# Waterproof flexible vines for cheap



## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Genius DZ Genius!!!!


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

Awesome idea! Great for making large amounts of vine cheap.


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## bobzilla (Nov 15, 2008)

Sweet!
Great idea!!!


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## EdgarWhelp (Mar 20, 2014)

Fantastic idea, thank you for sharing!


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## nosefuratyou (Jan 11, 2016)

Great idea thanks.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Came out looking nice. I took a class through TechShop a while back and we used the Great Stuff for pools and ponds. It comes out a deep slightly purplish black color and dries to the touch in a relatively short amount of time. Mentioning it if it saves someone some time and effort painting it black afterwards. I'll come back and post a photo of it. 

Can't speak for other types of GS but honestly the off-gasing during the curing period is not something I would recommend doing indoors without a ton of ventilation. We did our projects outdoors and I still found the fumes strong. Definitely not healthy to breathe in.

Here's a link to HD for more info on the Pond and Stone GS: http://www.homedepot.com/p/GREAT-STUFF-12-oz-Pond-and-Stone-Insulating-Foam-Sealant-283064/202522224

Here's a photo of it on a test project piece of chicken wire sculpture (we stuffed paper inside the wire to keep the GS on the outside BTW, could have also wrapped the outside and then applied):


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> Came out looking nice. I took a class through TechShop a while back and we used the Great Stuff for pools and ponds. It comes out a deep slightly purplish black color and dries to the touch in a relatively short amount of time. Mentioning it if it saves someone some time and effort painting it black afterwards. I'll come back and post a photo of it.
> 
> Can't speak for other types of GS but honestly the off-gasing during the curing period is not something I would recommend doing indoors without a ton of ventilation. We did our projects outdoors and I still found the fumes strong. Definitely not healthy to breathe in.
> 
> ...




very interesting how flexible is the pond sealer? I was looking at it when I bought mine. I had to snicker when I saw it looks a bit like poop...


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Haha. Yeah when you let it bubble up without doing anything to it it does. 

It dries very lightweight like the other foam stuff I've seen but forms a hard shiny shell. So not flexible when dry, but waterproof. Didn't play with it when it was setting. You can thump your finger on it without any depression when it's cured and it gives a kind of hollow sound. It was my first time playing with any kind of GS so just was experimenting with it released straight from the can to see how it behaved. You had to be careful not to apply too much to one spot or it would take longer to dry and would kind of start slipping down probably due to it's own weight. Smelly and messy too. And you want to give it the smallest of trigger presses and quick releases starting out to see how fast it will come out of the tube and expand. As you indicated with your GS, definitely want to wear gloves and have lots of protection below where you are working with this stuff. 

This version reminds me of a black oil. Maybe something from a tar pit. Now that's a monster idea in the making.


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## Phantom Blue (Sep 28, 2008)

Excellent - Thanks for Sharing!


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

The pond sealer I think is pretty much the same as the regular, just with black dye added. Saves the need for a black base coat on things like hot coals. Have not been able to find it in my area yet.


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## NotTheBatesMotel (Sep 28, 2013)

Love this idea and plan to incorporate it this year. Thanks for sharing!


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## lilibat (Aug 10, 2015)

Trying to figure out how to adapt this to cover extension cords. That sure would make my life a lot easier especially since I tend to start putting stuff out before there are leaves. Maybe if I used this stuff instead of the rigid stuff you used. I have some on hand but haven't tried it yet, maybe this is the project I have been looking for.


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## Cougarwalker79 (Oct 23, 2012)

lilibat said:


> Trying to figure out how to adapt this to cover extension cords. That sure would make my life a lot easier especially since I tend to start putting stuff out before there are leaves. Maybe if I used this stuff instead of the rigid stuff you used. I have some on hand but haven't tried it yet, maybe this is the project I have been looking for.



I was actually thinking the same thing. I think if you sort of twist rope together with the chord, and then follow the rest of the directions, you would have a way to readily hide extension cords as "vines" across the yard.


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## Trex (Nov 6, 2010)

What an awesome idea, it could have a lot of applications!


