thought that would look more feminine and the stone could be smaller-sized.

Take your small dress and place on the stone to see how your pose will look. For mine, I had her resting her head on her right hand and her left arm was hanging down over the stone (like she was sleeping).

For her left arm, measure the sleeve from the shoulder to the wrist to see how long her arm needs to be. Cut out a section of chicken wire to that length. Then roll up and hold together with some wire. For the upper part of her arm, cut out another section of chicken wire and roll that around the top part of her arm. Hold together and give shape by wrapping mesh drywall tape around it. Bend the arm at her elbow to your desired position.










Wrap arm: Wrap the muslin or sheet fabric around the arm and hold in place with the mesh drywall tape.










Wrap Rest of Body: Do the same procedure for her right arm and torso. In the last picture, you can see her taking shape. I didn't tie her arms to the torso because the dress will hold them in place, and you need the flexibility.










Test Fit: To help her stay in the correct angle on the stone, glue a piece of foam on the top of the stone.

Prop her up so you can see how big you need to make the plywood for her base. In the picture you will see that I had the train of her dress down. I decided after I took this picture that I like the cascading effect of her train up better. Plus, the compactness was nice. Could you image how big it would be otherwise?










Glue and Drylok: Here, you can see the plywood base better. Using foamboard adhesive, glue the stone to the plywood well. Let dry overnight and then give it it's first coat of gray Drylok. Let dry overnight again.










Monster Mud: Prepare to get messy. Mix 4 gallons of drywall compound with 1 gallon of exterior gray flat paint because you will want a thinner than normal monster mud mix. YOU WILL NEED A DRYWALL MIXER ATTACHMENT! Mix and mix and mix....

Use the restroom, put on your painting clothes, don some rubber gloves and take a big swig from your wine. Slather some monster mud into the sleeve of her dress and spread around so it is coated. Then, coat her arm and insert into the sleeve. Repeat for the other arm. Repeat again for the torso and then again for her head. Zip up the dress. Now, coat the outside of the sleeves and bodice of her dress. Okay, top half is done.

Pull up her dress until you get to the inside layer. Slather on and coat the mud onto the inside layer (both sides) and then the outside layer. I realized that when I got to her outside layer, it was easier if I propped her up on the stone and I sat on the floor so I could painstakingly rub in the monster mud into the toile and sheer lace so it got completely coated but still kept some of the details of her dress. The whole process took about 3 hours and would be tough to take a break (you will get dirty) so plan ahead.










Before you get your well-deserved glass of wine… Look at her position and adjust before the Monster mud dries. For example, noticed that the way she was posed her butt stuck up in the air. Not very lady-like and suggestive. Obviously, not the look I was going for. Because her torso was made of chicken wire – it was easy to press her hips down to flatten. Plus, it added to the look that she died in place while grieving. Of course, her body would have sunken over time. This picture shows just how flat her hips were pressed down over the stone.










How it looked when dry.










Another view of the monster mud once it dried.










Hands: Trace out your hand on a piece of paper. Then Google a picture of a skeleton hand and draw out the structure of the bones onto your drawing. Shrink down the image to match her size. Then place wire to the lengths of the five fingers. Tape to hold in place. Wrap a pipe cleaner around each finger so the Model Magic will have something to grab onto. Using your hand as a model, bend into your desired shape. In the picture, this is the hand she will be resting her head on.










Finish Hands: Grab a finger-sized piece of Model Magic and smash onto a finger and squish down and shape to resemble bone. Do that for the whole hand. Let dry overnight. Stick into some leftover foam and coat with Drylok. Let dry and do another coat.

Attach her hand with wire to the inside of her sleeve or arm (whatever works).










Monster Mud Hair: Whoo hoo! Fun with monster mud again. First, brush out the wig so there are no tangles. Don the rubber gloves and dip the wig into the monster mud and squeeze out the extra. Fit onto her head.

Now, the hard part: To get her curls to come back you must reform them piece by never-ending piece. Flip all the hair up and separate out the bottom layer of the wig. You will see that bottom layer because that's how they make wigs, layer by layer. Take a section of that layer and make a curl and put in place. Keep doing that until you finish the layer. Then get another layer and repeat, repeat, repeat... There must be about 12 or so layers (depends on the wig). By the way, the wig I used is called the Seduction wig (they still make it!) and it doesn't matter what the color is.










Drylok Beloved: Now do your first coat of Drylok on her (do the tombstone again as well). Take your time here. You want to make sure you get all the monster mud covered. But don't worry too much, you get to do two more coats. heh. The reasons you want to do a total of three coats is to stiffen her up, make sure she is waterproof and the thicker the paint, the more she looks like stone. Let dry overnight between each coat. The pictures show the progression of each coat of Drylok.










Fill Holes in Hair: Even after three coats of Drylok, her hair still has lots of openings that rain could get in. So, I plugged them up with paper towels and then put several more coats of Drylok over that. I'm warning you...you will get sick of Drylok by this point.

Continued...


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Painting Beloved:





This video demonstrates a quick rundown of the painting technique used on Beloved. It shows my early style of painting tombstones and …admittedly, it has evolved but it’s a great beginner’s way of doing it.










Paint Epitaph and Crevices: Using a small detail brush and dark gray exterior paint, paint the inside of the epitaph. Using a larger detail brush, paint the crevices but also feather out to the edges.

Tea-staining (not-pictured): Water down your dark gray exterior paint. Using your angle brush, roughly drip the paint over the top of the tombstone and help brush it down. Do it repeatedly until you like the look. You are trying to make it look like this stone has been in the weather forever.










Drybrushing: This is the miracle step. Get a dry 3-inch brush and dip it in slightly grayed white exterior flat paint. Brush it dry on a paper towel. Then lightly brush the entire tombstone. This will paint only the raised edges of the tombstone and you will be amazed at the transformation. Instantly your tombstone will look like real stone.










Make it ancient: Raw Sienna is the perfect orangy color to add a rust-colored lichen look. Have some of the paint straight and have some of it lightly mixed with the white and dark exterior flat paint. Using the angled brush, dry-brush paint streaks down some areas of the tombstone. Switch it up with the lighter paint to add depth.










Make it more ancient: To add a white-lichen look, put some of the white exterior flat paint on your pallet and very, very slightly darken it with some of your dark gray paint. Get a rag and dip it into the paint and dry off a bit on a paper towel. Then hit the tombstone a couple of times to get the look you want. In the picture, you will see it I hit the back of the tombstone with it.










Moss (not pictured): Add moss in some random places using a hot glue gun.

Seal Bottom: Turn onto her side. Before the picture was taken, you would have seen large and small openings on the bottom of her dress where bugs and water could get in. To fix: use scrap chicken wire and foam shreds to help fill in large holes. Then put a heavy coat of caulk over all to help seal. Let dry overnight and then caulk any remaining holes. Let dry again. Drylok the entire bottom with two coats (let dry in between) and then a final coat of whatever exterior flat paint you have left. Let dry again. Laugh every time you see her upside down.










Finished: Here's a better view of the moss that was added. Step back, admire your creation and have another glass of wine....










Ahhhh, you are all done. Now the next challenge is to keep the kiddies from hitting it with sticks to see if it is really stone (they are so lucky I'm the laid back, cool neighbor lady).






In the graveyard at night.






Made a short video answering some questions about Beloved that you might also have.


I was an instructor of a Prop Building Thread for Beloved. Though the links to pictures were broken with the software update at HF, the thread is chock full of lots of great questions/answers regarding Beloved: https://www.halloweenforum.com/threads/project-3-terras-beloved-tombstone-students-thread.76644/


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