# Rusty Lanterns



## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I have wanted to do this for a long time. I was aiming for this year when I saw the thread about what the stores were starting to carry recently. One of the items was a cheap lantern meant for tea lights. I would have preferred a kerosene lantern, but they were too expensive. I picked these up for $7 a piece. L.A. prices donchaknow.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

After disassembly, I used this stuff to frost the glass globes. From what I have seen, the spray looks better. This stuff took multiple coats, but it was a lot cheaper than the can of spray.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

From the inside, I sprayed a light coating of black primer on the upper end of the globe to simulate soot. You can also see that the first coat or two of frosting is on the outside.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Now, no real aged lantern makes it through life without a few knocks. I took a hammer and pounded the laterns out of shape. Be sure to be careful about where the cage bars mount, if you pound the hole in the sheet metal it might not line up again when it comes to re-assembly.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I sprayed all of the lantern parts with red primer.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I really love the lanterns you get to see at Disneyland's Pirates of the Carribean. I just don't love that you also see the wires. So, I am going to attempt to try and hide them. This is one reason I wanted a kerosene lantern, the legs on the sides are hollow and thick enough to run the wires inside of them. But this is what I decided to do instead.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I'm using door bell wire and am gluing it on to the lantern with Cyanoacrylic (Krazy type) glue. I also drilled holes to run the wires where needed.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

The clothes pins were to hold the wire while the glue dried. I also had to choose which side of the lantern would be the back. I ran the wires along the back side. This is an image of the wires glued in place.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Once I ran the wire inside of the upper lantern body I then ran the wires along the inside of the rear metal cage bars. Again, with the glue and clothes pins.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Here you can see a little better how the wires are run. That big hole in the bottom of the upper lantern body is a problem, especially if these end up out in the rain. I'll get to that next.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I traced the hole and then cut plastic plugs out of a milk jug. I decided the plastic was too opaque and enventually switched to another type from a peanut jar.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

On the bottom of the lower lantern body is an insert that can be removed. The insert is intended for a tea light. I didn't want to use a real tea light, and the LED type don't produce enough light for my needs, so I wired in a candelabra socket. I found out later there is more than one size of candelabra, regular and mini. This one isn't the regular.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Globes are complete. Runs, well, they happened on accident. Its more spooky though; right?


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I used this clear plastic for the plugs instead. Lets light through to the top of the lantern much better.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I hot glued the wires inside the lantern where possible. I wanted to prevent chafing and possbily causing a short.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Hot glued the clear plug in. Now the rain can't get to the socket, but the light still shines up through the top of the lantern.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Starting reassembly. It is like trying to herd cats. I had to hot clue the back side of the screws, the sheet metal is pretty poor and doesn't hold well the second time you use the same holes.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Reassembly is complete. I think it looks pretty darn good. And, the wires are difficult to make out. It would have been easier to run the wires out the bottom of the base, but these will be hanging hence the added task of hiding them.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I will be hanging the lanterns from some dowel rod. This is a little bigger than a quarter in diameter. I cut it to length and sawed a notch in one end to rest the handle of the lantern in.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I went caveman and pounded the ends of the dowel into my cement patio to make the ends look like they had been hammered. I didn't notice if my neighbors saw me doing this. Better if they didn't. Do this before cutting the notch to hang the lantern, the notch creates a weak spot in the wood.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I figured, in the dark, it would be difficult to see grain in the wood. So, I made it obvious. I dragged my saw sideways the length of the dowel rod to enhance the wood's grain.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Here we are so far. I drilled all the way up the dowel from the rear to the notch. I then ran the door bell wire from the notch to the rear of the dowel. I pulled all the slack out of the wire until the handles rested in the notches.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Remember the wrong socket? Yeah, me too. Well, this is the correct socket.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I wired the socket and gave it a test. I also made sure the base was centerd in the tea light carrier. Looks like it works! Time to mount it and make the holder water tight too.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I had never used this stuff before, and now I want about 2,000 gallons of it just to experiment with. It is so cool! It makes me feel spaaacial. It is a two part resin. You measure out equal parts by volume, not by weight or by a ratio. Once mixed you have a pot life of 3 mintues, better work quickly! Once cured, you just made plastic! I used this to mount my light socket and seal the base all at once. It is from SmoothOn and is the Smooth Cast 321... I think. They have different types, most of which cure more slowly. (I was even thinking, I could make parts for around the house when something breaks.)

