No gruesome cemetery is complete without a custom made Groundbreaker peering out into the night!

You can make one too!

I put this guy together in about 3 hours one night.

A drill or two, #6 countersink bit, hacksaw or serrated knife, tape measure, zip ties, duct tape, box cutter, tin snips, heavy duty wire snips, floral wire and preferably a miter saw.

If you do not have a miter saw, I would suggest you invest in one if you intend to continue prop building.  For now, any saw can be used to cut the wood.

Duct tape is your friend, use it to attach most everything on this project.

Remember, this is a ground breaking skeleton!  It doesn't have to be anatomically correct in every aspect, just close!

Do as I do!  Use pieces of scrap and left over junk whenever possible.  It's free, and no one will every know that you used it!

You will want to make a sturdy base for your groundbreaker.

Start by measuring and cutting 2 pieces of 1 x 2, 12inches long.

Next, measure and cut 2, 5 inch pieces.

Glue and attach the 5 inch pieces to the outward end of one of the 12 inch pieces and screw down with 1¼ inch wood screws.  Don't forget a little wood glue on each piece before attaching it with screws!

Now we will secure the last 12 inch piece of 1 x 2 to form a cross brace.

Take your countersink bit and pre-drill 4 holes in the upper 1 x 2 cross brace to attach the other.

You can see my counter sink holes in this pick.  I used 4 wood screws to attach the two cross brace members.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:  The 12 inch piece of 1 x 2 with the screwed on legs will go on TOP of the other 12 inch piece of 1 x 2!

Measure out 3, 4 inch pieces of 1 x 2 and cut with saw.

Pre-drill holes in all four corners of each 4inch piece of 1 x 2 wood you just cut with the saw.

Two of the 4 inch supports will go on each side of the lower base support.

Be sure to use the wood glue before inserting the wood screws!

OK, take reference to this photo to understand how to attach the spine piece to the cross brace.

Measure and cut another piece of 1 x 2, approximately 25 inches.  This will be the spine for the corpse skeleton.

Use wood glue and the last 4 inch brace along with the 25 inch spine piece support to attach all the pieces together to make a study frame and base.

Screws will be needed to be screwed in all four corners of the 4 inch brace supports. to make the bottom base and spine piece sturdy.

Just reference the photo if I didn't make sense!

This is not an exact science!  I "guesstimated" each length of wire to cut.

Start out with a rather small piece of wire, loop it around and tape together using duct tape.  I used guerilla tape for this part for extra strength.

You will continue this process until you have 8 rings of wire taped.

Once you have completed 8 rings of wire loop them over the spine starting from bottom to top.

Be sure the larger rings go over the spine first to ensure that the smaller ones are taped up first at the top of the rib cage area on the spine.

Now, just start taping the ribs in place one by one.  Each wire rib should be attached directly under the last one.

Don't forget to leave about 6 inches of spine at the top of the ribcage to attach our skull to later!

I posted this photo here to demonstrate what you can expect the wire to look like after you duct tape the ribs.

Notice that the ribcage looks very round and displaced.

We will fix that by bending the larger wire ribs in the back where the shoulder blades will attach and then slightly curving the bottom ribs up to what will be a cardboard sternum.

Compare this photo to the last to understand how to shape the ribcage.

Notice that in this photo the ribs are more natural looking.  I cut a small section of the bottom wire rib and attached it to the one next to it for more realism.

You can also add more small wire ribs to the spine at this point below the main ribcage, but don't make rings just half moons sticking out towards the front.  Tape them in place.

For some support, take a piece of duct tape and secure each rib down the front to provide amply space between the wire ribs.

As I said in the beginning, use what you have.

I took a piece of cardboard, cut it out with the tin snips and "eyeballed" it for correct size.

"Eyeballed" is a technical term.  Don't be alarmed by my knowingness!

The piece of cardboard should be as long as the entire ribcage.  Now tape it in place UNDER the wire ribs!

Once again, I am using cardboard as the base here.  It's light, easy to work with, and most importantly FREE!

Use the tin snips to cut a pattern out of cardboard that closely resembles a human's shoulder blades.  It just needs to be close.

Next, tape the cardboard shoulder blades with duct tape to give them strength.

Take each shoulder blade and attach it near it's bottom to the ribcage with duct tape.

Now drill through the inner most corner of each shoulder blade near the spine making a small puncture hole.

Using the floral wire, attach the shoulder blades to the top most wire rib.

