This Troll does not live under a bridge!

This is my take on a classic prop call the "Peeper".

There have been many variations of this prop, so I decided to make a Troll.  A Tombstone Troll, to be exact.

Miter saw or any cutting saw, a drill or two, #8 countersink bit, various drill bits, bench clamp, Dremel tool with cutting wheels, tape measure, needle nose pliers, wire snips, box cutter, staple gun and ½ inch staples, hammer, wrenches, vise grips, and tin snips or heavy duty scissors.

When working with any mechanics, don't forget to test them out before you get too far along with the aesthetics of the prop.

Always account for design flaws as you go and adjust your plans.

Many motors used for prop making are NOT weather proof, so plan accordingly to prevent damage to your motors.

Use the proper voltage for your motor, otherwise you could end up with a nice new paperweight that looks like a motor.

Begin by making the the motor assembly.  Take the 4 x 4 post cap and drill holes for the wiper motor's mounts.

Do so by lining up the shaft with the existing hole in the post cap.  Then measure out the and mark the holes for the three wiper motor screws.

Reference the photo for details.

Once the wiper motor is mounted, use existing holes in the post cap's sides to secure the L-Brackets.

Use small bolts and nuts to secure the L-Brackets to both sides of the post cap.

For more information concerning the use of wiper motors in props, visit Scary Terry's Halloween Pages.

Now that the motor assembly is made, we will now create the custom S shaped arm to turn the PVC slide we will create later.

Best way to make the Arm similar to mine is to use a bench clamp and some vice grips.

Cut a 4 inch piece of the aluminum stock and place it in the clamp just about 1 inch up on one side.

Use the vice grips to slightly bend the aluminum stock to make the bends you see in the photo on the right..

Now your aluminum stock should resemble an the same form as shown.

Now it's time to make the custom PVC slide guide (patent pending) that will allow you to eliminate an additional arm to work the mechanics.

Use a straight edge to make each side before cutting.

Wear protective glasses and get out the Dremel tool with a cutting wheel.

Carefully cut along the edge of your two lines until you get about 1 inch from each end.

The hard parts past us, so let's get on to building the frame!

Start with a piece of 2x4 that is about 2 inches longer than the motor assembly and it's L-brackets.

Attach the motor assembly to the 2x4 piece, centered and with 1 inch wood screws or whatever you have on hand.

Next, cut two pieces approximately 12 inches long.  These will be attached as the Troll's legs.

Use wood glue and wood screws to secure the two 12 inch 2x4 pieces to the motor assembly's base.

The two 12 inch 2x4s are the legs, so attach them at the outer edge of the motor assembly base.

The turning mechanism will need a sturdy base, so cut a piece of 2x4 approximately 10 inches long.

Secure the 10 inch long 2x4 piece to the bottom of the motor assembly base with wood glue and 4, 1⅝ inch wood screws.  (May want to counter sink these holes before screwing).

Now, an additional piece of 2x4  approximately 5 inches will be used to help support the base of the turning mechanism that will be built later.

Use more wood glue and 1⅝ inch wood screws to secure it in place.

Be sure that this piece of 2x4 is screwed flush with the front on the base structure because we will be adding the turning mechanism support soon.

Use a scrap piece of 1x2 for the turning mechanism support.

The 1x2 is approximately 22 inches long.

Before attaching, pre-drill your holes for the eyebolts to attach.

From the photo, you will see that I piloted several holes in the support here so that I could "play with the turning mechanics later during testing.

It does not matter exactly where the eyebolts are place on the turning support post as long as 1 eyebolt is on each side of the T - connector piece of PVC.  More on this later.

It's always a good thing to place the top eyebolt fairly close to the top of the turning support post.

This is not rocket science here, so I suggest you carefully do your own measurements here.

Just use my photo on the right for guidance.

Basically, you want the T-connector and custom PVC slide to rest just above the custom aluminum stock arm we made earlier.

Account for the end cap on the bottom of the PVC Turning mechanism.  It can add about ½ an inch to the height.

Use the two 45 degree PVC elbows to perfect a turning neck for your Troll.

BE SURE TO TEST THE MECHANISM NOW BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER IN THE BUILD!  IF IT DOESN'T WORK NOW, IT SURELY WON'T WORK LATER!

Somewhat self-explanatory here, but don't forget to make some feet for your Troll.

