# Back Rider Prop / Costume (Building Thread Lots of Pics)



## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

It is costume building time. I was trying to think of something cool to do for a costume for the party we are putting on. I wanted something really cool and super cheap to make. I am severely poor right now. A friend of mine is making Spooky Blue's Scare Crow which I really love. I thought of making it into a shorter stalker costume. I could set myself up as a display at the party and scare the crap out of people as they walk by. The other thing I saw was the Back Riders here. I thought the idea was pretty cool but their guys are waaaaaaayyyy over priced and not that creepy. I really really liked was skull and bone's pumpkin guy. Man I love him he is sooooo creepy and I could make him into a back rider. 

So here is the concept. I am going to skull and bone's pumpkin guy into a back rider but I wanted to take it several steps past that. I want to make it appear that he has killed me with vines that are controlling me. 
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BACK RIDER DETAILS:*
Here is what I want to do with the back rider. I want to make is so that his head can look back and fourth. I am not sure if I am going to make it motorized or if I will attach hidden cables and run them through his body to the back sides of his legs where I can control it. I will also make the hands and arms movable as well. I don't know if I am going to make them independent of one another or tie them together. I believe that I am going to have to tie them together and work it the same way the head would work by running a cable down the body. So basically as I pull the cable the one of the arms would move in and the fingers would grasp at the same time. I will have red ultra bright leds lighting up the head cavity. At the least I will put some kind of small battery powered speaker in his head and run it to my small mp3 player so I can make him say stuff or I may get one of those voice changing things and put it in his head. I will have the vines covering half my face so that people wouldn't see me talking so it would look like he is the one alive. 
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COSTUME DETAILS:*
I will also have one of the vines go through my back and come out my chest in a very bloody fashion. I will have vines of some kind wrapped around my neck , wrists and possibly my face. I plan on making my self look more like a corpse that he strangled. 


Ok here is the start. I went shopping and didn't spend much at all for everything like under $30 but I already had some of the stuff. Here is what I got and from where.

*Michaels*or craft store
Carvable foam pumpkin head. I got one of the medium sized ones for $6. They had them marked down 40%. DO NOT BUY FUNKINS they are a huge rip off. They had generic brand versions for half the price and they look identical.

a roll of yarn (for the texture of him) $2.50?

paper rope stuff (for the texture as well) $1

plastic fall leaves ($5 for a 10' length on sale) (Try goodwill for some of those crappy wreaths or place settings for under $8)

acrylic craft paint pumpkin orange, yellow, red, hunter green, brown, and black. (Got 8 2oz tubes for $0.79 each)



*Menards:*

1 1/4" PVC 10' (For main body construction) 
(2) 1/2" PVC 10'

1/2" HPVC 10' (is the thinnest pvc you can buy)(Going to use it for bones in the forearm)

All for $8 or so

(MAKE SURE TO BRING A HACK SAW WITH YOU OR YOU WILL PAY DOUBLE THE PRICE TO GET 5' LENGTHS THAT WOULD FIT IN YOUR CAR. They charge nearly the same price for 5' lengths as they do for 10'. Buy the 10' lengths and cut them in half at your trunk. I did it in 2 minutes and saved my self $8 ).

(All 1 1/4" PVC connectors)(25cents Cheaper at lowes)

(2) 90 deg 
(3) T connectors
(1) 4 way
(4) 45 deg

PVC Glue $3

long thin door hinge (around 4" long on one side of the hinge by 1 1/4" tall) $2 (used for the head and neck movement)

(2) smaller hinges like the ones above but around 3" $1.50 for both
(used for elbow movement)

Braided steel wire (like what you use to hang a picture with but a little thicker) $1.50 or so (used for head movement)

Steel wire 24 - 16 gauge is fine $2.75
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Stuff I already had:*

1 1/2" wood screws
junk wood (osb, particle board, just need (2) 3" square pieces
plastic electrical tubing (for the fingers)
roll of electrical tape
plenty of news paper (paper mache)

Ohh and you will need a pair of black pantyhose..... I will explain later

There will be a few more things as we go along but a lot of it will be optional. I am part of the way through the project already. I will post it a little later.


