# Giant Spider Build



## JohnGalt (Oct 10, 2013)

After seeing tons of giant spider props on here that have been made, I decided that was going to be my big project for this year. Keeping in mind the help I got from other tutorials and pictures, I tried to remember to document my build to share with the forum. I'll post the build here, and the final pictures (eventually) in the Props section.

Similar to many others, I decided on a giant beach ball for the abdomen. Instead of having it completely round, I wanted to add in a part where the spinnerets would go. To make the shape, I taped some foam pool noodles to the ball and filled in with newspaper-filled plastic bags:














I did several layers of paper mache to get a solid shape - leaving an opening to eventually remove the beach ball. During this time, I also saw some videos about paper mache clay, and though that might be a good thing to try to get a different texture and make the abdomen much more sturdy. Here's what it looked like when I first started:








During the drying downtime for all this, I worked on the PVC frame for the legs and the pool noodle/styrofoam body:














Once I had the basic body finished up, I took some time to figure out exactly how big I wanted to make the legs. I also wanted to have the legs posed so that it looked like the spider was in the middle of crawling, so I did a lot of remeasuring and posing with different PVC connectors. I had to use my heat gun to change the angles a bit (all I had were 45- and 90-degree connectors). Here's the first test of everything together:








I labelled all the leg pieces and marked the positions of all the connections (so that I wouldn't forget how to put it all back once I started gluing it all together). I used Gorilla Glue for all the connections, and then masking tape for added stability:














I then started adding the pool noodles to the PVC leg frames. My original plan was to just slip them over the PVC, but I couldn't do it really well because of the angles I had made. For some leg pieces I had to cut a line down the foam to more easily get it on, but now I was stuck with an open end that showed the frame. I was thinking I could maybe heat the foam to "melt" the separate pieces together, but that didn't quite work. I also didn't want to tape or glue the pieces, because I figured it wouldn't look quite right, so I had to brainstorm a bit on what to do next.

At the same time, I also was realizing that my abdomen piece was a bit too heavy to be off the ground, as I had originally planned. While it wasn't going to be terrible to have it on the ground, I was trying to come up with a way to elevate it. I took a break at this point and focused on another project (to be featured in a separate post).

Not sure how much info I can put in one posting, so to be continued....


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## J-Man (Feb 1, 2011)

Looks good so far. Not sure where you're gonna place her but you can use a thin cable to support the body. If there's nothing directly overhead, stretch a horizontal cable between 2 points and a vertical cable down to the body.


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## JohnGalt (Oct 10, 2013)

I decided that an "easy" fix for my leg dilemma was to do some plastic corpsing on them. I wrapped plastic sheets around the foam and used a heat gun to shrink it. I did several layers, and was able to get some great texture in the foam and from some of the plastic bubbling up:














I wasn't sure exactly how much of the body I was going to have cover the PVC frame where the legs connected, so I decided to put foam noodles on that as well. I did the same corpsing technique to tie it in to the legs:








Because of the way I positioned the legs, I didn't quite have enough support for the body, so I screwed in some metal posts underneath the board I had the PVC frame attached to. This was the test of the build once the legs were completed:







And the painted legs:








I was about to start paper mache on the body at this point, but I was thinking that maybe the torso and abdomen parts would look "off" from the legs. After thinking about it a bit more, I had an idea to try corpsing the whole thing. My thought was that I could make a plastic shell around the paper mache piece I had made, and this would solve my weight problem. I was excited that I solved the problem:














As it turns out, once I cut off the plastic shell, it wasn't as solid as I imagined it would be, and I had to figure out what to fill it with. I actually tried some fence foam from Home Depot (after seeing a video from StiltBeast on YouTube), but that turned out to not fill out as much as I thought, and added significantly more weight than I expected. So, taking a break to do some house cleaning, I came across a bag of bubble wrap I had been trying to figure out what to do with - and I found my "filler" for the abdomen!








With that done, I then focused on the rest of the body and getting the eyes positioned:













Lots of plastic "sculpting" with a heat gun:








And finally, everything getting painted:








I'll get another post for the final test pics in the props section, as well as the pics from when I set it up next week!


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## Mapleton Manor (Aug 2, 2014)

My body was a bit heavy as well with its large legs that span 15 feet. I simply took a peice of 3/8" rod and ran it from the bottom of the body to the ground and painted it black.


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## JohnGalt (Oct 10, 2013)

Apparently I did something wrong, and part 2 with the rest of the build pics didn't get posted. Will have to try it again later...


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## JohnGalt (Oct 10, 2013)

So here's the rest of the build notes:

I figured out that the best option to get the legs how I wanted them was to follow the plastic corpsing method. This made sure the foam was sealed and secure, and also gave a nice creepy texture:














I wasn't sure how much of the torso was going to cover the PVC frame at this point, so I decided to put foam and the heat-wrap the plastic on all the connections for the legs:








Here was the test shot with all the legs finished. I found that the torso was going to be too heavy, and I needed to screw some threaded poles into the wooden base in order to keep everything elevated:








At this point, I was about to start on getting the torso made with paper mache, but I didn't know how well the legs would match the body. It got me thinking that I should use the same technique with the heated plastic sheets. I then had a revelation about the abdomen - I could use the paper clay piece that I had made and use it to mold a plastic shell. This would be a much lighter body piece that I would then be able to elevate much more easily:














Unfortunately, after I got done and peeled it off, it turned out to be a bit more flimsy than I had anticipated. I tried to figure out what I could use to fill the shell and make it more stable, but nothing worked too well. After taking a break to do some house cleaning, I came across a bag of bubble wrap that I had set aside until I could get rid of it. That's when I knew I had found my filler material!







Now I was able to have the body all elevated without having to add any more poles to keep it up.


It was fairly simple to wrap things up after that. I worked on the eyes (ping pong balls cut in half for the big ones, and some spare plastic caps I had lying around for the small ones) and finished building the base of the torso:














I worked on the plastic "sculpting" by just adding more plastic sheets and twisting/molding as I went along:








Then i just had to work on painting everything in a few coats of black semi-gloss enamel:








The almost-final pics are in my other thread. Going to take more pictures once I get him / her / it (haven't decided which) set up on the big night!


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## Rigormortor (Sep 7, 2009)

Great idea with the pool noodles im looking to build a bigger spider for next year. I will try the pool noodles
also. I will build this in the spring or summer after the cold winter passes. And when pool noodles come back around
LOL


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## Robin_G (Nov 1, 2017)

Great info! My wife and I are planning to do something like this for 2018.


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## DandyBrit (Sep 6, 2013)

Nice project - even though I have a bit of a thing about spiders.


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## Devil (Oct 19, 2008)

I made mine about 5 years ago. You might adjust the rear legs some to stand on its own..


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