# Castle Drexel....our first "real" haunt



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

One of my twin girls came to me one evening and said, "we should do a haunted house this year." I was shocked, not only by the task she was suggesting, but also by the fact that I myself was thinking the same exact thing. We have done small scale things in the past and have utilized our garage a couple times, but nothing I would consider an actual "walk through home haunt". After a bit of discussion with the rest of the family, my wife, son, and other daughter, it was decided that this will actually happen. I mean, we have most of the major things needed to pull it all off, we just need to execute. To make things even more fun, we decided to do a video series tracking our adventure, starting with this simple, little teaser. 

I'll be sharing much more with my Halloweenforum family too and look forward to all your advice and comments. For now, enjoy....


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## 22606 (Aug 11, 2008)

Glad that your family is so supportive and wants to help bring the vision to life. I am sure that the neighborhood will be ecstatic, based simply on what I have seen of your mask collection alone. All the best.


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## Trex (Nov 6, 2010)

Great teaser vid, I can't wait to watch your progress!!


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## DarkhavenManor (Sep 27, 2014)

Excited to follow your progress!


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## StanFam3 (Oct 5, 2009)

Yay!!!! How cool!!! You're going to have a blast. I look forward to seeing updates.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

We did a quick test video of the Lurching Werewolf animatronic. We snagged this at a very good price, $136 shipped! I'm sure everyone has seen this piece before. We're happy with it and can't wait to design a scene with him.


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## thenightmarefamily (Nov 20, 2014)

Good Luck Shadowbat. 

Pallets.....Lots and lots of pallets......


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## WickedWino (Aug 19, 2012)

How fun! Looking forward to seeing what you create!


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

My twins have been hard at work drawing up concepts for the haunt. 

This is their idea for the entrance:










Here is what we finalized:











This is their concept for the witches scene, a wolves den, and a beheaded vampire in the graveyard.





























I'm working on the final concepts now using their ideas. lol


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

We finally got the shackles for our Frankenstein Monster. All that is left is to dirty up his jacket a bit. Here he is next to our werewolf.


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## spookydave (May 14, 2014)

hahaha love the artwork shadowbat, tell the girls great job!!


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Ditto what Spooky Dave said. What a thrill for the girls to see their concepts come to life. It kind of reminds me of Face Off, when they use children's art as the catalyst for their creations.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

I had no Haunt . yet. I was working for some people in their house, I happened to mention my haunt idea to their 10 yr.old son. He rattled off about 20 ideas for a haunt. Some of them are impossible,some I had already thought of,some I had not. And those were good ideas.
Did I use any of his ideas? I really don't remember,but I gave him that credit recently when he moved back here with his wife and opened a new restaurant.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

I started working on some detail pieces for the Dr. Frankenstein lab table. It won't be a full size lab, just a small represented section in the "dungeon" area of the walk through. 

Here are some pages I did up to throw around. I just googled some images, typed up a page from what might be his journal, and printed them out. I used watered down brown acrylic and wiped them with a sponge and once dried hit the edges with spray paint.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)




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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

I love that your kiddos are involved in this too! My DH and I both look forward to our kids wanting to do things 'their way', and also dread it because we also have so much fun doing it 'our way'! LOL! Can't wait to see it all come together & these will be memories your family will never forget!


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## Col. Fryght (Oct 23, 2012)

What happened to the pumpkin patch?


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Col. Fryght said:


> What happened to the pumpkin patch?



Didn't put one in this year. After the problems we had last season we decided that we were going to relocate it to the other side of the yard. I just didn't have the time to put it in or have the time to tend to it this year.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

We threw this together for the Frankesntein Lab portion of our haunt. Not bad for junk we had sitting around.


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## whichypoo (Jul 29, 2009)

where did ya get the bulbs Shadowbat?


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

They were made from LED Tea lights, cylinders from Michaels, and floral wire.


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## whichypoo (Jul 29, 2009)

that is just cool would have never thought of that in a million years thank you


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

whichypoo said:


> that is just cool would have never thought of that in a million years thank you



I saw the idea somewhere, probably on here in one of the sections. lol Very simple and effective. Kids had fun putting this prop together. All it is is a foam block covered in a thick metallic poster board. Burrowed out to spots on top to put the cylinders, one in front where the guage is located, and one underneath to place another led to light the gauge. Popped in some screws, some paint, added the power cords and done.


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## whichypoo (Jul 29, 2009)

You did an awesome job. I want to also make the aquarium tank that's on the forum to I have a wow wee chimpanzee head .. it would be awesome in there. Thanks again for the idea


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Finished this up this evening. It will be featured on our witches table.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Son and I worked on the body of our Mummy today.


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

Shadowbot, that mummy is looking great!


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

cleaned up an old home built coffin a friend gave to me. Had to rescrew some joints and gave it a nice fresh coat of black paint.












Put the clear coat on the new body for our pumpkin scarecrow. I think I'm going to use him in the yard though, not in the castle.