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## Ghost Ninja (Aug 25, 2013)

Great Idea! Thanks for the post.


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## WOLFPACK7483 (Apr 29, 2013)

Sweeeeeeeet
Best idea yet.


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## Hellminsk (Jun 13, 2016)

Nice idea


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## mikieofthedead (Aug 12, 2005)

ooooo love it!!!!!


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## DeadSpider2.0 (Jun 24, 2016)

I have been mulling the very same idea around in my head this past week, and am so glad to see it works! Seeing your project pictures has me feeling much more confident that this is going to work well. Thank you for sharing! 
I am making vines for a jungle relic scene.


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## chupacabra (Aug 18, 2012)

I'm planning to use this trick w the extension cords so they can blend with the lawn 

Sent from a plastic device


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## internet troll (Nov 7, 2014)

This will be useful. Thanks for sharing.


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

chupacabra said:


> I'm planning to use this trick w the extension cords so they can blend with the lawn
> 
> Sent from a plastic device


great idea let me know how it turns out and post some pics if you have them.
DZ


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## Trex (Nov 6, 2010)

I loved this post and I decided to make a few for our snake room this season! Here is a pic, sorry the photo is not great! Really this was so easy to do, and they look so real, very good tutorial!!n TY!


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

Trex said:


> I loved this post and I decided to make a few for our snake room this season! Here is a pic, sorry the photo is not great! Really this was so easy to do, and they look so real, very good tutorial!!n TY!


Thanks for posting a pic of your work, those look great
DZ


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## Momof2! (Oct 29, 2015)

This is fantastic! I have been wondering how I can get vines for my scarecrow and pumpkin patch scene without breaking the bank. I'm doing this ASAP!


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## scarybella (Aug 4, 2010)

Those vines look awesome. Very impressive

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


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## Groosum (Nov 2, 2016)

Looking forward to trying this. Thanks for the tutorial.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

lilibat said:


> Trying to figure out how to adapt this to cover extension cords. That sure would make my life a lot easier especially since I tend to start putting stuff out before there are leaves. Maybe if I used this stuff instead of the rigid stuff you used. I have some on hand but haven't tried it yet, maybe this is the project I have been looking for.



I'm no expert in electrical, far from it, but I don't think you want to cover extension cords you'll be using for a power source. Thinking it could cause them to heat up and lead to issues. I know when we were having an electrician run some electrical lines to our BBQ island for lighting and outlets, he said to follow code the wire gage was important given the length of the run and he couldn't add more lines into the conduit that would be carrying them underground due to overheating concerns. Same for our overhead pergola lighting. In this same vein, I also recall people here using Great Foam which covered light strands in their cauldron pit fire source setups. Pretty sure a few people who used the 120v incandescent strands noticed some scorching from the heat build up and cautioned others. Maybe someone with electrical knowledge can comment??

For outdoor electrical cord runs we use the heavy duty green-colored extension cords. Not perfect, but in the dark I think they work okay in the layout and certainly the kids don't ever seem to care or comment. Also bought some of those Cord End Connector boxes to keep water out from where they connect (two versions for use with thin cords and heavier duty cords).


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## boys5times (Sep 25, 2013)

I love this! Thanks for the tutorial.


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## suprdude (Sep 28, 2015)

I actually have a much easier technique that I've used many times. Use the same rope as above but coat it with brown silicone caulk and cover with peat (you can buy peat at most Home Depots). You can enhance by using the twine (as above). If you want to go the extra mile, wrap a wire around the rope before applying the caulk so the 'branch' can bend. It looks amazing and it's very easy.


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

interesting, thanks for the suggestion how well does it hold in the weather? does the peat loose its color over time?


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## suprdude (Sep 28, 2015)

It depends on the weather, but it does hold for quite some time. I actually used this technique for my vivarium background and it still looks good 4 years later. Even when the peat moss starts to come off, it looks pretty good because the caulk is brown.


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## slcjeeper (Mar 17, 2011)

Thanks for sharing this awesome idea!


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## kakugori (Aug 26, 2013)

I tried this yesterday, adding artificial leaves attached with floral wire. Looked pretty good.

