# Pumpkin man



## zooter (Apr 15, 2017)

First I want to thank all of you who gave me suggestions.
The pumpkin man is about nine feet tall and made of PVC ,3 inch pipe. The arms and legs are detachable from the torso, for storage. They are held in place with two sheet metal screws. The pipe is spray painted with several colors to break to the roundness of the pipe, and because I was experimenting with color. There are different types of angled couplings out there so experiment, like I did. I organically had the torso leaning forward, but when I added the arms the thing became unstable so, the torso is upright.
I dyed cheesecloth and burlap with acrylic paint to cover the cross members. I organically just used cheesecloth but found it was to see thru. Backing it with burlap worked, then I made cuts in the material to give it a raggy look. The material is stapled only to the cross pieces.
Dry assemble your pipe pieces first to get your desired look, then glue them. I did not use pvc glue as it dries almost instantly, instead I used a solvent glue I bought at Lowes that had a working time of 5 mins. That gave me time to rearrange things, which was done. Most any plastic glue will work, but read what the working time is.
The leg supports are screwed on with L brackets and holes drilled in them as rebar spikes will be used to secure the man to the ground.
I bought an hundred feet of drip tubing as it was on sale for $12, I made a form and then heated the tubing with a heat gun and let it cool in the form. Several weeks later the curve was almost gone, the tubing was going back to its natural state, so I recommend using a metal rod in the tubing then bend it into the desired shape. The tubing was sprayed with contact cement and pipe foam cut in half was clamped on to it. I spray painted the pipe foam and found that kraylon paint adheres the best. The tubing feet are bolted the foot support and they can be spread out.
Pipe foam sprayed various colors was glued to the PVC pipe and tied in place with surveyors tape, sticky tape would of taken the paint the off. Pipe foam was used to break up the round pipe and to look like roots or vines.
The fingers are made of the same tubing as the feet except they have a metal rod in them and are bolted to the PVC pipe. I also used a chop saw to made dowel finger tips which were inserted into the ends of the tubing. The finger tubing was then coated with brown latex caulk, once again to break to the roundness of the tubing, then spray painted. It took about a week for the built up caulk to dry enough for paint. The ribs are made of tubing a screwed into the torso upright. A plywood shelf was screwed onto the top of the torso and supported by an L bracket in the rear, this is where the head is attached with screws. The head has a string of solar LED yellow Christmas lights in it. I got these on E bay and have used them for years at Christmas, so last one season, some last forever, always seal the control box, yes you can change how they flash, in a plastic bag, even the ones that are already sealed.
Rope vines. I wasn't satisfied with the pipe foam, everything thing still looked to rounded and smooth, nature isn't like that and even though this was not meant to life like I wanted to a bit more realism. I read about making vines on other boards and decided to try making them. I bought 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch rope, untwined then and worked brown latex caulk into them. Now it latex so you can use your hands and not need gloves which I found to be a pain. Its time consuming, but easy work, music, a beer and they are done. I tied bits of string to them to dangle down, I opened them up by sticks bits of wood, and clamps between the strands. They take about a week to dry, after a couple of days you can pull them apart to give them that raggy look. I really like the rope tick it worked out well and was easy to do. Post 2 has more pictures.


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## zooter (Apr 15, 2017)

*Pumpkin man post 2*

Here are more pictures of pumpkin man construction


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## acanton04 (Sep 4, 2016)

He looks awesome, well done!


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## offmymeds (May 26, 2010)

oh my!! He is incredible! great job


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## Scarab (Oct 11, 2016)

Did you make the head or buy it? And if you bought it, from where? Can we get a close up of the head?

Scarab


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## HallowFear (Aug 2, 2012)

I been considering making something like this for some time now as I have a big creepy blowmold pumpkin head to use.

Thanks for the motivation!!


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## zooter (Apr 15, 2017)

I bought the head on e bay, it actually comes in pieces and is a case for a fog machine. its packed away for oct. so no other pictures, but you'll find them on e bay.


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## Scarab (Oct 11, 2016)

zooter said:


> I bought the head on e bay, it actually comes in pieces and is a case for a fog machine. its packed away for oct. so no other pictures, but you'll find them on e bay.


Thank you! I found it.

Scarab


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