I don't why, but this was like my favorite video EVER. Like, not just from you two, but like ever. I love the girl's voice too! So sweet :) Just overall good vibes from this video, thanks 🙏 😁👌🏻
That is exactly what I thought. I would probably be telling my husband what to do and how to do it, but not in such a sweet way, lol. 🤦 I need to take a page out of your book and be a nicer person. Now back to these absolutely, beyond amazing pumpkins 🎃 holy moly, talk about cool 😎 you guys are amazing. Where do you get such large pieces of styrofoam? Maybe if I keep reading the comments I'll see if someone else asked the same question. Or maybe I just need to watch more of your tutorials, wow, imagine that 🤔. Thank you for sharing your talent, I mean the little bit that you guys have 🙄 ha. So sad that you two are not blessed with any imagination or skills 🎨👨🎨👩🎨🖌️☠️⚰️⚒️🕸️🤢 ha. Very cool 😎😎
Great work! Other alternatives for a hardcoat are Vinyl Concrete patch mixed with wood glue from Home Depot, or the cheapest Mapie tile mortar from Lowes mixed with the Mapie latex adhesive instead of water. I like the Lowes mix. The mortar is only about $7 for a 50lb bag and the adhesive is $20 for 2 gallons. It comes in grey and white.
Cool vid! Thin-set mortar, has latex in it to increase flexibility and adhesion. If one used the white version, I would think that concrete pigments could be used to colour the mortar and save some of the painting time. Though, perhaps not cost.
Thanks! its hard to stay on track to finish our ideas sometimes because it always ends up being way more work than we think it will be but it's nice when you can be happy with the outcome.
Omg they are so wholesome and adorable together :) refreshing and beautiful to see them interacting. They are oooozing sweetness and love for each other :) great video with lots of info! Thanks for sharing 💖
Thank you for those positive kind words we really appreciate it. Hope you're enjoying any projects you may be working on. Thanks for watching take care. 😉👍
If you want to slow down the "20 minute" plaster... Use ~cold~ water & add a bit of baking soda to the mix. You will need to experiment a bit with how much to add based on the overall amount of plaster you are mixing. Essentially, raising the PH of the mix will slow the set time. Conversely, lowering the PH will speed it up.
How serendipitous. I'm making the Jurassic Park gates out of Styrofoam and trying to figure out how to harden it...and you're wearing a Jurassic Park shirt!
Oh MAN! Thanks RU-vid algorithm! This is literally the *perfect* thing I need for my Stakataka cosplay! It will weigh more than me and I'm going to be dead post con, but holy shit it'll be the coolest cosplay.
Vs doing your initial sanding try using a damp spongue to smooth it out start with instead. There is a limited window of time when it's easier, but it's just as fast as sanding and you don't have all the dust.
5:55 I "Flip" RVs... and to SAND that stuff I use those GREEN Scrubbie things... from Lowes or the Dollar Store... I completely stripped and handprinted a Vintage Travel Trailer, by using the GREEN (kitchen, pot scrubbers)... Works wonders... I love this video... Y'all are so Great... Thank you so much for making these videos.. LOVE Them.
OMG..... they really are beautiful. Such long hours for you both but what an impact they will have in your pumpkin patch. You both truly are artists. Can not wait to see them painted Jeana and awesome work Chris. 😀
FYI, It has latex added to it to aid flexibility. There is also a concrete adhesive you can apply first that will help prevent the FlexBond from falling off if you crack the coating. Look up Quikrete Concrete Bonding Adhesive at Home Despot ($18.97 gal). Thanks for making the video.
Thanks! we thought about trying to add paint for tinting to possibly skip the painting process but wondered if it would affect the curing process. The nice thing is it does bond to the foam quite well already its just that like the exterior foam signs and houses here with the foam siding/mesh/stucco, it really needs to be 3/16" to 1/4" thick so then I can stand on them.