But I also tried to use the black Great Stuff pond-type spray foam, and that did not work so well. It's INCREDIBLY sticky and really difficult to work with. I couldn't really even spread it around, I ended up sort of glomming it onto the rope as best I could. Perhaps the formula is different enough, but I was really struggling. Only got one rope done before I gave up. I think I had more on my gloves than I got on the rope. It's like tar. I couldn't slide my hand down the rope, I had to spray the foam, massage it in, then unstick myself and move to the next hand width.

Going to try again with some of the regular and see if that's any easier.


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

First, thank you for posting these look fantastic and I'll be trying it today on my own! I'm working on a jackolantern archway for next Halloween, maybe 254 days is enough to get it done...I've made the archway from EMT conduit surrounded by foam pool noodles and secured with zip ties. Last night I tried going covering the noodles with standard great stuff...and I failed as you can see. This was my first time working with it, and it wasn't working like I thought. I was hoping I could get the foam to stick around the entire surface of the noodle, and I quickly realized that it didn't have enough stick to stay put on the underside. So my next thought was, I'll wipe it with a gloved hand and maybe it will stick to the underside. you can see in my photo that near the base is where I tried this, and it just ripped off the great stuff that was there. I know some like this look (with paint of course) but I'm looking to have a slightly cleaner looking twisting vine. I'm thinking of trying 1) the brown silicon caulk idea around individual pieces of rope and wrapping them around the blue noodle. Or 2) Try the rope and great stuff idea above with smaller pieces(maybe just the twine) ,letting those dry, then wrapping them around the blue noodle. 
Sorry for the long rant, just looking to see if anyone has experience or recommendations.


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Brooklynhaunt said:


> First, thank you for posting these look fantastic and I'll be trying it today on my own! I'm working on a jackolantern archway for next Halloween, maybe 254 days is enough to get it done...I've made the archway from EMT conduit surrounded by foam pool noodles and secured with zip ties. Last night I tried going covering the noodles with standard great stuff...and I failed as you can see. This was my first time working with it, and it wasn't working like I thought. I was hoping I could get the foam to stick around the entire surface of the noodle, and I quickly realized that it didn't have enough stick to stay put on the underside. So my next thought was, I'll wipe it with a gloved hand and maybe it will stick to the underside. you can see in my photo that near the base is where I tried this, and it just ripped off the great stuff that was there. I know some like this look (with paint of course) but I'm looking to have a slightly cleaner looking twisting vine. I'm thinking of trying 1) the brown silicon caulk idea around individual pieces of rope and wrapping them around the blue noodle. Or 2) Try the rope and great stuff idea above with smaller pieces(maybe just the twine) ,letting those dry, then wrapping them around the blue noodle.
> Sorry for the long rant, just looking to see if anyone has experience or recommendations.
> View attachment 537482
> View attachment 537490


For your particular use, I'd actually ditch the pool noodle and the great stuff, and look how I make my EMT monsters here: 

http://www.halloweenforum.com/tutor...ster-mudding-unorthodox-chimera-tutorial.html

I mean, yeah, the color's wrong on this guy's arm, otherwise, it works for vines as well. 









I've also updated my method to SKIP THE MONSTER MUD. Take the burlap ( https://www.google.com/search?q=jut.....69i57j0l5.2503j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 ) and just DIP IT INTO A BASE LAYER OF EXTERIOR PAINT. Then wrap it around your EMT conduit. After it dries, water down a darker color and give it a wash. 

Here's green base and black wash via that paint method:



















And bonus brown with a green wash:











The tutorial in this thread is far superior for long, thick vines without support such as the emt form you made, however. Draping between posts, or hanging down from trees, etc.