I used scrap pieces of 2x4s approximately 6 or 7 inches long.  Just look it over and make sure the feet are big (long) enough to keep the entire prop base standing on its own.

Otherwise, the prop could be a danger to you or others as it is running!

I took the scrap 2x4 pieces glued and screwed them into the leg bases using 2 ½ inch wood screws., centered on each leg.

This can be as complicated as you want to make it, but I just opted for a cheap mask from an online shop, some cat pupils from Michael's craft store, some small foam balls for the eyes, and of course a little duct tape to hold it in place.

For best results with a ¾ mask like this one, use a styrofoam wig head as the base.

Next, stuff plastic bags in the mask to fill it out and duct tape the mask on the wig head.

The important thing is that the styrofoam wig head has a hole already in the bottom of the neck that is perfect for our ½ inch PVC neck!

Notice how the wig head sits on the turning PVC mechanism?

Well, it looks great now, but in the end I had to cut off about 2 inches of the foam wig head to compensate for the look of the prop.

The Troll's head was just too high up from his shoulders to look realistic, so I chopped of some of the neck to adjust.

Worked out great, but this is just an example of the things you may encounter as you build custom props.

ALWAYS TEST AS YOU BUILD!

Now that the mechanics are tested and working as they should, it's time to cover the Troll with his body form.

Start this process by snipping off a large piece of chicken wire approximately 4ft by 4ft.

Wrap the chicken wire around the prop leaving a few inches at the top around the neck and a few inches protruding down past the legs.

The best part of using chicken wire is the fact that it can be formed and shaped as needed even after you secure it in place.

Wrap the chicken wire around the base and begin securing the wire to itself as you work up or down the seam.  (The seam is the edge of the wire)

Notice that in the photo I have wrapped the prop, ensured the mechanics will not bind on the wire, and began to give it shape in the front on the belly and at the shoulder line on the top.

When you get to this stage in design, remember to plan an access point for the motor's power cord.  I personally left a small hole near the underside of the Troll's tail for such a spot.

I wanted to give a reference photo of the chicken wire being twisted around itself.

There is an art to doing this cleanly.

First, be sure that when you initially cut the chicken wire, you do so exactly in the middle of the twisted sections of the hexagon shape made from the wire.  This prevents the wire from unraveling on itself, and provides a nice place to wrap the wire on itself.

Notice from the photo that I have my needle-nosed pliers on a piece of the twisted wire.  This is from cutting it in the middle of the twisted from the roll and now I have a means to wrap around any other part of the wire for a secure, tight wrap on the prop.  Now the wire will not come apart on itself from stress.

When you are all finished twisting the wire and wrapping itself clean, you must secure the chicken wire to the prop base where possible.

Remember that we left a few inches of 2x4 sticking out from behind the prop.  We will use that to nail in some double-sided nails to secure the chicken wire to the base, so that the prop does not move after we apply the skin.

Note: You could use a staple gun and long staples.

This step is totally optional, but I thought that he could use a tail.

The tail provides better balance for  the weight of the turning mechanism on the front of the prop, and I thought it would look cool!

To make the tail, cut a piece of chicken wire out approximately 6 inches by 15 inches in length.

Begin to roll the chicken wire up as if you were making a sort of cylinder, and begin securing the wire to itself with needle nose pliers.

Leave the widest end open for attaching to the chicken wire on the main prop.

On the tail end, close up the wire and have it tapered shut as seen in the photo.

We will make the arms in the same fashion as we did the tail, but they will be larger in size.

Cut off a full length of chicken wire approximately 10 inches by the full 4ft. of length that the wire comes as.

Start rolling the wire into a cylinder shape, making sure that the arms are not too big and not too small.

Secure the wire to itself using the method mentioned above.

You should have one complete piece of rolled wire.  There is no need to make two because one 4ft. piece is just long enough to be laid across the Troll's shoulder area to become both arms. (Reference photo for placement)

Before posing the arms as you like, secure the chicken wire to the body base.

Use some lengths of floral wire as needed to assist in securing the arms.

After the arms are secure, you can begin to pose them how you desire.

My pose was nothing too special.  Just had them bend around somewhat naturally.

I have plans to put him next to a tombstone in my cemetery scene, so one arm is slightly posed up to look as if it is resting on top of a tombstone.