I should have said if better, the flexbond has polymers added (used to be latex), just helping fill the spot where he couldn't find what the additive was on the bag. I thought in the video he said some pieces of the coating would fall off if cracked. The adhesive is intended to help avoid that. When you have some spare time (hahaha), try doing some paint added experiments to see how that effect cures. Let us know how it goes.
that sounds like a great idea to try in a video. we are always wondering which types of vids to make in the off season and we like testing out different things. we could even try out the adhesive you mentioned as well. thanks again for your feedback 😆
My brother bought me an expensive kitchen hand mixer for my birthday and I don't think he understands why I'm so excited. I am not going to tell him I'm using it for mixing my render :-P
"That's how a real man treats his wife?" I wish I could have found one in my lifetime, maybe in my next life I will be so lucky to find a man like Chris, he is really handsome with a beautiful smile. Gina you are a sweetheart also with a beautiful face and smile. I would love to be able to do this I love Halloween and you could never ever have enough props and decorations. Great work !!
Just googled about coating polystrene and got your vid - and I have some of the plaster or mortar based stuff left over from a reno (several bags!) - and the info about making fake bricks on plywood gave me some ideas too :)
I have been watching your content since you built that haunted house outside of your home. Ever since then I have loved your channel. But now all you guys do Is make me love it even more Keep up the good work and stay spooky d;
The pumpkin's are so perfect. I was thinking to make really durable soak cloth strips in concrete mix and apply to bottom of pumpkin to reinforce to keep cracks down. Just a thought. Your work is outstanding. 🎃💖🎃
@@dibright1445 You could try it, I can't remember if that holds up to getting wet or not but I think its fine. When we used the plaster first in this video we noticed moisture made it softer so that's why we switched to mortar. The draw back is for the pumpkins we had hoped for a smoother finish. Its perfect for tombstones etc. I wonder what kind of finish the casting stuff would leave?
@@HollywoodHaunter thank you for taking the time to read and answer my question. If I do one with the cast material I wouldn't let it go outside. I will let you know if it works. I'm definitely going to make one or 2, maybe 3 next year. 🤗
I don't see why not, I'm not 100% for sure if it gets as hard as a coating but it would most likely work. We wanted to use mostly what we already had up before we tried anything new.
ok so here's the thing.. you guys are awesome! we can't all do what you do but we all admire it! i don't know if you go back in the comments enough to read what people are saying or not, but its apparent that you guys are loved. Have you ever done a subscriber give away? i want a pumpkin!!! That's all i'm saying!!! We'll work out the shipping charges later!!!!! Love you guys, congrats on the new baby!!!! My granddaughter Lillyann just turned 6 months old!!! Anyway, i think you guys should do a hell mouth thing like Troy does, just a shout out to your fans. God bless and Happy Halloween from my family to yours!!!!
Yes it's time we did another Haunt contest. Not sure if we'll be giving away a pumpkin but hopefully something Haunters will enjoy :) Thank you for the feedback! God bless you as well
I'll have to remember that hard coat method. Someone told me years ago to use a mortar mix, wood glue and some water. Never got around to making something to hard coat. Nice info. Oh ... I said ... it puts the lotion in the basket the same time Chris did. Great minds ... huh. LOL
This is late but...I have found that despite being a pva glue, wood glue has a tendency to react in unexpected ways when mixed with other products. I typically go for something like Sobo when adding it to my concoctions. And remember that most Elmer's white glue is washable, which means it reactivates when wet.
If you really want to make them waterproof you should have used Mapei Aqua defense. It's a liquid latex that is used to waterproof shower. Homedepot sells Redguard which is the same, as well as Laticrete has a similar product.
Have you guys ever tried using a stucco hopper to spray on the mortar? I have done this a few times with render i make myself from a PVA additive, sand and cement and a little touch of xypex admix to make it waterproof. Works great for me.
