SKELIEN - the 12 Ft Skeleton Alien Mod

This is SKELIEN. It was originally a 12 ft skeleton from Home Depot, of which I had a few. Some I resold, some I tinkered with as I became bored with everyone having one of these. What does NOBODY have, and is scary as can be? An Alien Xeno, of course !

Here I shall attempt to provide hints for those who'd like to mod their Skellies similarly. Who knows, maybe we'd create a group somewhere and challenge each others skills?

You will need to make precision cuts and saw off some thick material. I used a full size cordless grinder, a mini cordless grinder, and a multitool. All highly recommended. Will save tons of time and soreness.

Materials (most):

General

1. 1- Giant skeleton, 12 ft
2. 15 cans 0-1" foam (GE is the cheapest I found, $5.00ea)
3. 20 cans 1-3" foam
4. 1 can of acetone
5. 1 gallon latex paint, grey or green
6. 10 spray paint rattle cans flat black
7. 7 spray paint rattle cans gloss black
8. 4+ gatorade or powerade bottles (screw cap is extremely important)
9. 1-2 rolls duct tape
10. Talc powder

Head Exclusively

1. 20 ft, 1/2" PVC Piping
2. 1 PVC 5 end cross 1/2"
3. 2 bags SIKA yard post A/B foam
4. 1 sheet 3'x3' acrylic .08 or similar transparent plastic .08 or .06
5. 1 sculpting plastiline block, hard
6. 3-4 posterboard sheets
7. plastic wrap
8. 1 cardboard? 2' long roll tube (like aluminum paper roll diameter, but longer)
9. 1 short chickenwire roll 5' wide
10. 3 cans clear coat spray
11. IF you want to mold Skelly's face instead of destroying the head
12. honestly, its a better idea to buy the $80 scary head instead or just using skelly's face
13. Fiberglass resin
14. Fiberglass hardener
15. Fiberglass cloth
16. 1 can, Bondo
17. Bondo hardener
18. 100 grit sandpaper
19. 1 bag, plaster of paris
20. 1 large 1/8 wood board (to make a box for the skelly face mold)

'Greebly' parts

1. 3 rolls of 1/4 wire loom ('veins')
2. 1 roll of 1/2 wire loom ('veins')
3. 1 RV discharge hose (shoulder epaulettes?)
4. 2 flexible dryer cylindrical vents (leg and arm detail)
5. 2 shapeable dryer cylindrical vents (back spikes)
6. 1 landscape drain pipes 10 ft hoses (Tail, neck)
7. 1 large pool noodle (tail end)

Tools Used

1. Angle Grinder
2. Mini Angle grinder
3. Triangle Sander
4. Cutting Multi Tool
5. 10 inch long phillips screwdriver
6. Low grit sandpaper (multiple sheets)
7. Box cutting razor, long blade, extra sharp
8. 10-20 replacement blades for the razor (they dull out after a while)
9. Water Sprayer
10. Heat Gun (for bending PVC slightly. I used it to form the dome, didnt turn out like I wanted)

Find a large area to work in.

You will need to lay the partially assembled 12 ft skeleton down and stand it up often. The area will be contaminated with foam, which takes about 15 minutes to become solid enough to be cleaned by hand from polished concrete. Your area floor would be ideally covered in plastic sheeting. Foam is a nasty substance while it cures. You need to wear gloves, and have plenty paper towels to clean up. Acetone helps but doesn't quite dissolve the foam all the way. When I dont wear gloves, my skin will go black after I remove most of any cured foam I get on them. and I've found its neigh impossible to remove from clothing.

I found out it was better to use my garage for shaping small amounts of foam, or for shaving it off while sculpting. This made sweeping foam shavings easier. Otherwise, I laid large carboard on my pickup's bed, and worked there. When you spray large amounts of foam, it gets messy, quickly.

The skeleton femurs are laughably 'thin'. The tibia and fibula are noticeably thicker. We need to build shapely alien calves and butts.