Bad pic, sorry.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Here I'm pouring the mix into the tea light base. I'm being careful not to pour it on to the light and fixture itself.

Love this stuff!!


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

And...... cured!










I sealed any holes, prior to pouring the Smooth On, with a dot of hot glue.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I cut a flame shaped stencil out of some cardboard to make soot tracks on the openings of the lantern.










And this is the result.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

I made a version of monster mud with joint compound and atrist's acrylics and used that to give the rust I wanted to apply some texture. I used a burnt sienna I think. Anyway, came out really light and got me a little freaked out because it looked really bad. It is the lantern on the right. The lantern on the left has had some extra weathering done to it; rinses and washes and straight acrylic paints such as burnt sienna, burt umber and brown. Now, it's starting to look really old and haunted!


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

The completed weathering of the lanterns.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Otaku let us know how to use tea and iron acetate (steel wool soaked in vinegar) to age wood. I did exactly that. The dowel rod on the right is only stained with the tea. The dowel rod on the left has the tea and the iron acetate.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

And now, a little video of the lanterns in action. I may use a brighter bulb, but who knows...






YouTube video is darker than the original, but you get the idea.

Hope you like it, maybe you can use it. If you have comments, let me know!


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## Terror Tom (Nov 3, 2008)

Those are really awsome. I love flicker effect.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks Tom!
Update: I decided to seal the work by spraying Rustoleum Clear Matte. It isn't really matte. Grrrrrr. I could make a wash of the acrylics I used to paint the lanterns in the first place and return them to matte. But, I would rather spray them. Any suggestions on a truly matte finish spray paint?


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## Spider Rider (Nov 3, 2006)

Sorry about the matte finish. I think your lamps look fantastic as is and the hammer gives them a realistic and antique look. I love the orange dim flicker bulbs.


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## Wyatt Furr (Aug 27, 2005)

These really turned out nice. Thank you for taking the time to post a tutorial.


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## Doc Doom (Oct 7, 2009)

Great job! Good how-to, although I missed the flicker light part. Is it the light bulb or the circuit?
Thanks.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Thank you Spider Rider. I layered a wash with the acrylic paints, it helped. May have to do another.

You're welcome Wyatt Furr. I try to take the time to document my work these days, specifically for tutorials. I hope I provide enough info for some one to follow, if they chose.

Well Doc Doom. Nice catch. I've been busted. It is not a flicker bulb. It is an incandescent bulb, like for a night light or chandelier. The bulb is in the photos. I thought about using tea lights, but they are too dim. All my flame effects this year will be done using incandescent bulbs. The flicker is created via a random number generating circuit.


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## bldaz (Jun 4, 2010)

*Lanterns*

Excellent work really, nice work around with all the issues that came up. I like the "go caveman on it". 
Probably a noob question but i'll ask anyway, Where do you find a random number generating circuit?
Thanks for the tutorial.


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## Nightmare_trance (Sep 10, 2008)

These are wicked good!!! I'm headed to the store this afternoon. Thank you for the tut.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Nightmare, have fun with this!

Bldaz, figured if I went prehistoric on it I would just have to start over and get new lanterns, so I stayed with going caveman on it. Nope that isn’t a noob question. Read on.

