The Flying Crank Ghost
If you've never been to Doug Ferguson's site, you are missing one of the best gifts the haunting community has ever received... the Flying Crank Ghost (www.phantasmechanics.com.) A movie clip shows the prop in action, and that alone made a believer out of me.
The plans call for cardboard - cut out hands. I suppose the reason for this is to keep the prop as light as possible
The counter weight option caught me eye. I knew it would be possible to build a head, body, arms, and hands for my flying crank ghost. All I needed was a light weight product I could shape and texture to look like bone. In the craft department of any department store you'll find dense, rigid, white foam, in many shapes and sizes. I used one sheet (11" x 17" x 1.25" thick) foam for this project. The hands are the "Coat Hanger And Masking Tape" type. The head came from K Mart. 2 AA batteries make red LED eyes flash. I think it cost $4.99.
After the foam pieces were cut and shaped to look like particular bones, I used cotton and water-reduced white glue to apply a "skin". I needed to "skin" over the masking tape hands, rigid foam arms and torso, and cheap plastic skull. Doing this would give all the bones a similar texture. Of course, as soon as I finished this, I found a page containing information on "Corpsing a Bucky"
If I knew about latex, this project would've been easier. The white glue certainly did the job, but drying time was long, and it took three or four coats to
build the thickness I wanted.
If I knew about 4th class Bucky, I may have avoided turning a flat sheet of foam into a three dimensional skeletal torso. On the other hand, I'm satisfied with the end result, and the whole thing weighs less than three pounds. Similar Bucky parts would look better, but weight at least ten pounds. That's pretty heavy for a
small gear motor.
The photo at right shows the right arm with better detail. I pushed a coat hanger through the foam bones before applying the skin. I left enough wire
exposed on each end to form loops, just like
Doug Ferguson's F.C.G. This photo also shows how
"less - than - anatomically - correct" the rib cage looks.
I think the basic concept behind the original Flying Crank Ghost was to display a "spirit."
A black light is used to exaggerate the transparent nature of this prop. The barely visible ghost is an amazing site, but it is also better viewed at a distance. I knew my F.C.G. would be no more than seven feet from the viewers, so I decided to give them a little more to look at. I did not intend to improve the original design, I just wanted to make a skeleton fly.
Why Blue Paint?Obviously, I wasn't going for the "realism"
effect here, so, WHY NOT blue?
Fluorescent spray paint is inexpensive.
Fluorescent Blue isn't "too blue" under a
black light. Fluorescent green made excellent highlights.This was more of a fantasy
prop, so I had some fun with colors.
It looked good,... honest.
The moss hanging on the walls (picture above left)
helped diffuse the backlight's reflections. This photo was taken during daylight hours.
Although very dark, at left is a
night time photo of my Flying Crank
Ghost.
The blacklight used is a 15 watt (18 inch)
fixture placed at the base of the prop.
In total darkness this effect is amazing.
The blacklight hides a lot of mistakes.
Back To F.C.G.