1. Move to the 'messy' work area
2. Start by finding the L and R Femurs (labeled I and J)
3. Using a rotary blade:
4. cut the 4" super flexible (wobbly) duct into 2 pieces, each 3 ft in length.
5. cut each piece lengthwise on one side, so you can slide the leg bone into each
6. Insert the Femurs into each piece as shown in the image. Don't stretch the duct, we want a corrugated look.
7. Center the duct around the bone with crumpled paper balls or similar
8. IMPORTANT
9. Find where the back hole in each femur is. You need this hole accessible to attach/detach the aluminum frame interconnect lock. Draw a 2" diam. circle on the outside of the duct where the hole is. Cut the hole into the DUCT and stick some rolled up cardboard through the bone hole, so the hole is not filled with foam..
10. Spray 3" foam evenly the inside of the duct. Start with only one side. Try to get it as far into the middle area as you can. DO NOT FILL THE WHOLE DUCT. The spray will expand. get a feel for how much expandion you get after 15 mins. Then continue filling the gap, to the point where the foam will grow slightly beyond the rim of the duct.
11. The idea is to have the corrugated surface visible through the leg's muscles. Once the foam is firm (2-3 hrs) you can start spraying foam on the surface of the leg. I like doing long lines, throughout. You usually can do 3 or so of these side by side. Let it cure, and repeat. You need the foam to be cured as you spray new foam around the leg.
12. Remember the leg has muscles. Some areas must be covered more than others. And you want part of the duct to show, as see on the photo..
13. Once the femurs have a rough shape, you can mount them on the skeleton, remove the hole saving cardboard rolls, and insert the pelvis.
14. Add the cardboard rolls again to protect the interlock pin area.

At this point your lower half of the skeleton should be assembled, from the pelvis down. Lay down the assembly so the pelvis rests on the original box, or similar height stable object. You want to do the next step somewhere cleanup wont be a huge issue, as this will be messy. You will be dropping large amounts of foam shavings on the floor. If you do this on a windy yard. cleaning up will be difficult. You've been advised.

1. With a [very sharp] long razor blade (box cutter shown), start giving the legs a rough shape by evening out the large foam bubbles, aiming for a smoother surface.
2. Once you've gotten a fair likeness to a leg, you will want to smooth out the skin with a rough sandpaper. I use 80 grit. The dust will be unhealthy, so wearing a mask and goggles is recommended.
3. Ideally you want a smooth curved surfave.
4. You will get voids, as shown in the photo. Fill in with small squirts of 1" foam. Remember, this foam is denser, but will expand. you dont need to squirt foam to fill the whole void.
5. Wait until it cures, shave, and sand down.
6. Repeat until you have achieved the surface smoothness you find acceptable

1. Once finished with one leg, do the next one. try to achieve similar size and surface quality

Some people have higher expectations than others. For a very 'life like' smoothness:

1. Continue to shape muscular detail (muscle bulges and tendon connections).
2. Paint over with LATEX exterior paint. The color does not matter. All you want to do is protect the foam from the next layer.
3. Wait 1 day for paint to dry.
4. Cover with BONDO and once cured, sand down to 200 grit or higher smoothness.

Note that bondo is HEAVY. It will add weight to your frame, which could collapse if not weight distributed from the top.

We want to integrate the legs to the pelvis, so our work doesnt look like a cheap 1970's action figure.

1. Spray 3" foam from the end of the leg foam surface onto the pelvis area, creating a continuous contour.
2. Do not fill in the pelvis cavity. This adds unnecessary weight, and will make it harder for the torso to be attached We will create a cover for the lower abdomen in a future step (note the scaled version photo)
3. You want to create a glute that will continue through thge tigh into each leg.
4. You may want to add volume to the pelvis edge, creating the alien's spikey pelvis bone.
5. Repeat the smoothing process by shaving and sanding
6. Now you should:
7. Paint all foamed area with an outdoor latex paint and let dry for 1 day
8. Paint with black spray paint. Start with flat black as a base coat
9. Paint with black gloss spry paint. Try to create accents
10. At this point, it would be a good idea to add alien veins. These can be made using 1/2 and 1/4 wire wrapping/loom

1. Note the reference picture how the edges of the pelvis can look like.

The arms have no lock hole. You do want to protect the shoulder octagon hole with tape, so you dont affect the plastic frame. Same at the elbow. The armas should be labeled N (right) and O (left). Connect them to the torso to ensure you can set which area is bicep, and which is tricep on each upper arm.

Eseentially its the same the process from the legs. Wrap with 2' long aluminum vent ducting, center, fill, and then bulk up around. Remember we want to expose some venting areas at the top bicep and tricep.

Once the foam has cured 2-3 inches thick around the ducting, start shaving and sanding. Fill in the voids and repeat the legs process. Cover the sanded foam with latex paint, and paint. Add greeblies if wanted.

The hands are not going to look screen accurate, but they look pretty cool as is. All I did was form 2 extra foam fingers attached to the middle and ring fingers respectively. Trying to keep the weight to a bare min. I ended up with an extra finger though.

Just place each hand on top of a stretched trash bag, and spray 1" foam right by each of the fingers mentioned. After the foam has cured, use your razor knife to shape into a webby finger combo for each hand. Paint as needed. I didn't even bother with latex paint.