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

Thanks UnOrthadOx for your response. this is hugely helpful for a newbie. For better of for worse I was already trying out new methods for my EMT archway. I do feel like maybe I went off the rails of this original post. I do understand that the original is about making vines that are bendable and realistic without the support of EMT. For sake of progress and helping out others who might be trying this for other uses I'll continue (hopefully not much longer) to update with the process I'm going through. Again, I'm not a forum guy so apologies if this is not the appropriate outlet. Before UnOrthaDox replied I was onto my next experiment trying out now silicon with rope to achieve a more rigid and water-resistant vine. I think this could be done with many different methods, but this is the path I'm on. Monster mud might be a great way to achieve similar results. I just chose the silicone and rope because that's what I had available. I'm so far pretty happy with how its going. The idea is to get a twisting/winding vine without a lot of bulk. Really what I'm coming to understand is that the rope is the link to these all. Albeit the silicon method is expensive ( I used two caulking tubes for just this much) I do like how its staying tight and not too messy looking. I might just continue next with hot gluing the rope onto the foam noodle and coating and texturing with the silicon caulk. It is also pretty time consuming to wrap with rope, but it is giving me the texture that I want the vine to have. I'm going for something that is close to the relief of a pumpkin stem. You can see when I first started with the rope it was looking too much like an umbilical cord. As I add more of the rope pieces, it is getting closer to what I was wanting.













Hopefully once covered fully and painted, I will get a nice clean vine.


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

Sorry I couldn't reply fast enough. I have a similar method as the other person suggested, I use landscape fabric cut into strips, spay some super 77 to (in my case PVC) the conduit then wrap the landscape fabric around. I used the same greatstuff method and it turned out amazing. I did both bodies with this method, the corkscrew and the sentinel. I would love to see pics of your project as I too want to make a pumpkin arch.


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

brooklynhaunt I see your tombstones in the background... holy cow they look amazing how did you make them?


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

So cool. I love the photos thanks for sharing! I think your original post on this thread is fantastic and I wished I had the patience in the beginning to just make the rope strips/great stuff vines and then just wrapped them around my EMT. Because I picked a lane I think I'll have to stick with it. The other side of the arch that has I have shown before is going to be scraped and I'll try continuing with the laborious task of wrapping the rope around the foam as I started trying yesterday. To save money i'm going to just use a glue gun, and then when they are all on I'll coat with silicon on top or a latex. Both you and UnOrthadOx are doing awesome creepy things with your figures. I am for sure going to take these methods when making my scarecrow. I'll most definitely post progress as it goes, because of late work nights it might be a while until I can show again, but I will follow up. Haha. Yes we just bought our first home last year so we have zero decorations. I'm starting everything from the ground up so that's why you're seeing other projects in the background. The pros are we live in a row house and its 125 years old(perfect for halloween). The cons are, I don't have a yard, just a little area next to our stoop that can hold a few props. I'm trying to make a concentrated little cluster of tombstones there with a scarecrow/demon coming out through the middle. I can tell you how I made my tombstones so far, if you share how you made yours. I need lots of help in the painting department and the ones in your photo looks amazing! I love the weathering you did especially. I haven't made it to the painting stage yet, I'm still carving. There really wasn't much of a trick. I know a lot of people prefer using a hot wire to burn through so that they don't make a huge mess with foam dust. I'm sort of the opposite. I found that the fumes are really too strong even with a respirator. What I've been doing which works really well for me is to carve with a dremel tool with one hand, and hold the shop vac in the other. It sucks up most of the the dust and helps clear the area for better visibility while I work. The ones in the background of my vine photos are all just cleared with a router. I clear out the negative space with the router, and then carve detail with the dremmel. Once I get the basic shapes, I go in with sandpaper and it works pretty well. I guess there is a little more to it, but I'm sure its all the same stuff you did to make yours! Thanks for the reply!


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

discozombie said:


> brooklynhaunt I see your tombstones in the background... holy cow they look amazing how did you make them?