                Floral Wire                 Shoulder Blade attached to Ribcage

Use the piece of foam pipe insulation to wrap around the front of the spine post.

Use zip ties every 1½ inches down to secure the foam pipe insulation to the spine post.

Use wire snips to cut the additional length off the zip ties when tightened.

Now cut a piece of wire approximately 16 inches, and attach it at the center of the sternum.  Depending on your ribs, the collar bone piece my be larger or smaller!

Next bend the wire about 1½ inches on each end and tape the piece at the top outer corners of the bend to the shoulder blades and at the sternum.

The bend we just created will be used to attach the upper arms.

Self explanatory here, but just in case:

Cut 2 pieces of wire the length of your upper shoulder to your elbow and attach with duct tape.

Not exactly a brain buster here either:

Just cut 2 pieces for each arm the length of your own forearm and attach with more duct tape.

I used some foam board pieces in the joints to build them up a little bit more and help separate the two bones of the forearm.

First you will want to roughly cut out the shape of a hand using the tin snips or box cutter.

I used some scrap foam board, but you could use cardboard too.

Then cut some small pieces of wire to create the fingers.

Attach with glue and duct tape.  Be sure to cut another piece for the wrist, so it can be attached to the forearms later.

NOTE:  ALWAYS USE CAUTION WHEN CUTTING WITH AN EXPOSED RAZOR BLADE.  ALWAYS CUT AWAY FROM YOUR BODY AND DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK!

To attach the hands to the forearms, I used a small scrap piece of foam, taped between the two forearm wires to create realistic space and have something available for the hand to be attached.

Note that I just pushed the wire from the wrist of the hand into the foam board on the forearm then taped it all together with duct tape.

I have made several foam skulls cast from a single blow mold skull, so I decided to use one for this project.

You can use any skull you like, but for now I'll continue with my foam skull.

I wanted the skull to have it's mouth open like it was in agony, so I used my box cutter to carefully cut the mouth open, starting between the teeth.

To set the skull in the pose I liked, I inserted some wire in the jaw to stabilize the jaw and keep it open.

I would suggest that you do the same with your skull.  Think about how you want it to look and get the pose set before attaching it to the spine base.

Take your foam skull and insert a piece of scrap wood into the base of the skull.

Now tape it to the top of the spine post in a position you like.

I would suggest that you tape the head to the front of the spine base to hide way in which it is attached.

Now that the ground breaker is complete in form, begin to permanently set the pose of the entire prop to your liking.

I chose to set one arm across the top of the skull like it's covering itself from some kind of danger.

I think it turned out well, but the great thing about using the copper wire for this project is the fact that the entire prop is bendable.

So get creative!  Pose your ground breaker the way you like.

Next we will move on to aging and painting.

Corpsing a prop can be accomplished in many ways.  For this project, we will use regular cotton balls, landscaping burlap, liquid latex, and some all purpose 3M #45 spray adhesive.

I started out by unrolling the cotton balls and rapping them around the arms.

Use ample amounts of the spray adhesive to ensure a good bond to the wire before applying the cotton balls.

Continue to unroll and place cotton on all the areas that you want the illusion of dead rotting skin.

Before applying the burlap to your groundbreaker, use a box cutter to cut holes and ruff up the edges before applying it.

I always cut the burlap out in jagged, ruff cuts, so as not be appear very neat or even.  This will make the burlap, or rotting skin appear more natural when applied to the groundbreaker.

As you can see, I continued to apply adhesive spray and burlap all over the ribcage and shoulder areas.

Use ample amounts of adhesive spray before applying the burlap.

Use duct tape to help secure the pieces of burlap where needed.

If you check out the picture here, you will see that I have applied the liquid latex all over the groundbreaker.

Be sure to place some cotton and latex on the skull too.

I put cotton on the ribs and then applied liquid latex to the exposed ribs to give them more thickness and realism.

Cover the entire groundbreaker with the latex for weather proofing.

Next, let dry over night.

The last step to complete the groundbreaker is to paint it with a latex base paint.

I used a grey, mixed with some black latex paint.  Be sure to completely cover the groundbreaker with the latex paint.  This is what will protect it from the rain and weather.

You can paint addition detailing on the corpse as you like.  I was hurried to finish this guy before Halloween.

I added a blue flood light in the cemetery next to him, so that he would show up at night.  I think it turned out pretty good considering that fact that I only