Get creative with the pose.  Another great idea would be to have the arms lifted up above the head, as if the Troll was trying to scare you!

NOTE: I ADDED GLOVES ONLY FOR REFERENCE.

Monster Mud is a mixture of latex paint and joint compound.  I buy it in 5 gallon buckets and add about ¼ of a can of black latex exterior paint to a gallon of joint compound.  Once thoroughly mixed, this stuff can be used for many different Halloween applications.  Another great point in buying 5 gallons is that you can reseal the bucket, and store it for later use! 

For more information about Monster Mud visit The Terror Syndicate.

Please do proper prep work to make this part go as smooth as possible.

Begin by mixing the latex paint to the joint compound, measurement noted earlier.

Take the landscaping burlap and begin cutting it with scissors or the box cutter into about 5 inch x 4ft. strips.  Don't worry if you fry the burlap because that will help secure it to itself while wrapping the prop.

Once you have a heaping load of burlap prepared, I would suggest putting on some latex gloves to keep the mud out of you fingernails. (It's somewhat hard to get out of your cubicles)

Now plunge one piece of burlap into the Monster Mud at a time, wrapping the burlap around the chicken wire and onto itself.

Continue this pattern until you have completely wrapped the prop from top to bottom.

Clean up, seal the leftover joint compound and let dry in a cool place for at least a day.

Trolls have warts, so I used some Great Stuff to make pock marks on the Troll's body to resemble warts.

Use small bursts of Great Stuff to achieve a small bump on the body.  Then let dry before painting.

Now's the time to paint the body of the Troll with any Latex paint base color you want.

I wanted to match the face and monster hands I purchased, so I went with a mixture of burnt orange/black/olive to get the brown you see in this photo.

Choose your color, and paint the entire body making sure to get in every crevice and crack.  This process is an important step in weather proofing your project.

After you paint the body, the warts will no longer be white as they are in the photo here.

You will want to dab some white paint on the "warts" after the body is painted.

I chose to use a cotton ball to lightly wipe the "warts" with white latex paint.

The mask I chose to use for the Troll face was a ¾ mask.  I needed to make it more realistic while covering the fact that it was not full to the neck.

To fix this problem, I cut up some faux fur and glued it to the mask with 3M adhesive spray.

Use ample amounts of the spray on the mask and the smooth side of the faux fur before pressing it to the mask to ensure a good bond.

 A staple gun can help keep the faux fur in place on the wig head around the neck and ears.

Just press the staples around the edges of the mask to help hide the styrofoam.

Continue until you have good coverage.

In order to save myself some time, I simply stuck the monster hands on the Troll and secured them to the body with some floral wire.

Just twist it together tightly on the wrist areas of the monster hands to keep them in place.

The head can be hot glued in place, or you can spray a small amount of Great Stuff in the neck hole and wait for it to dry with the ½ PVC pipe inserted in the sytrofoam wig head.

NOTE:  DO NOT SECURE THE HEAD TO THE BODY!  THE MECHANICS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MOVE FREELY IF YOU DO!  I AM REFERRING TO THE PVC NECK PIECE ONLY!  IT HAS TO BE ABLE TO MOVE FREELY WITHOUT BINDING!

I used the left over faux fur to hide the areas where I secured the monster hands, neck of the Troll and on the end of his tail.

To do this, cut some faux fur about 8 inches by 4 inches and attach on the wrist areas where the monster hands were secured.  I used more floral wire to secure the faux fur.

Next, I zip tied a scrape piece of the faux fur on the end of his tail.

Then, make him some chest and back hair, glue it on with the 3M spray adhesive.

Don't forget to cover his feet with some scrape pieces!

Finally, cut a large pattern out of an entire piece of faux fur to resemble a mane that will tie all the chest, back and neck hair together to look like it's one big piece.

Please note that I added this long piece of faux fur down the Troll's back to hide the access panel and cut in an inverted triangle shape, so that I could access the mechanics that drive the Troll's head.

It worked out rather well, as I don't believe anyone will notice that the hair was anything more than aesthetic.

To cut out the access panel, I used my Dremel tool with a cutting wheel prior to placing the faux fur on its back.  If you attempt to do this, please wear your safety glasses!

I used a bolt, a few nuts, and a scrap piece of ¼ inch aluminum stock as the latch.

Now I am able to pull the back of the Troll up to access the mechanics in case there is a problem with them later.