Ok. Let's try this again. I thought I replied to your post last week and then it seemed to vanish when I came back to this thread today. Discozombie these photos are great! I am absolutely going to use the methods you and UnOrthadOx use moving onto my scarecrow. Yeah…I don't know what to say. I feel like the monster mud around strips of fabric might have saved me quite a bit of time. I'll post updates soon. I'm just about to get to the painting today. I think I'll try to use the rubberized stuff "flex seal" as my base coat to make it a little more durable and water resistant. Anyway. Thank you for the photos, they are awesome and some really good inspiration. I especially like the way you painted your tombstones. As you can see I'm only in the carving stages myself, but I really want to have the weathered effects like you did. Please share your painting secrets! You asked how I made mine. I don't know that I'll have any special insight that you didn't already do on yours but my process was all cutting no melting. Meaning I didn't use a hot knife, I just used a jigsaw, x-acto, and dremel tool. Oh, and I'm forgetting the biggest tool. I used a hand held router! This was huge to my process. I cut around all the motifs in the beginning to create a simple layer of depth. Because of all of the foam dust that is created, I just learned to have my cutting tool in my right hand, and the vacuum hose in the left hand to clean up. It was a little awkward at first, but worked for me. Hope this helps.


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

kakugori said:


> I tried this yesterday, adding artificial leaves attached with floral wire. Looked pretty good.
> 
> But I also tried to use the black Great Stuff pond-type spray foam, and that did not work so well. It's INCREDIBLY sticky and really difficult to work with. I couldn't really even spread it around, I ended up sort of glomming it onto the rope as best I could. Perhaps the formula is different enough, but I was really struggling. Only got one rope done before I gave up. I think I had more on my gloves than I got on the rope. It's like tar. I couldn't slide my hand down the rope, I had to spray the foam, massage it in, then unstick myself and move to the next hand width.
> 
> Going to try again with some of the regular and see if that's any easier.


Try corpsing your pool noodles with plastic. Worked well for me...


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

totally dig the arch, great idea on corpsing the noodles. I had a few props using noodles and never could get the desired look with it. Guess its time to revisit. Does your arch break down for storage?


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

Thanks for the complements, the carving on your stones is top notch. As for my painting technique. I like my stones to look really old. so I usually round all the edges slightly. I also rough up the flat surfaces with a wire brush and coarse sand paper. I paint the whole thing either black or olive green. I dry brush it white and wipe it off. Next dry brush on several layers of what ever color the stone is going to be starting dark going to light. In the past Ive used drylock base coat to add a sandstone type texture and protective coating. (it works well to protect from chips) But found it was just as easy and much cheeper to sand the stone and get the same effect.


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

discozombie said:


> totally dig the arch, great idea on corpsing the noodles. I had a few props using noodles and never could get the desired look with it. Guess its time to revisit. Does your arch break down for storage?


No, it does not break down. I could have made it three pieces, but I felt it would not look as good. I just tie it down to the side of my shed an throw a tarp over it.


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Brooklynhaunt said:


> Ok. Let's try this again. I thought I replied to your post last week and then it seemed to vanish when I came back to this thread today. Discozombie these photos are great! I am absolutely going to use the methods you and UnOrthadOx use moving onto my scarecrow. Yeah…I don't know what to say. I feel like the monster mud around strips of fabric might have saved me quite a bit of time. I'll post updates soon. I'm just about to get to the painting today. I think I'll try to use the rubberized stuff "flex seal" as my base coat to make it a little more durable and water resistant. Anyway. Thank you for the photos, they are awesome and some really good inspiration. I especially like the way you painted your tombstones. As you can see I'm only in the carving stages myself, but I really want to have the weathered effects like you did. Please share your painting secrets! You asked how I made mine. I don't know that I'll have any special insight that you didn't already do on yours but my process was all cutting no melting. Meaning I didn't use a hot knife, I just used a jigsaw, x-acto, and dremel tool. Oh, and I'm forgetting the biggest tool. I used a hand held router! This was huge to my process. I cut around all the motifs in the beginning to create a simple layer of depth. Because of all of the foam dust that is created, I just learned to have my cutting tool in my right hand, and the vacuum hose in the left hand to clean up. It was a little awkward at first, but worked for me. Hope this helps.


I'll just advise that flex seal DOES sun rot in about 6 months.


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Oak Lane Cemetery said:


> Try corpsing your pool noodles with plastic. Worked well for me...
> 
> View attachment 538089
> 
> ...


Is that the stilt beast method of corpsing? I hadn't seen this arch before (or don't remember if I had), and it's instantly among my favorites. Did you do a tutorial on it or build thread?