.

1. Run the metal support through the spine hole (the round end goes to the neck)
2. Screw the loophole bolt into the metal support as shown in the skeleton manual
3. Cover the sides of the hole so you don't get foam in there
4. Wrap the skeleton ribcage with plastic film. This is easier if done by 2 people. You want the areas between ribs sealed as tight as can be.
5. Run a few wire looms vertically across the chest as shown i the reference. Glue them in place.
6. Spray 3" foam inside the ribcage, so you cover the ribs and no void shows between them. Do chest side first, let cure, then back side. You want the back sire to be nice and thick when cured. we'll be adding spikes there. and the foam will support them .
7. Dont worry about the abdominal cavity. we'll cover that later
8. Once the foam has cured, spray thin 1" over the chest to shape the ribs. It helps if you use painters tape to demarcate each rib. The ribs run downwards, giving them an odd look, as if flipped over.
9. Shape the new ribs with your razor, and then sand them down so they're smooth
10. Now run a 1/2 wireloom strip vertically across the chest. Glue it.
11. Spray 1" bits over the last wire loom to create the chest "buttons" (see the ref pic). Shave to form.
12. Paint them with flat black base coat and then with gloss. Get creative.

To be continued depending on interest

1. You need to attach the torso onto the pelvis to create close the abdominal cavity.
2. You will need some halved wire loom lengths to make 'greeblies' as shown above. 3 sizes would be needed for screen accuracy, which I didnt follow.
3. Foam is great for creating bulbous shapes as shown in the refrence photo, plus it will act as glue to hold the different wire loom pieces you add as 'greeblies'
4. Partially fill in the cavity with paper bag, shopping bags or newspaper to the depth where a skinny alien would have guts.
5. Wrap the lower torso with plastic wrap. leave slack so the plastic wrap rests on the filling.
6. Cut a piece of large cardboard into a shape to create backing for your abdominal cover. place it on top of the wrap
7. Spray 3" foam on the cardboard shape. Try to get it in evenly across the cover, with a bit extra wherever you want 'growths'.
8. Wait 10 mins or so and spray small amounts of foam on the inside of your wire loom halves. Lay your greeblies on where you'd like them.

To be continued depending on interest

To be continued depending on interest

To be continued depending on interest

I didnt want to loose skelly's head 2 years ago, as spare heads were not sold back then. So I unscrewed the face part, made a negative mold with plaster, and finally made the positive with fiberglass. In retrospect, I should've just used the original face. Use the 10" phillips to break out the parts.

1. Remove the eye electronics. These can be sold. Tape over the holes. Reinforce the inside of the face with 2 layers of fiberglass cloth.
2. Fill in with 3" foam. this will help with the parts that will be filled in.
3. Aliens have no forehead. Use the multitool to saw off the top of the face as shown, above the eyes. You'll want to fiberglass a new, near no-brow curved shape for the top of the face. The filling from the previous step will be helpful. Don't saw it of. sculpt it out.
4. Use the multitool to saw the lower jaw off, opening the mouth enough so the tongue can come out comfortably. I glued flat wood craft sticks to the lower jaw and then glued the lower jaw to the upper one in the position i wanted. The foam filling helped hold in place. Then bondo the jaw gaps, unless you want the jaw to hinge so it opens and closes. You can design that.

I used posterboard sheets to shape the craneum, and chickenwire can be used to hold the shape.

To be continued depending on interest

The original Big Chap model from 1979 (awesome figure, mom offered to buy it for me, but it scared 7 yr old me 😁 ) shows a transparent visor-like dome on the xeno's brow area. I imagine Giger wanted to imply this creature was a natural exo atmospheric dweller. In any case, I thought that reproducing this effect would look awesome. Which is why I decided to use skelly's face underneath. This prove more trouble than I bargained for. You've been warned.

The plan was to melt a sheet of transparent plastic on top of skellys face... but it needs to look rounded, like a domed visor, right ? . Plus the heat could cause skelly's face to melt even before the plastic did ! I didnt know what the melting point of fiberglass was.

My solution:

1. Cover skelly's fiberglass face in foil.
2. Then sculpt italian hard plastiline on top of the foiled face making it fully domed
3. Then stick foil strips on top oif the plastiline to avoid the probable mess to transfer over to the plastic pane

Sounds good, on paper. My main problem was I threw away my vaccuform table years ago. When I heated the plastic sheet, The temp was uneven. This caused bubbles, creasing and even cracking...

To be continued depending on interest

To be continued depending on interest

To be continued depending on interest

To be continued depending on interest