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 In the how-to's on my website I show a method I learned from Jerry Chavez of
SpookyFX.Com to glue paper towels to these skeletons to make a rotted corpse,
but they are very time consuming and are relatively fragile. My idea for
something much faster and hopefully really durable was to use a little different
method. I started with the spray paints shown above and a gallon of water based
Weldwood Contact Adhesive, a half dozen foam brushes and some saw dust.
 The first step is to apply a layer of the adhesive cement to one section of
your corpse at a time using the 2" or 3" foam brush. (I suggest not
using a nice house painting brush for this, as the brushes get all gooed up
every skeleton or so and you
 would hate to toss a $15 brush every few minutes)
Once you have coated the front side of say the arm and hand, coat all the
adhesive with a layer of saw dust. (Note! You should wear surgical gloves for
this process, as you will need to rub the saw dust in to the joints and across
the surface well so it really adheres to the plastic. This makes your hands
messy and you will go through about 3 sets of gloves per skelly.) Once you have
layered this on well, go on to the next section. Once you have him coated on the
front, flip him over and do the same to the back side.
After you have all your bones and skellies dusted well, shake off the excess and
lay them out face down. You will be applying a sketchy coat of tan paint to the
entire surface (Not a full coat. Miss some spots purposely.) Then move on to the
blue paint. This is the color of the veins, so be sure to apply in solid lines
and
 very sparingly to various places as shown in the top pic on the left. There
is no right placement, as the body could show this bluing under the skin at any
various location. Next apply the rust color. With this you can be pretty
generous. This is a large part of the rotting color. Finally you will spray the
black to the desired rotted effect. You can be very generous with color in this
stage, as much of it will be brushed off after these are fully dry. If you get
all done and find your corpse isn't nasty enough you can always go back and
touch him up. The black color really does make him take on a nasty burned
effect, so be careful. Too much and he will
 look like he's been through some
really serious trauma. Once the backs are done and you have had practice with
the balance of colors, turn them over and do the front sides the same way.
After you have all your bones and skellies painted leave them to dry for at
least one day. The glue will take some time to dry out of the excessively heavy
areas that really soaked up the saw dust.
Once fully dry you now need to take a stiff brush to them to remove all the
excess paint and saw dust that will not hang on under rough use. As you can see
from the pics above, they really get a lot lighter once you brush them down. In
which case you may want to go back for further touch up at this point. If you
do, try to keep your spray tip back
 away further than the first applications, as
this paint will not really blend with the other colors as well as the first 4
did due to the excess dust has already been removed.
 
Because these are so durable, I can stick these in garbage bags in the off
season, toss them into my attic and not worry they will be damaged by the
contortions, as the glue adheres the color and texture to the plastic very well
and it resists flaking off.
In the light of the haunt, these bones were exceptionally convincing as rotted
corpses and the total cost of making 6 is the same as buying a single bucky.
I rest my case.
Rest In Pieces,
Death Lord
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