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

> Is that the stilt beast method of corpsing? I hadn't seen this arch before (or don't remember if I had), and it's instantly among my favorites. Did you do a tutorial on it or build thread?


Kida sorta Stiltbeast. I used stretch wrap film and a slightly different technique to avoid melting the noodles. The stretch wrap clings to itself and can be pulled tight before heating to create long wrinkles that look like bark once painted. Had to do a lot of layers. I built the arch over about a 4 month period. I'm guessing around 50 hours total in it. It was a long and tedious build.


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

Noted. I was planning on covering in outdoor latex paint over everything. Is that how you would "seal" it?


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Oak Lane Cemetery said:


> Kida sorta Stiltbeast. I used stretch wrap film and a slightly different technique to avoid melting the noodles. The stretch wrap clings to itself and can be pulled tight before heating to create long wrinkles that look like bark once painted. Had to do a lot of layers. I built the arch over about a 4 month period. I'm guessing around 50 hours total in it. It was a long and tedious build.


That's a fair bit of stretch wrap...


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Brooklynhaunt said:


> Noted. I was planning on covering in outdoor latex paint over everything. Is that how you would "seal" it?


I haven't tried painting over flex seal yet. Specifically, I tested the flex seal clear over a paint job, and the flex seal sun rotted over the summer. But, 6 months would be 6 halloweens if you only left it out during halloween.


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

> That's a fair bit of stretch wrap...


I'd guess around 1000ft off of an 18in wide roll of .90mil wrap. I used several "butt" rolls that were discarded at my place of work so It's hard to give an exact estimate. Gotta love free materials. I base coated it with latex acrylic paint, which usually holds up really well on almost anything, but the sun had it flaking off within a couple of weeks last year. Thought about redoing it with FlexSeal this summer, but after reading your comments I think I may go with bedliner/undercoat spray instead. Hard to find something that sticks to plastic well


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

discozombie said:


> Sorry I couldn't reply fast enough. I have a similar method as the other person suggested, I use landscape fabric cut into strips, spay some super 77 to (in my case PVC) the conduit then wrap the landscape fabric around. I used the same greatstuff method and it turned out amazing. I did both bodies with this method, the corkscrew and the sentinel. I would love to see pics of your project as I too want to make a pumpkin arch.
> View attachment 537554
> 
> View attachment 537562


Ok. It's been a while, but I am finally to the end of least the vine. I'm really happy with it even though I took some unnecessary steps. It's hard to remember actually with all the layers of things I put on it. To be as transparent as I can honestly remember is I started with EMT to make the support structure, then added the pool noodles. After that I tried the great stuff, which was a fail. luckily I was able to break that off after it cured. Then I went for the rope wrap. I used various thicknesses of rope and unwound them to have single larger pieces of twine. I started with siliconing these ropes and wrapping them, but found that it was going through silicone very easily. So I scrapped the silicone and then just started glueing the rope directly to the foam noodles with hot glue. Note* I still think the silicone and rope is a great idea for flexible "vines" but for my application the hot glue was cheap and easy. Once I got all of the rope on I coated everything with flex seal. I know that it's been discussed that this only lasts 6 months in the sun, but I figured I would try something new and paint my color over top of everything with laytex and acrylic. So after it dried, I did just that. With dry brushing various colors onto the vine I finished it all with polyurethane. For the smaller "fly away" vines, I just wrapped wire with pieces of rope. To finish it, I hot glued leaves. I've been wanting a weathered look with an "end of season" vine so I'm hoping that any damage made by the elements will only improve the final result. At the end of the day, what I would do differently is use monster mud techniques instead of the rope. I think the monster mud and corpsing would have given me similar or better results with half the effort. Here are a couple of photos of where I'm at...