Kids also helped with making the sign advertising the haunt this year. We had a few different ideas on how to do the sign, all of which were more fancy and extravagant than what we did. Wife had a good thought. The sign is going to give the people a general idea of what to expect of the haunted house, so since we have 80% young kids, we should keep it simple and maybe a bit whimsical. Wasn't sure about the whimsical part, but I agreed with the simplicity.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Ugh. I have not been keeping up on documenting our progress at all on this project. We are basically ready to go. All that is needed is to set up the haunt itself and decorate it. Which we will do a couple days before the big day. I do have to build a box for our string of electrical short lights. Have the stuff, just need to do it. Time is creeping fast!


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## byondbzr (Sep 9, 2012)

Can't wait to see the final walk through!


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Okay. Everything is set and ready. All we have to do now is the actual build. For as long as we've been doing yard haunting, I'm actually nervous about doing the walk through. I mean, we've used the garage before as a set, but extending it by 2 structures and doing a full size is getting to me. lol Really hope this turns out.


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## ReelSore (Jan 19, 2015)

Dont think about the whole project at once. If you start thinking about the whole walk though, it becomes overwhelming. Build it in sections and before you know it, it'll be completed.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)




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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

We started the scene setter on the one wall of the garage. Cut out a section to make it look like our monster is coming through. plan on putting a mini strobe between the setter and the real wall having it flash upward on the monster.


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

I wonder if you can blacklight that face too. Might look cool too.


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## Tannasgach (Nov 1, 2009)

Shadowbat, the coolest thing about your haunt is involving the kids in the entire process. I love that this is a family project from concept to build. Your characters look phenomenal and your haunt is going to be a huge success with the tots.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

matrixmom said:


> I wonder if you can blacklight that face too. Might look cool too.



I have a small one. May try it.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Okay, I think I made my last supply run this morning. A roll of 3 mil black plastic sheeting, spray paint, a new staple gun, and 16 1"X2"X8' furring strips. 


We were also physically laying out the positioning of everything. We're taking one of the 10'X10" canopy tents out of the set up. I actually have too much room. We're just going to do 2 structures this year. 

It's funny, my step Dad was over helping and we started coming up with more ideas, but I had to stop. lol I told him let's just stick to what our original plan is. We can start planning new stuff on November 1st. lol


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

Great job so far! Can't wait to see more. Very cool to have the kids so involved. I love that.


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## Wolfman (Apr 15, 2004)

SB, I've always held that no Mad Scientist Laboratory is complete without a Jacob's Ladder. Kinda last minute, but if you can locate a company near you that manufactures neon signs, they may be willing to lend yup a 5,000 V transformer. It's a very simple prop. I used to borrow a transformer. But after the third season, the business owner, who thought a Haunted House a a great community feature, GAVE us, not one, not two, but THREE transformers. The kids will look forward to it every year.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Paint It Black said:


> Great job so far! Can't wait to see more. Very cool to have the kids so involved. I love that.



Thanks. Yeah, this year is going to be mild. An introduction of sorts. Figure we can amp it up each year.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

My son and I spent 7 hours outside today putting up the side walls for the canopy and doing some of the décor for the walls. I forgot to take a pic of the outside but I used the furring strips, hammered about 8 inches into the ground and tied to the top of the steel frame of the canopy. Stapled the plastic sheeting to the inside of the furring strips, tied the topes of those to the steel frame, and folded under the excess plastic and laid bricks (which will be painted black). It was mildly windy and this wasn't moving at all. I was very happy with it. We finished putting up the scene setter in the garage and put up a couple of the wall décor items. Now the fun part starts. Bringing out all the detail pieces and props! My girls came out when we were done for the night and they had grins era to ear. They can't believe they are seeing our ideas come to life.


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

Looking quite castle-like! Great job. Sounds like a lot of work.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Did a little more work today.


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

Wow, it is looking super!


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## hopelesslyinsane (Sep 6, 2013)

Your haunt is looking great! If you remember I'd love to see a walk through video of the haunt in action


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

hopelesslyinsane said:


> Your haunt is looking great! If you remember I'd love to see a walk through video of the haunt in action



I plan on doing one Friday evening. Hopefully. LOL


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Well, 16 hours of rain and up to 30mph winds and the structure is still standing.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Brought out the werewolf:











Added the props to the coffin:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Didn't have the ice for the fog chiller tonight, but went ahead and did a couple bursts just to give some atmosphere.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Okay, here is our test walk through. The entrance part turned out really dark, so I apologize. The spell book at the end wasn't turned on, and we have a couple issues with the witch. Not too bad all in all. The reaper is very sensitive and the slightest shadow sets him off. I'll be repositioning him a little tomorrow. My girls came out to "inspect" it. This is their idea first and foremost. After a few minutes they wanted to leave because they were getting creeped out. LOL Mission accomplished I guess. I'm going to be doing another video tomorrow during the day. But, this is it. For what we were going for I think we did pretty darn good. We stuck with our concepts and it looks, for the most part, how we drew it.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Day time walk thru:


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