13 Hr Clock Build, Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

I had replicated the clock face from the 13 Hour Grandfather Clock found in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. I even made the creepy arm show up on the clock face when the lights go out. This wasn't good enough though, something was missing.

I guess we're building the scary face facade too! I wanted this end product to be a little more practical. I decided to just to the face and perhaps have the spooky tail as the pendulum.

I used the original clock housing that I have been using for all of my clocks, to get a size estimate. I then sculpted the spooky monster face, using foam to fill in most of the main areas and then spackle to fill in the details. I used the original design as reference but took some liberties with where the teeth and claw hands would sit around the base.

I will say that I was a little frustrated with the way the spackle was reacting/drying on top of the foam. WED clay or Monster Clay would have been a better solution to fill in details for this project. I like WED clay for the most part, and there isn't any sulphur that could potentially be bad if you're creating a mold made from silicone. But Monster Clay definitely has it's own advantages. I'm not sure if there is sulpher in M.C. though.

Okay, so once I was happy with where the sculpt was at, I sprayed it with a clear spray, to keep it together. This also keeps it the sculpt from cracking as well.

I decided to create a plaster mold, since it's cheaper and I didn't have any undercutting. I thought about making a silicone mold but really thought this would be fine. I slathered the sculpt with petroleum jelly, make a box, and keeping the clock face inside the sculpt, created a plaster mold. I then de-molded the plaster mold and cleaned it up.

The next step was to cast this using a semi-rigid liquid plastic from Smooth-On. I buy most of my products from Reynolds, who distributes the Smooth-On product.

So I mixed up the 2 parts (let me know if you want me to make a video on mixing resin/casting) and poured it into the mold. The plan was to do sort of a slosh mold, moving the mold around until it started setting.

Here's the problem though ; and I should have known from past experiences, but I didn't use a mold release. I could have gotten away with just petroleum jelly but I didn't. Don't ask how or why I brain farted but I did. So once the resin cast was setting, I quickly had the epiphany that this might be a ruined mold.

While the casting was in the mold, I thought this would be a good time to fill the negative space with foam. I left the dummy clock inside so that there would be space for a new, clean clock. I experimented with a spray foam that you can find at Home Depot. This seems to work well, the final product is dense and durable. There were some valleys and peaks that needed to be manicured but the foam is easily formed with a knife and some sandpaper.

Back to the demanding process;

Well, sure enough, the resin was adhered to the plaster, just like I had feared. There was no way around it-I had to break the mold. But luckily, the plastic casting was strong enough, it was able to take all of the scraping and pounding, to remove all of the plaster. Thankfully, all was not lost but please learn from me!

I did have to clean up this casting a bit, I added more clay material along the sides to make it more straight and smooth. Now it was time to create a NEW mold.

I bought some brush on silicone for this project because this piece is a pretty decent size and silicone can be expensive. I have used brush on silicone before and really liked it before. I tried something different this time and was not too happy with it. I used ______ and it is a 2 part A&B silicone, measured out by weight at a 10 to 1 ratio. It says that it has a working time of about 45 minutes but it really didn't start to set until after 1.5 hours. And since I knew I had to do several layers, this meant that I had to babysit the silicone while it set, constantly pushing it back on to the piece so that I'm actually getting coverage. There are additives that you can add that can thicken your silicone up, I didn't think that I would need it so I didn't have it on hand. So needless to say, this process took several days (on and off) and I will not be getting this silicone again. Oh yes, I also used silicone pigment in every other layer, so that I could see what the coverage was looking like.

Once I fine with the 4 layers of silicone, it was time to create the mother mold to keep the silicone mold in place. So I created a new box perimeter around the edges using cardboard and hot glue. I then used plaster which I found at Home Depot for a great deal, and poured to make the mother mold. This sucker was heavy but will be necessary. You could also make a mother mold out of fiberglass or resin.

I needed to cut out some of the foam and plastic on the bottom, to make room for the pendulum.

Once the mother mold was completed, I did the same process for the tail which will act as the pendulum.

Then, using the original casting, wanted to put this all together. So I had to clean up the casting, I sanded it down, painted it black with some lighter distressing colors and finished it with a matte spray. I then added the clock mechanism, glass first, and then just the housing. The clocks that I am using aren't designed for a pendulum. I had to go and find a clock at a Goodwill, that had a pendulum armature. They are all very similar nowadays, the pendulum addition just has a small electromagnet powered by a AA battery which allows the arm to swing back and forth.

So I swapped out the clock mechanism and although it looked a little janky, it seemed to work fine. I then sealed up the back using a black matting material. The cutting job along the edges wasn't great but at this point of the day, I wanted to be done!

Lastly, the pendulum needed to be added. I secured some basic hardware that I had lying around again, a little janky but it did the job. The pendulum tail casting that I used as a prototype, was fully resin casted; meaning it was heavy enough that the little electromagnet in the clock, didn't really have enough power to sway it for longer than a few minutes. Now I know that I need to resin cast a thin membrane and then use foam as a filler. I can also get away with making the tail casting as thick. This prototype is about .75 inches thick. I can probably get away with going only about .25 inches deep, give or take.

Overall, I am happy with the end product. I believe a gloss finish will really make this stand out better. I will be experimenting with a different application of paint, to make the colors contrast a little better. And once the new pendulum has been cast, I believe we will have a pendulum that will swing. I need to figure out a more reliable way of securing the clock inside the facade. As of now, it's hot glued but I am not loving this. Also I want the backing to look a little nicer, cover up the foam as well.

This clock design will be available for sale in my Etsy shop, Maker Micks, as a wall hanging clock with or without the pendulum. It could also be a great shelf clock as it does have enough surface area to sit upright on its own.