Just wanted to let you know we list some places to get big blocks of foam in this video if your still interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bPqoaJu6z4U.html
how much weight does the mortar add? If I made a fake rock this way, would it withstand a person sitting on it? Could I do a similar method with fiberglass and resin?
the mortar does add some weight to it depending on how thick you make it. We don't think it would be the right hard coat choice for anything people have contact with especially sitting on. The resin and fiberglass is a great thing to use and will be plenty strong but it costs more of course. Be sure to use a foam safe resin or coating first on foam so it doesn't melt. Test it out =)
Omg, so much information on the products! Thank you! I’m building a little model park for my niece-I have an old soft foam mattress topper... I’m thinking the flex bond will be best? I’m only using the soft foam mattress topper for the mountain(s). I’m putting it all on an old whiteboard cus it already has a frame and I thought it could possibly hold some kind of a plasti dip within the frame-then I can add trees to the wet dip?? I was also thinking that the board will probably flex though also? Lol I’m still honestly just learning. Would love any info. 😅 Thank you ♥️
Is there a sprayer tool small enough to use on these? I see the larger 3 and 4 jet concrete sprayers but wonder if special smaller jets could be used or just a smaller sprayer. looking at the larger units, you'd probably waste a lot of material.
You could try but just paint only could cause issues if the resin gets through to the foam. Now if I did it over top all the junk I put on these pumpkins in the video it would probably be ok. Another option is apply thin tin foil pieces over your work using wallpaper glue adhesive. You can push foil down into all the details with a paint brush. That would protect it.
you guys are awesome thank you. Im creating a tree to go inside a childs room, do you think a couple of coats of tile mortar would be enough or do you think precoating with plaster is a must - Im trying to be budget conscious but the priority is strength
So you definitely don't have to use any plaster we just did that step because we had some laying around. Here the deal if you make it thick it can work but if it takes a hit from anything the mortar may crack. It is a cheaper hard coating which is why we chose it but if you really want it to last we recommend using a flexible resin like what we used on the carved telephone pole we made a while back. It will be much more forgiving. Even better than that would be a fiberglass outer shell on top of the resin layer but now you're really into it a few dollars. The mortar can give you a hard coat but it is sort of fragile at the same time. thanks for watching!
Does anyone know what I could use to hard coat/weatherproof a traditional paper mache piece? It's made of newspaper, blue shop towel and flour. I coated with polycrylic, spray painted it, coated twice again with the poly and it still got soggy in the rain. I cut out the soggy area and dried it out and was able to salvage it but I want to make it 100% weatherproof.
Ok so question. If I buy foam insulation panels from Lowe's, what sort of prepping would I need to do to put the flex bond on it? Weight is critical as it's a cosplay, not a prop.
If it's for cosplay I think using something like a smooth on foam safe epoxy product. As far as the foam you can try the mortar but I think it will crack and flake over time for you. You can just apply straight on foam.
The thing is it's of Stakataka and the idea of making it look like a brick wall (like you did with the flex bond) is exactly what I need it to do. Does the epoxy work for this purpose?
Your both great at this you two, very entertaining. I worry about your lungs though!, none of what your using is good for you and any old person will tell you we all suffer from stuff we made out living doing years and years ago, just want you to be safe
kkeegan32 whenever we mix the flexbond mortar the consistency we like is like a pancake or cake batter. i think it ends up being like twice the powder to water but we just keep adding Powder to the water as we stir until it looks right. hope that helps and thanks for the comment
Just wanted to let you know we list some places to get big blocks of foam in this video if your still interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bPqoaJu6z4U.html
I would, you could coat it with something like drylok or just laytex paint. I'd even clear coat it with something exterior Helmsman Spar Urethane. It may crack over time if the foam expands so the paint may help.
What if the prop is going to be in a professional escape room? Would using a mortar coating be advisable? Or go with the epoxy resin coating? The prop will be touched by several people over the course of a few years...
I'd go with the resin coating for something like that especially a touched prop. Or the mortar would need to be pretty thick like a 1/4" or so and then clear coated. We have used it on faux roc walls at a mini golf course and it worked well.
Wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to respond! I ordered the Epsilon pro that you showed in the video. I'll use that over the Styrofoam, then after a few coats, I'll paint it with grey drylock since I already have a bunch of drylock. Would you confirm that's a great idea? Thanks again for the video and for taking the time to respond! I'm new to the foam world, but videos and insight like yours help me get more comfortable with this medium.
@@StuddedMohawk It should work. I used that product on the telephone pole prop and it worked. I have also used EpoxAmite resin as well on the castle and the snow and dirt mounds of the mini golf that worked as well. Theres videos for those i think if your intrested. There are so many products out there but those I have used and it worked for our projects. I'm sure people that use these products all the time have there favorites and could tell you the best but once you try a few you will get an idea of what you prefer to use. good luck.
So, I want to make 1/4 ish scale Disneyland jungle cruise waiting cue building in my backyard. Planning on using wood for most building and props, but almost nowhere, could I find out how Disney seals outside props, do you have specific recommendations? Thank you
Since Disney bids out all of thier stuff to several different companies and set shops to make everything many different products are used for the scenery. I know there are a lot of diffrent resins like clear epoxies used as clear coats over things. But they also use a lot of oil based and expensive UV protective paints which last longer. Check websites like Smooth-On for some cool product ideas. We have used several of their resins that could work. I also use helmsman clear coat for most of our wood props and walls and it lasts along time.
@@HollywoodHaunter thank you so much. As I said before, there is so little about this process on the web. It’s like searching for diy Japanese woodworking joinery and only seeing pockethole tutorials. So thank you very much for your guidance and background. Love your projects. Especially the Disney signs…and how the whole family dives into it from one angle or another
Not sure if you check your comments because this videos 4 years old but if you do can you share the link of how you actually made the large pumpkins. Thanks so much great video.
it would be awesome if you could hollow one out and carve a jack-o-lantern...put one of those halloween fake flame cauldrons in the middle...i doubt thats even posible to do but its a cool thought...you could cut out the eye holes and mouth and light it with led lights
That is a great Idea, we were just going to leave them large pumpkins for this year because of time and energy but we could always make that modification in the future we are not scared. It would look cool!
That should work ok and help from pieces falling off. The mud clings pretty well but it does crack sometimes when the foam expandes with the tempature.
No plaster needed but I would definitely seal the mortar with something. Also you could use a concrete adhesive on the foam before you apply the mortar so it will stick even better.
I am really enjoying watching you two super entertaining people making these killer pumpkins. I want to make one huge JOL, the size of our Jeep for our haunt next year and all of your tips are going to help if I actually do make one.
Great Project and I got to say love the info that you give on the material that you are using, is there anything out there on the market that i can use to make my tombstones waterproof after i have built them. I live in Mississippi and i usually set my stuff out the week of Halloween and they might get damp or even wet during there stay outside. Any recommendation would be most helpful.
Just wanted to let you know we list some places to get big blocks and how to hard coat foam like that in this video if your still interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bPqoaJu6z4U.html
we have a couple vids showing the painting these large pumpkins ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PfhaEVBd558.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cy_BENSWHb4.html
Use gloves. Mastic and mortar are very alkaline (ph 12 - 13), whereas human skin is somewhat acidic (pH 4 to 5). Mortar will kill your skin in no time. So use gloves. But good stuff.
@@scratchcrafter Just wanted to let you know we list some epoxies for covering foam in this video if your still interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bPqoaJu6z4U.html
What was your resin safe brand and is it really expensive ? I got some stabilizing floats for my john boat and wanted to hardened them so they dont fall appart everywhere i go
It does crack because of that but we list other products here if your still interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bPqoaJu6z4U.html
Yes we have used it before and its not to bad our thing is we always try to use what we got left over form past jobs and some things like dryloc sealer and drywall for monster mud we just never buy. We definitely would use it though and I imagine it would work great over the mortar.