I expect most of you have seen this. When I was a kid, and to this day for that matter, I always loved the waiting area for Pirates of the Caribbean. I would now also add Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom waiting area to that. They both have these lanterns that have this slow smooth random undulation in brightness and frequency that just mesmerizes me. Part of the fascination, for me, has been knowing they aren’t real flames and yet not being able to figure out how Disney Imagineers pulled it off. I even went so far as to guess there was a slowly spinning disc with a contact arm and varialble resistance as the disc spun around, thus changing the light flicker. But that didn’t pan out because it never repeats the pattern These lanterns looked so incredibly real to me. Another trick they have is being able to terminate the effect and go to full steady bright when needed, such as during a ride breakdown.
Since my childhood I have wanted some of these for my own. I would put them on the patio and in the back yard today if I had them.
When I decided to start haunting my own yard one of the first items on my agenda was recreating these lanterns. I couldn’t find a single source for them online. I then stumbled across Halloween Forum and joined up right away. I thought I was in Valhalla. I thought being a specialized forum as it is I had found my source for figuring out how to achieve the Disney lantern effect. Naturally, one of the first things I started researching on Halloween forum was flickering lights. 
I found the threads for using a fluorescent starter. I thought it couldn’t be that easy but gave it a shot all the same. Wow, it really created a cool effect, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.
I also tried the flicker bulb/dimmer switch/photovoltaic cell method. http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=10292. I built two of these and, at least for me, they didn’t measure up. I got them to work, but never as well as in the video. Besides, they are quite large, exposed to the weather and only run one light. My search continued.
I even tried plain old flicker bulbs, cool, but again, not the same.
I came across a circuit diagram on line. It showed me exactly how to build an entire circuit board to make my lights flicker. Problem was, it seemed very difficult and possibly pricey, and there was no guarantee it would produce what I was after. I studied the diagram numerous times but it went way beyond my scope on electrical circuit boards. That went by the wayside too.
LED tealights came to the market but they were far too dim, and also looked a little off to me.
I also went and took a look at the commercially available stuff here: http://www.northcountryradio.com/index.htm#anc444 Maybe they work, they actually looked pretty good. But I wasn’t convinced. They also aren’t weather resistant and only run one bulb and are too expensive to run one bulb.
I kept on searching. You can relate, I searched for months, maybe a year.
I finally started searching with special effects and amusement parks in the title. And I started running across some stuff, the most interesting of which was W.T.Kirkman. Here was a unit that made a bulb act exactly like a flickering flame. One tiny box to run one bulb. It is small enough to build right into my props and is simple to wire. And, I was willing to pay around $10 a piece, and up to $20. I was sold. I then went to purchase one and the price turned out to be $150!!!! Holy…..! The price has since come down and is now only $100. But, whoa, $100 to make one bulb flicker. I decided I really wanted this but not at that price. Anyway, the FauxFlame can be found here: http://www.lanternnet.com/fauxflame.htm
By now I had pretty much given up entirely. This seemed like something I would have to make from scratch. As luck would have it I happened to meet an electrical engineer. I told him the properties I wanted and that I could build it myself it he simply showed me what to do. He promised to look into it and get back to me. A few weeks later he gave me a call but told me he had no luck and had even spoken with some of his colleagues and they had also drawn blanks. Their sticking point was the randomness of the both the brightness and the up and down ramping and pausing. They couldn’t duplicate it reasonably. (they did suggest I use a flicker bulb or fluorescent starter) That was over a year ago, possibly two. I have since been keeping an eye out for something to fit my needs and kept looking for new threads regarding flickering lights here on Halloween Forum.
About a year ago I ran across yet another lead online. It is for a small circuit board that is encased in epoxy, making it weather proof. The site even has a video which shows a lantern, and three vanity lights. The lantern looks like it even comes from the Indiana Jones ride. I was hoping this guy wasn’t about to break my heart too. The model I became interested in, and eventually purchased, has five channels. Each channel can be used for a bulb. Each channel is completely random, and has nothing to do with the other channels. You could run a cluster of five candles/lanterns next to each other and none of them would match the others. If you noted in the video I posted, the lanterns are not in sync and are on completely separate random sequences. So, one unit is good for five bulbs. But wait, there’s more. Each channel is actually good for 100W. That means, if I use 4W bulbs I can place 25 on one channel. Of course all twenty five would run the same sequence simultaneously, but I can spread them throughout my haunt and not near one another. With five channels I can now run a total of 125, 4W bulbs. The only catch is to stay below a total of 100W per channel. Other combinations of bulb wattages would yield different numbers. The cost for one of these units is….. $150!! Now you are talking my language!! I have no intention of running 125 bulbs, but knowing I can expand every year is priceless. Growing with the unit is very appealing to me. There are additional features I won’t detail here. There are also other models available, and they are all CHEAPER than this one. (this would be where someone comes along and tells me that I can make the same thing by using a used Furbee, duct tape, tinsel, an electric nose hair trimmer, tampon and two stroke engine for $4.67. Hehe)
Why am I taking so long to tell you all of this? I spent a lot of time trying to find this little jewel, and I am having difficulty just offering it up without having made an effort at expressing how I struggled. I kinda feel I earned this gadget, not just purchased it. It’s my ‘precious.’ May sound insignificant to some, but I am sure there are other haunters here who had difficulty releasing information or a how-to before having some personal time with it. Sob.
This being Halloween Forum, I guess the motto is to share. The circuit is called a SimFlame and can be looked at and purchased here: http://www.simflame.com/ 

I hope the SimFlame delights all of you as much as it delights me.