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

Ok here is what I have done so far. 

All of my pics are located here if you want to see the directory
http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/?mediafilter=all


I started with the head. I just marked it with a pencil and then a dark marker once I figured out what I wanted. Doesn't matter that I am drawing on it cause I will be adding texture and paper mache to the pumpkin later and it will have to be repainted. The foam pumpkins are a little more difficult to cut through. My automatic pumpkin carver wouldn't work. It kept pinching the blade so it shake a lot. Just had to do it with a hand carver.

Here is what I came up with.











Next I did the basic body layout so that the hips were the right width and everything was roughly the right size. Make sure you error in things being too long and cut down to the size that you need later.











I figured out a good way to for the head to move back and fourth while also giving the head something to rest on inside the head. 

Basically going to take the bigger of the hinges and mount it in the middle of the 1 1/4" pvc. 

I cut the pvc so that there was enough pvc to reach the middle of the pumpkin and a half inch or so sticks out the back of the head. For mine it was about 5" long. Then you will lay out and pre-drill the mounting holes. Lay hinge over the outside and mark the holes but make sure you mark them straight down from the top. Only have to drill through the one side of the pvc. 
You will have to start the two side holes straight on and then while you are drilling angle it so it is horizontal. If you don't the screws will want to cross like an x inside the pvc. Basically the screws need to go straight through pvc horizontally and you are drilling into a rounded tube. Look at the pics below and it should make more sense. I had to notch out the inside of the pipe so that the hinge would go all the way in the pipe. I just used the drill bit and layed it at an angle. Also you can use bolts if you want, I just didn't have any that were long enough. Ohh yeah hot glue it to make sure it stays in place.
Also best if you start with the screw at the end of hinge. Screw the screw half way through pvc , then slide hinge in and hook it on the screw then run the screw the rest of the way in.


























Grind off the points of the screws sticking out with an angle grinder or a bench grinder or you can cut them off with a dremel.

You will need to cut the exposed end of the hinge in half so that it is only an inch or so from the hinge but still have plenty of metal for the holes. I will explain later but basically going to notch out part of the spine pvc and screw through it to hold the head in place and at the correct angle I need.


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

Next I cut the hole so that the pvc will touch the top of the inside of pumpkin. The hole will be oblong and not round. Then I hot glued the pvc in place. Make sure that the pvc rests on top of the inside of the pumpkin. If it doesn't then you break the back of the pumpkin head if something hits the head.



































Next on to the arms. Weeeeeee....

Almost the same as above with the smaller hinges. So you should have plenty of room inside now. This one is a little different in two ways. First is when you mount the hinge on the inside of the pipe pull it all the way to the side where you pre drilled. Do the first screw like the one above , hook it on the end. Now here is the difference between the other one. When you start to screw the screw in you will want it at an angle. So when both screws are in they should be kinda like a V shape. By doing this it will keep the hinge against the side of the pvc. Then hot glue it in place. 

We shifted the hinge to the one side so that it will act more like an elbow. It won't bend much in one direction but will in the other just like us. So on the right arm the hinge will be twards the chest of your dummy. When you have them both done LABEL THEM LEFT AND RIGHT. Things will be cut opposite on each arm don't forget that.

















Sorry the image above is not entirely correct cause the hinge is more in the middle than to one side. I had figure out the hinge the hard way and then fix it when it wasn't working the way I wanted it to.


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

I cut out a notch in the end for the forearm bone I was going to make and slide into place.










I used the thin hpvc and pvc for this. I used a heat gun to bend the hpvc. I then glued them together.


















































Next I will do the wrist, hands and fingers


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## zero (Aug 27, 2004)

looks great man,, keep postin current pics,, i want to see the final costume


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

Yeah I am working on the hands and making the arms move.


