Spook Shapes

For these, I sent the templates from the downloads page (either svg or pdf format - I can't remember which) to Fred Aldous who then laser-cut shapes from 4mm clear acrylic sheet (thinner acrylic was not available). I coated a set of shapes in luminous paint and you can see the results below in the new Haunted Manor. (I didn't apply sufficient light to all the Spooks, so the glow is uneven in the second picture). It would have been good to have cut the shapes from from luminous plastic. At the time, there wasn't anything suitable for laser-cutting and having checked again more recently (2017) that still seems to be the case.

Using a laser-cut Alf shape, Stewart made this superb replica, which he very kindly sent to me. He says: Apart from luminous paint obviously, Alf is made entirely of PVA glue. That's all there is. I always liked the way that PVA changes from white to translucent when it dries, because it looks just like Spooks. So I started playing around with your acrylic shapes, spreading a thin layer of PVA on one side. When it dried I repeated it over and over, until there was enough thickness to retain the shape when I removed it from the plastic. Then I built up more layers on both sides. The loop is a slice of the tube from a biro. Every 3 or 4 coats, I added luminous paint to the PVA, about 1 part to 5 PVA., so the total paint content is not very much, about 1:20, but it is right through rather than on the surface and I think that makes the glow better.

Finally, my laser-cut Spooks left spaces in the acrylic sheet, which I thought would be perfect for shaping glow-in-the-dark Fimo Spooks. This wasn't as easy as I'd expected, because I found the material difficult to handle. Two of my better attempts are shown below. Sidney's eyes are painted on, by the way!