Defaced

Defaced was originally designed for the museum room in in the 1993 Wyandotte, Michigan Jaycees Haunted house where the heads were the primary focus. As I have mentioned on other HEDZ pages, this room featured a museum-like setting with six side pedestals and a platform at the end with a half-body prop. Each of the six pedestals contained a different and a nameplate. One of them was hinged so that a person in a HEDZ-like mask could hide behind it and jumpt out. I decided to make this prop female because I had made all the rest of them male. (Well...when you could tell what sex they were, that is). This prop was originally named Shotgun Sally, but I later decided I didn't like the use of an actual person's name and changed it to more depersonalized 'Defaced.'

The biggest part of this prop was actually the easiest. I winced a bit when I was required to take a perfectly good polyfoam skull and remove 50% of its features. Because this is an early prop, I hadn't really come across the use of Model Magic yet. So I used tissue paper and latex to create the face of the first version. Being female, the prop presented me with some new challenges. The most curious was how to apply make-up. Fortunately I have sisters. So I asked them for advice in this area, and, following a blank stare, got some useful suggestions. (I hope I did a nice job - I'd hate to think she didn't look good. Erm...

Because of the problems with undercuts and molding, this prop required re-design in order to meet the needs of the molding process for making it into a commercially viable prop. While I was revisiting the concept and filling in some of the hole in the middle, I decided to soften the lines of the face some to give it a less harsh, more feminine look. (Although it's hard to give such a thing a truly feminine look). You can see the difference in the final prop. Softer lines, not quite as violent.

Click the images above to view photos of this prop in the window.