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

*update 09/17/07*

Ok here is what I did for the wrists and the hands. I had originally planned on the fingers moving when you pull the arm back but that is not possible. I was having a hard time getting the fingers to move correctly and they also needed a bit of force to make them bend. So I decided to scrap that idea and just cut the wires to the fingers and they will just be static. 











http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_02.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_03.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_04.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_05.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_06.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_07.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_08.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_09.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/07-hand_10.jpg











Ok now onto the backbone.

I used a heat gun to bend the 1 1/4" pvc. I just worked it slowly. It didn't take very long.










I had to do something for the elbows because they were sitting in an unnatural position so I notched out and hot glued some pvc so that the elbows were always at a slightly arched angle. This will be key later for making the arms move easier.










http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/09-elbow_02.jpg


I started putting everything together. I didn't like how the arms were sitting. I originally was going to use a 90 deg coupler for his shoulder. I decided to use 2 45 deg couplers per shoulder so that I could get the angle that I wanted.










http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/10-body_02.jpg


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

Now onto the ribs and backbones. I am trying to be cheap with this and use what I have available around the house already and not have to go buy everything. I still had a pretty good chunk of 3" pvc laying around so I decided to use that for his backbones. They were too big to use normally and I goofed. I have been using the pvc bonding stuff on stuff that I know that I am not going to be removing and I sealed the 4 way connector at the top of the back. So there was no slipping anything over the top of the back. So this ended up working out pretty well. So I cut 5 2" pieces of the 3" pvc. To make this work I cut out about 1/4 of the pipe so that it is open on one end like a C. I used my handy heat gun to close the gap down to about 3/4 of an inch. I am going to use the extra space as a place to mount the ribs to. I just cut the ribs out of the smallest pvc that I could find. I used my heat gun again to bend it.



















http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/11-ribs_03.jpg




























I had to readjust the ribs once I mounted them. The backbone is is arched so the ribs were pointing wrong. Just use that trusty heat gun to get the glue hot again and rotate them where they should be.


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

Here is where it get a bit on the harry side. I had to figure out where to mount the motor for head movement back and fourth. I also had to figure out how to make the head move the way I want it to. I racked my brain for a day or so trying to figure out a way to mount the motor so that it is not very visible or can be covered up with paper mache so that it doesn't look too obvious. I also had to figure out the linkage. I measured the distance needed for the travel in the head connected to the linkage. It is was about 2 1/2". So the arm attached to the motor is 1 1/4" center point to center point. Make sense.

Here is the basics of the linkage attached to the head.










http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/P1010053.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/11-ribs_03.jpg

Here is the motor assembly










http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/12-motor_02.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/12-motor_03.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/12-motor_04.jpg


Now onto mounting. This was a bit tricky. I had to use a router bit on my dremel to cut out the back bone and spine. By the time I was done cutting there was only about 1" strip of the pipe left.... so I had to be care full until I got the motor hot glued in place. 











http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l5/distorteddesigns/halloween/2007_costume/12-motor_06.jpg










Once I got that done , I had to reinforce the pipe. I found a computer bracket made out of some stiff metal. I cut out a strip, bent it , and screwed it into place ontop of the motor and hot glued it as well. I will post pics later. My camera batteries are dead right now.


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## Distorted Designs (Sep 27, 2006)

Sorry I haven't been updating the page. I have been super busy making props for our huge halloween party and working on him. I have updated pics of him but I can't upload them here at my work cause they block nearly everything. I am nearly done with him. I have done all of the electronics , head moves nicely back and fourth. I hooked up a voice changer to him and extended the microphone down to me. I will have vines covering my mouth and neck so you can't see my mouth. So when I talk it looks and sounds like he is the one talking. I will try and get some more stuff posted soon. I am off to vegas tomorrow though.


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## rogue4 (Oct 29, 2006)

No apology needed.

It's crunch time for all of us Halloween freaks!


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