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## bldaz (Jun 4, 2010)

Excellent, I know exactly how you feel. Blood, sweat, and tears (and profane words) often accompany me on my exploits. Thank you


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## Spider Rider (Nov 3, 2006)

Man, Mikebru that is quite a tale. I went back to your video to truly appreciate what was going on there. VERY COOL. Many thanks for sharing!


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## Brother Grim (Oct 26, 2009)

> random number generating circuit


I'm not familiar with this... can you explain it?

Great job on the lights. At first I was thinking way too much brown and then in the video with the lighting effects they look really cool.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Bldaz, Spider Rider- Aw shucks man, thanks for the compliments.

Brother Grim- The circuit is a SimFlame. I don't know how it is made but do assume it has some sort of chip in it. I think that chip constantly generates a random number. Say 0 equals the bulb is off and 100 equals the bulb is on full bright. Numbers between 0-100 are increasing levels of brightness. If that chip is generating random numbers between 0 and 100 and another circuit samples that random number from time to time (sampling also done at a random rate) you then set a point for the brightness to go to. For example: If the bulb is currently at a brightness of 20 and the circuit checks the random number generator and finds a number of 50, the circuit will now brighten the bulb to a level of 50, when the circuit checks the random number again and gets an 86 it will now brighten the bulb to level 86, check the random number again and get a 41, the bulb is now dimmed to level 41. Since there seems to be no pattern for the effect I have to wonder if there isn't a random number generator. 

Still confused? Ever use a slot machine? They, supposedly, have a random number generator on board to keep play 'fair' so that no body and no machine can predict the outcome. When you hit 'play' the computer makes a calcution of the outcome of your game based on the random number you chose when you hit 'play'. The random number generator is constantly spitting out completely random numbers, hitting 'play' just happens to pick the random number that was spit out the instant you hit the button.

I think the SimFlame has something similar on board. I could be totally wrong, it could have pixie dust in it for all I know. I am just going off of my observation that the effect cannot be predicted and shows no pattern. The only way I am aware of making that happen is via a random number generator.

Hope that helps.

BTW, if you cover up one of the lanterns, say with your thumb, while watching the video it gives you a better sense of the flame effect. Watching just one lantern you get the idea, because you really can't figure out what it will do next. And each lantern is random.


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## Brother Grim (Oct 26, 2009)

nah great response thank you. This sim flame, is it something you buy or is it a lighting controller? Feel free to say google it you lazy ass


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

Brother Grim- You are welcome. The SimFlame address is listed above. It is a device that you purchase to control your lights. Read my large post above. To save you time the address again is: http://www.simflame.com/


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## Brother Grim (Oct 26, 2009)

ah thanks very much. You know I was wondering why I was so blind and then I figured it out... I didn't notice there was a second page lol. Now it's time to go back and read the second page


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## Brother Grim (Oct 26, 2009)

Mike, much respect, admiration, and thanks for your sharing. I read the post and I totally understand where you're coming from. I also feel like more of an ask just for asking for the link lol.

I think you have it dead on though, the idea is to share and while sometimes I find it rough to just give out information, I always come back to the realization that without this and other sites, my props woudn't be as good.

Great find, and to repay you here's something that will make you laugh...

I'm in the process of finishing my basement and I decided to float the idea of an old mine themed space. She thinks I'm nuts lol...


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

She may think you're nuts for an old mine theme, she'll understand the depth of your insanity when you announce the old mine will be PERMANENT. Hey, she married you, nobody was twisting her arm.... were they? LOL

I started working on Halloween 2010 in May, I'm normal; right? WE think I am at any rate. _Muuhaahhaaa burrrrp_.


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## MikeBru (Jul 30, 2009)

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I remembered Testor's Dullcoat from my model railroad days. I sprayed it on and after it dried it completely fixed my shiny lantern problem. They are now completely flat. Yippee!


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