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

Ok. I must be really bad at how to respond to threads... I tried a reply, but it didn't show up again so I'm just going to "reply to thread" button instead. Let's hope I can get it together. I just wanted to add some images of my final vines. I did do a mix of techniques suggested over the corse of this thread, and I can't even remember all of what I did because I just kept adding over time. Thanks to everyone's input who gave suggestions. I'm pretty happy with the results even though I think I could have easily skipped some of the steps with similar results. Quick overview of what I tried... first I started with the pool noodle base and tried mixing the technique of rope pieces covered with silicone. I separated each rope strand into 3 smaller strands. Thanks for the advice to use a drill in reverse to untangle "quickly". I will say this helped a ton if you have to unravel a rope, but if I did it again I would probably just use an entire rope piece. It might cost a little more, but totally worth it to save the time. With each piece of rope fragments I "rubbed" in the silicone to create a water resistant strand. After doing a few of those I soon realized how cost prohibitive this would be so I scrapped that idea. I then just used the rope and some hot glue to attach the pieces. After finishing each segment I covered the entire piece with flex seal. Again, thanks for the warning that this might break down after 6 months... I think I could have skipped this step and just coated the entire thing at the end. I do really like the durability and quality of the flex seal, however I didn't want to leave it as just that so I started to paint the vine with exterior latex paint. After doing all of that I finished the entire thing with polyurethane. Knowing that polyurethane yellows, I used cooler green and blue colors for the latex so that when covered they would balance each other out. With all of that I have arrived with the following photos. I can't yet speak to the durability, but I think it will hold up for many years to come. If I do this again I would seriously consider using monster mud with shop towels rather than the rope. I think this would be much faster and easier and could hopefully reach a similar result. Still with all my trial and error I did achieve a result which I am happy with. The more it's weathered, the better the effect I think. I'll be sure to follow up if there are serious problems after this season.


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

really? Here goes my third attempt. I know I'm a newb, but can someone please tell me how to post? I've tried now three times and I'm obviously doing something wrong. I'm trying to just click on the "reply to thread" and hoping it works. Sorry for the late..even later response, but just wanted to share where I finally got with my vines...I'm happy to go through the step by step, but after two attempts not sure if I still have it in me. My last two attempts said that " a moderator will review" but nothing posted so here is my third and final. Hope this helps. Thanks to everyone who contributed. I ended up doing all of the mentioned to create my vines. Awesome tutorial Discozombie!


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

Your pictures posted. You have to have 5 posts before you post pics.


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## Brooklynhaunt (Feb 4, 2018)

Thanks RCIAG. I had no idea that my photos were keeping me from posting. I appreciate the heads up. If this is my sixth post does that mean I can post with photos now? It seems weird to discourage pics on a tutorial thread.


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## discozombie (Sep 12, 2011)

Brooklynhaunt said:


> ]


 Nice work, love the corkscrew design. Thanks for posting glad it helped with your project!
~ DZ


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## Roselanecemetery (Sep 29, 2016)

can you tell me how you connected the vines at the bottom I am trying this but the vines of different noodles can't figure out how to connect


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## Cephus404 (Oct 13, 2017)

I would assume you can just cut short lengths of dowel and glue it into the holes in the noodles.


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

Roselanecemetery said:


> can you tell me how you connected the vines at the bottom I am trying this but the vines of different noodles can't figure out how to connect


My technique? I made really long 8ft noodles buy cutting one end of a large noodle to taper down to the same size as a medium noodle. Then I used a short piece of pipe (4inch) glued in the center holes to connect the two. To get vines to stick together I just heated between them, then pressed them together.


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## baykay1984 (Sep 9, 2012)

Sorry, but what is great stuff? Is it like a flexible gap filler? I am in Australia and we don't seem to have it over here. Thanks


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## chachabella (Jul 3, 2013)

yes, expandable foam foam in a can, used as a gap filler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahtw7mlnX9Q


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

GReat job! I will come back to this next year. I also want to make some trees. TFS


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## Stinkerbell n Frog Prince (Sep 4, 2009)

baykay1984 said:


> Sorry, but what is great stuff? Is it like a flexible gap filler? I am in Australia and we don't seem to have it over here. Thanks


Great Stuff is the brand name here in the US for canned / spray expanding foam.


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## ThistleDO (Aug 30, 2018)

Perfect! This is exactly what I was looking for. Going to do a ton of vines and pumpkin guts. I am going to try it on yarn for the guts.


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## Daphne (Aug 11, 2007)

Love this! Such great info!


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